Chapter 3: Dexter's Laboratory

September 14th - 7:21am - Forest

Double D slowly began to wake up, his memories being a bit fuzzy, questioning why he was under a tattered bed, but soon the memories began to return to him, he hid himself from a monster called the Goatman.

Everything was coming back to him, a skinny guy in a white suit warned them of a couple in the woods, and they were being chased by this Goatman, so they had to lure the couple to safety, but because the Goatman could mimic voices, they struggled to determine what was the couple and what was the monster.

In the end, they led the couple to another watch tower, but the Goatman followed, so they used the lights to lure the Goatman to them, they would've died, if for some insane reason, the monster was shot and chased off by some gun man.

Double D looked to his left and right, to see Eddy and Ed sleeping next to him. He soon sighed and slowly crawled out from under the bed, to look at the mess around him.

The front and back doors were barricaded by all the furniture, the window was smashed to pieces, and looking behind him, he saw a bullet hole in the wall, and traces of blood from where the Goatman stood, as well as on the wall and bed where the bullet shot through it.

He soon looked out the window to see it was early morning, so they had survived the night, but Double D began to feel extremely nauseous, they actually saw a real monster, and they almost died, the stress and horror of everything coming back to him, began to make his stomach churn violently, to the point where he couldn't take it anymore, as he rushed to the broken window and vomited over the side.

As he finished, he let out a few violent coughs, before digging into his backpack to find a bottle of water, taking a gulp to wash the sick out before spitting it out. Making a few more coughs.

He soon felt a gentle jab in his right arm, he turned to see it was Eddy who had woken up, Ed was just behind him. Eddy had an annoyed yet concerned look to him. Double D knew why, he almost got them killed trying to save that couple, people they didn't know.

Double D just sighs. "I… I'm sorry… I…"

Eddy just shakes his head. "I know you. You couldn't have lived with yourself if something happened to them, just next time… give us a warning before you try and get us killed again."

Double D nods. "Yeah…"

Eddy just shrugs as he walks up to broken window and looks down at the forest. "Still… didn't expect to see a real monster. And I don't think it was Rolf screwing with us that time."

Ed soon walked in between them holding his sketch pad. "Yup! But I got so much inspiration!" He showed them his drawings on the Goatman, using the photos and sketches on the corkboard as a reference, while taking some creative twists.

"Ed, that's brilliant." Said Double D.

"Yeah. You finally got that brain working somewhat." Eddy soon looks out the window again, seeing the daylight and the forest. "Well… we better get the hell outta here. We saved that couple and were alive."

"Agreed." Said Double D. "We don't know if that monster is still out there."

"Yeah. Let's get our bike!"

The Eds nod. Ed quickly unbarricades the front door and the trio begin to quickly go down the stairs, not wanting to be in this forest for any longer than they should. They didn't run, just walked much faster, thankfully they knew that just going in a straight line from the base of the stairs would lead them back to where they camped originally.

And thankfully, their bike was still there. Ed immediately got onto it, Double D sat behind him, and Eddy got into the basket again. And the three pedalled off again.

As they did, Double D looked behind him, to see if that monster was near, nothing, but something that did disturb him, was the severe amount of bullet holes, claw marks and torn bark on all the trees. Realising that if they hadn't had went to that watchtower, they would've died from that monster, and whatever was fighting it.

Whoever that skinny man in the white suit was, he owed him their lives.

September 14th - 7:59am - Forest Outskirts

The three had finally got out of the forest and were cycling through the fields via the road. There were large hills, trees and even a few farms in the distance. But straight ahead, they could see a city in the distance, and there was an incredibly tall building over all of them, with a rotating neon sign, it was too far away to see, but Double D recognised it.

"There it is, Tech Square! Dexter's City!"

"Perfect! Full speed ahead Lumpy!"

"Tallyho!" Ed shouted as he began to pedal faster, but soon they realised they were going downhill. So, their speed was picking up considerably.

"E-Ed! Please slow down!" said Double D. "Accelerating like this could lead to an accident!"

"But it's fun!" said Ed.

"Be a rebel Double D! I- WATCH OUT!" Eddy screamed.

The Eds saw another bike cutting them off from a corner causing all of them to crash and fly off their bikes. Eddy landed on his chest hard, but got worse when Ed landed on him, and then Double D. All three of them groaned in pain as they slowly got themselves up.

"You ok?" asked Double D as he helped Eddy up.

"Yeah."

Double D soon turned to see who he crashed into. It was a boy and a girl roughly their age, with the girl just getting off of the boy after landing on him, with the boy standing up and straightening his back, making a loud crack.

The boy had a triangular-shaped head, with a tuft of red hair at the top, he wore a slightly darker yellow t-shirt, along with denim shorts, short white socks, and black shoes. He had a dark blue backpack on.

The girl was super cute and had a somewhat twig-like body, she had long black hair in the form of a braided ponytail with a big purple bow, and she wore large golden ring-shaped earrings, she wore a pink vest and skirt combo with a purple belt, a blue wristwatch, and wore long white socks with purple shoes. She had a blue backpack on.

"Urgh... nice driving lumpy!" Eddy grunted sarcastically as he looked at Ed.

Double D soon turned to Ed as well. "Ed, I told you not to accelerate at such a high velocity when we're going downhill."

"Aw, but it was fun." Ed moaned.

The boy and the girl made their way to the three. "Sorry about that." said the boy. "I was distracted."

"Oh, think nothing of it." Double D responded. "It was us that were in the wrong."

"Speak for yourself." mumbled Eddy. Soon he turned to pick their bike up but noticed the damaged wheel "ED YOU IDIOT!" he scolded, everyone looked over to Eddy who was pointing at their bike's damaged wheel. "You broke our bike you dolt! Now we're gonna have to walk to Tech Square!"

"Wait? You three are going to Tech Square too?" asked the girl.

"Yeah why?" asked Eddy. Soon taking notice of the girl's super cute appearance, so he smirked a little. "I mean, yeah. Why might you ask?" he said trying to sound suave.

"Um. Well since we're both going the same way, might as well go together." Said the girl

"Here, lemme fix that for you." said the boy as he pulled out some of his tools from his backpack before going to the Eds' bike.

"Oh, well thank you." said Double D.

"No problem." Said the boy. He then turned to Double D. "Oh by the way, my name's Phineas."

"Pleasure to meet you. My name is Eddward, I go by Double D. And these are my friends, Ed, and Eddy."

"Hello." Said Ed with his typical dopey yet friendly demeanour.

"Sup." Said Eddy.

The girl gives a nod and a wave. "My name's Isabella." But soon her smile turned to concern. "Um, did you by any chance come from that forest too?"

Double D huffs. "Yeah, we witnessed that terrifying monster too."

Isabella soon shudders. "Yeah, we had a very close encounter."

As Isabella mentions this, something inside Double D's head clicks. A boy and a girl who came from the forest, just like the two they were guiding from the watchtower.

Double D then decides it would be best to just ask. "Um… this may sound random, but were you calling people at a watchtower?" The moment he asked, both Phineas and Isabella froze, looking at Double D. He soon sighed. "I'm very sorry… but we were the ones in that watchtower, we were the ones who guided you to that abandoned one."

"WHAT!?" Phineas immediately grew angry as he stood up and held his tools to Double D, looking as if he was going to get violent. "You were the ones screwing with us while that thing tried to kill us!"

As Phineas got closer to Double D, Eddy quickly got in between the two. "That thing could copy any voice it heard! We heard that thing copying your voice! We couldn't tell if there was anyone there or if that monster was trying to kill us!"

Phineas still had a pretty angry look to him. Until Isabella placed her hand against his shoulder, directing him to her. "Phineas, he's not wrong. I heard that thing copy my own voice… and it did copy their voice…"

Phineas calmed down a little, he then sighed as he resumed fixing the Eds' bike. Isabella turned to Double D. "I'm sorry, but we were put through so much stress."

Double D shook his head. "Don't apologise. You have every right to be upset, we weren't as helpful as we could've been."

Eddy soon shrugged. "Besides, we all got out of it unscathed. Plus, we almost died luring that thing away from you at the last second."

"I… I guess…" Phineas said quietly. Almost finishing fixing the bike.

Isabella soon sighed before turning back to the Eds. "Um, Phineas isn't always like this, aside from the forest incident… um…" She turned to Phineas, looking sheepishly.

Phineas soon sighed. "My brother got injured. Really bad. He was blackmailed into stealing something and got hospitalised as a result."

Eddy raised an eyebrow, seeing someone concerned for their brother. Letting out a quiet sigh. Feeling a bit jealous that there was someone with a good relationship with their brother.

"There. Finished." Phineas stood up and the Eds saw that their bike was good as new.

"Wow! Quick work, Ace!" said Eddy.

"Tinkering is my specialty." Said Phineas as he had a calmer and cheerier look to him.

"Well, let us not hesitate." Said Double D as he, Ed and Eddy got back on their bike, waited for Phineas and Isabella to do the same, and the five start pedalling away.

"So why are you heading to Tech Square, anyway?" asked Eddy.

Phineas points his head to a device on his bike, which had an arrow pointing to Tech Square. "We got a sample of the man who hurt my brother, and he seems to be in Tech Square right now. So, what about you, why are you going to Tech Square?"

"Well, recently an item that was sent to me were stolen. And the only evidence I have is a box that it came in, the box was made by Dex-Labs, so I'm hoping Dexter could be of some assistance."

"Wow, that stinks." said Isabella. "So... what did get stolen?"

"Well... it was a jewel in the shape of a butterfly."

Phineas suddenly stopped on his bike the second he heard that, the others stopped as well seeing his shocked face. "I'm sorry, say that again!"

"It... was a jewelled butterfly, it was black with purple marks. Is there something wrong?"

Phineas fell silent for a moment. "Tell me... was the one who stole the jewel, a tall man in bird armour?"

"Um, no." said Eddy looking confused. "It was a hot red-haired chick in a purple dress."

"What?" Phineas asked.

"Are there more than one person after these jewels?" asked Isabella. "This is… very concerning."

Phineas spoke up again "That bird man blackmailed my brother Ferb to steal one of the butterflies for him, he… he ended up putting him in the hospital after. And Ferb... he asked me to get all seventeen of them back."

"Seventeen?" asked Eddy.

"Anything else about the butterflies your brother mentioned?" asked Double D.

"Yeah, he said they cannot get into the wrong hands, said something about them not being normal butterflies or something."

Isabella soon spoke up. "Our plan is to find him, and if we find him, maybe we'll find more of those jewelled butterflies, and even the red-haired girl you mentioned."

Double D ended up smiling. "Well now, it appears that it may have been fate that we met. Two thieves stole something both of us have in common, so we appear to have a similar goal."

"Are you saying we should team up?" asked Phineas.

"Of course. We both have similar goals, and I'm certain we can overcome more obstacles if we work together."

Phineas looked over to Isabella, who gave an optimistic nod, he then turned back to them. "Alright, guess we're a team now. But I'm not trusting you to guide us on the phone again."

"Yeah. Fair." Said Double D rubbing the back of his head. "In any case, if your tracking device is pointing to Tech Square, then there's a chance that one of those jewelled butterflies, or maybe this bird guy could be there."

"We were thinking the same thing. But you said you wanted to see Dexter, didn't you?" asked Phineas.

"Well yes... but..."

"I think we should try and see him first if we can. Now that I think about it, his brilliant mind could help us more than I thought. Besides, it's better than just trying to search for two separate thieves alone."

"Yeah, so to Dex-Labs it is then!" said Eddy with a confident smirk.

"Well, we better hurry. Odds are the early morning traffic should be arriving soon." said Phineas.

With that, all of them picked up the speed towards the city, hopefully Dexter will be of much help to them.

September 14th - 9:04am - Tech Square Business District

Phineas, Isabella and the Eds were all standing in front of the Dex-Labs building, seeing it tower up this high up close was quite intimidating. "Well, here it is." Phineas spoke up. "Dex-Labs Inc. The biggest machine manufacturing company in the world."

Although to their surprise, they saw someone leaving the building. It was a man who stood at about five feet-four inches, had a large nose with a big black bushy moustache, brown hair that curved up at the top a bit, he wore a typical doctor's coat, stethoscope, and head mirror along with blue jeans and brown boots. As he left, he looked at the five from the corner of his eye, before moving on.

Ignoring it, the five placed their bikes in a safe spot and made their way in, where they were immediately greeted with a clean pure white room with, blue lights everywhere, several stairs going up, holographic monitors, and a desk with two staff members behind it. The entire place felt as if it was a step into the future, they all had a look around in amazement as they made their way to the desk.

"Hi, can I help you?" asked the staff member.

"Uh yes, we are here to speak with Dexter, assuming he isn't too busy of course." said Double D.

"Ah yes, it's that time when he will allow customers to speak with him personally, take the elevator to the top floor and wait for him to call you." She pointed so the elevator to their right.

"Thank you very much." with that the five made their way towards the elevator.

"Wow, I didn't expect it to be that easy." said Eddy.

As the five got to the elevator, they saw two more kids their age, waiting for the elevator to come down.

One was a boy with an egg-shaped head, and shockingly, a big pink balloon-like nose. He wore a red cap covering messy orange hair, a light blue hoodie with a blue stripe across the middle and elbows, and the hood was also a dark blue. He also wore dark blue denim trousers, and big white shoes with a red stripe across them.

The other was a girl with thick black eyebrows and a deathly glare to her, she had blonde hair that reached down to her shoulders, but at the top were curved to look like horns of sort. She wore a pink vest/skirt combo separated by a black belt. The vest had a dark purple wave pattern on the bottom and a picture of a blue flower with yellow petals. The skirt had a dark purple spike pattern at the bottom, she also wore a yellow necklace, and a pair of big black boots.

"What do you want?" the blonde girl asked bluntly, giving off a very intimidating aura.

"We need to speak with Dexter too." Said Phineas.

"Well, we're first. Got it?"

The big-nosed boy gave a quick wave at the five, with Double D doing the same awkwardly. But soon there was a dinging sound as the elevator doors opened, everyone entered at the same time and faced towards the door, the blonde girl pressed the button for the top floor and the doors began to close.

But suddenly, an arm in a black sleeve shot forward blocking the doors making them open again, at that point, three more entered the elevator. A boy and two girls.

The boy wore a black jacket with a popped-up collar, a small chain added to each collar point, and grey triangles that patterned at the bottom. He wore a blue shirt underneath with black tribal patterns, denim trousers, and black boots. He sported really round glasses and had short black hair, but part of his hair also stuck out and stretched far over to the back of his head, like an antenna of sorts. He wore a black backpack

With the boy was a smaller girl, who had short purple jagged hair, and her eye lashes were done in a way that made her eyes look constantly closed. She wore a large puffy purple hoodie with a thick collar, a big pocket in the front for both hands to go in, and a skull pattern on the front. She also wore a red skirt and black boots. She wore a purple backpack.

The last was a tall stunningly beautiful Asian girl, roughly the same height as the yellow skinned boy, she had long black hair and had a ponytail that stuck out of her red cap, she wore an orange t-shirt with red rolled up sleeves, dark blue denim trousers and black shoes, she also had a bit of a curve to her body. She also wore a pink backpack.

The second Eddy caught sight of this Asian girl, he felt his heart skip a beat, she was flawlessly beautiful in every way, he completely forgot about the red-haired girl, Isabella and every other girl in his life, this Asian girl was perfect.

"Sorry, we're heading to the top floor." said the boy with round glasses, as he, and the two girls entered the elevator. Dib was taken aback by how many there were.

"Well, that's a coincidence, so are we." said Isabella.

"Dexter's popular all of a sudden." The blonde girl mumbled in response.

"Maybe it's his birthday. Did we get gifts?" asked the big nosed boy.

Ed then dug into his pockets and took out a potato. "Is this a gift?"

The boy with round glasses presses the top floor button, and they all stand in silence as the elevator slowly made its way to the top floor. As they rode upwards, Double D wondered if Dexter would even believe the idea of someone stealing jewelled butterflies, or even a package being delivered to him forty years before he was born. Regardless, he knew taking the metal briefcase to Dexter would yield some answers.

"Um, what happened to your neck?"

"It's none of your business."

"Sorry."

The Eds took notice, Isabella had asked about the blonde girl's neck, she was standing in between them, and looked, but couldn't see anything, but she was holding onto the right side of her neck.

The blonde girl suddenly snapped at her, along with everyone else "This isn't a freak show, quit your staring!"

The girl had a demonic presence to her, the Eds immediately froze and faced forward, this one blonde girl, only said one sentence, but was already far more intimidating than Sarah, the Kanker Sisters, and even that Goatman. Whoever this girl was, clearly wasn't normal. Double D could've apologised, but he felt that speaking up in the slightest would trigger a horrible wrath.

The elevator stopped on the top floor and opened up to a waiting room, it was completely empty, made sense since it had just opened, they were the first to arrive, just a bunch of rowed seats like in a doctor's waiting room. There was a sign that said, "Please wait" By the door. They all left the elevator, and each took a seat.

The Eds, Phineas and Isabella all sat together in the middle of a row of seats. The big nosed boy and blonde girl sat on the opposite side to them, and the boy with round glasses, the purple haired girl and Asian girl all sat near the end on the opposite side to them.

There was a strong silence as the ten sat quietly, it was hard to tell what anyone was thinking. But Eddy quickly got distracted by the Asian girl, sitting with her head down slightly, although her red cap blocked most of her face, even what he could see was as if she was sculpted by angels.

He soon nudged Double D with the smuggest of grins. "Hey Sock-Ed, reckon I've got a chance with that dynamite babe?" he said quietly.

Double D sighed. "Urgh. Seriously? First that red haired girl, now her?"

"Red haired girl?" the big nosed boy asked out loud, getting everyone's attention.

The Eds jumped and looked at the big-nosed boy.

"Billy, shut it." Said the blonde girl scolding him.

Eddy soon leaned back crossing his leg, trying to make himself look and sound cooler. "Oh yeah, this red-haired girl in a purple dress stole something of ours, but I could tell she was totally into me."

Double D noticed how the blonde girl reacted to this, she actually looked shocked, almost panicked. "Hold it! This girl. Give me the full details." Said the blonde girl.

Eddy felt confused but answered anyway. "Huh? Well, she's pretty tall, long red hair, some weird purple outfit with long wide sleeves… now that I think about it, she did have long ears and red eyes."

The blonde girl flinched, rubbing her neck, before placing it on her hip bag. "Damnit." She muttered.

Isabella then stood up and directed herself at the blonde girl, who looked over to her. "Wait, this girl, did she do that to your neck?"

The blonde girl huffed quietly. "Yes. She's a Vampire."

"VAMPIRE!?" The Eds shouted in shock.

'First a Goatman! Now a Vampire!? What's going on!' Double D thought to himself.

"A real Vampire!?" asked the boy with round glasses. Looking surprisingly excited.

"Yes." The blonde girl nodded.

Isabella spoke up again. "Did this Vampire steal anything from you, like a jewel shaped like a butterfly or something?"

The blonde girl raised an eyebrow. "What? No nothing of the sort, but she stole something valuable from me."

The boy with round glasses spoke up again. "Do you know if this Vampire have anything to do with Diavoli Di Sangue?"

"Diavoli Di Sangue? That murderous cult?" the blonde girl asked. She looked around for a moment, as if trying to recollect her thoughts, before nodding. "I think she might be, shortly after she stole from me, the train we were on was attacked, and three of the guys on the train were stabbed in the heart and neck."

"Heart and neck? That's Diavoli Di Sangue's mark. All of their victims have those marks." Said the Asian girl.

'Diavoli Di Sangue? Murderous Cult? Just what is happening?' Double D thought.

The boy with round glasses nodded before turning back to the others. "Let's just say those guys are the reason why we came here too."

Phineas soon spoke up. "So… lemme get this straight… this red-haired Vampire, stole a jewelled butterfly from the Eds." Presenting his hands towards the Eds. "Stole something from you two." He said looking at the big nosed boy and blonde girl. "This Diavoli Di Sangue thing you said, might be connected to this Vampire, and why you three are here." He said looking to the boy with round glasses, the purple haired girl and Asian girl. "And the butterfly my brother had; this birdman stole from him. Could he be connected too?"

Double D looked down, just when he thought this conspiracy about the forty-year package wasn't weird enough, now there was vampires, cults and a metal bird man. He looked back up to the others and spoke up, feeling very concerned. "It… it would appear that all of us are connected to this conspiracy one way or another."

"It would seem so." Said the blonde girl looking around.

The boy with round glasses then spoke up. "Alright, maybe we should explain our stories, as well as introductions. I'll go first." He sat up. "My name is Dib Membrane, I'm from Darc City, and this is my sister, Gaz."

"Sup." The purple haired girl said bluntly.

"A guy from Diavoli Di Sangue shot and killed my mother twelve years ago, it destroyed my family for so long, and I only just found out about this, shortly after Simon Mervaradi died from the same sniper who shot my mother."

"Mervaradi?" the blonde girl muttered.

The Asian girl let out a sigh. "Um… I'm Trixie Tang, I'm from Dimmsdale… and I hate to say this but… this cult is after me too. I think I'm one of their targets."

Eddy leaned back with a smirk. "Well, we are Ed, Edd and Eddy." He said addressing them from left to right. "We're from Peach Creek, and just the most awesome kids you'll ever meet."

"Good morning everyone." Said Ed.

"I go by Double D specifically. But yes, it's a pleasure to meet everyone." He soon took out a strange metal suitcase-looking box from his backpack. "I got this metal box delivered to me some time ago, it had a small blank book, and one of these jewelled butterflies, but then that… um… Vampire… snuck into our home and stole the jewel."

"What's this book?" Dib asked.

Double D took out the small book he mentioned and flicked the pages, showing nothing but blank pages. "I don't know who sent me this or the jewel, but here's the weird part, it was apparently shipped forty years before I was born."

There was a bit of silence, before Phineas then spoke up.

"My name is Phineas, and this is my friend, Isabella." he said addressing Isabella next to him. "We're from Danville… and my brother was blackmailed by this tall man in black armour that made him look like a bird, he stole this box containing a butterfly but tried to run off without giving this birdman it, but he got injured because of it."

"Guess it's our turn, this big nosed idiot is my friend Billy." Said the blonde girl addressing the big nosed boy.

"Hiya." He said waving frantically.

"I'm Mandy, we're from Endsville. And I already said mine but… what this Vampire stole from me was a scythe, it's magic, he was also alongside this kid our age, after that Vampire bit me, I fell unconscious, when I woke up, the train was toppled, and those three guys were stabbed to death." Mandy looked around. "What the hell is going on?"

There was a strong silence in the room, Double D was beginning to wonder if the forty-year package was the tamer portion of this extremely wild conspiracy.

Trixie then just stood up, taking him by surprise. "Look… we all have something in common here, and… we're not going home until it's resolved, right?"

Every else agreed in some fashion. Phineas then stood up. "In that case, why don't we all go together? There's ten of us, we all have something we must do, and they're apparently connected in some way."

Eddy lost his smirk for a moment, he didn't like the idea of bringing along that many people for one adventure, but quickly changed his mind when he learned he would be with Trixie.

Dib smiles and nods. "I'm ok with that, the more the merrier."

Gaz gives a short nod. "Whatever."

"Let's go fight evil and save the universe!" shouted Ed as he threw his fist into the air. Edd and Eddy nodded in unison, even if they did feel a bit awkward with Ed.

"Yeah! Let's save the universe and the unicorns!" Shouted Billy as he pulled the annoyed Mandy closer, who just let out a sigh. This gave Eddy and Double D the impression that Billy was just as dumb as Ed.

"Just don't slow me down." Said Mandy.

Suddenly, a robot woman entered the room from the door with the Please Wait sign and addressed herself to the kids. "Dexter will see you now. Are all of you together?"

"Yep." Eddy responded.

"Alright, please come this way."

The ten got up and made their way to the room. "Here goes." Phineas mumbled.

As the Eds walked in, Double D whispered to Ed and Eddy. "Please let me handle the conversations, I'm more adept at formal conversations."

"Okey Dokey." Said Ed.

"Whatever Rock-Boy." Said Eddy. "Just use small words."

As the ten entered the room, they were greeted by a boy their age with bright orange hair, blue lens glasses and wore a white lab coat with purple gloves. As he fixed his glasses, he faced the five properly. "Welcome, I am Dexter, Head of Dex-Labs Inc. I believe you'd like to speak to me about something?"

"Why yes." Double D spoke up. "You see, I was recently given an item that was made by your company." Double D opened his bag and took out the metal briefcase and handed it to Dexter.

Dexter examined it a bit before speaking up. "Ah yes, this is one of our reinforced supply cases, made out of Mock-Adamantium, a metal I managed to make inspired by the fictional alloy in the Marvel Comics. Not as durable but it's close enough. And can I ask the relevance of this?"

"You see, it was delivered to me by a person completely covered up so I couldn't tell what kind of person it was. Inside was an old book with blank pages, and a black and purple jewelled butterfly."

Dexter's eyes widened a bit. "A butterfly?"

"Do you know what it is? You looked as if that sounded familiar to you." Asked Phineas as he stepped forward.

Dexter turned to Phineas for a moment, then turned to Double D. "So, I'm assuming you want to know who bought this particular briefcase?"

"Y-Yes please."

"Unfortunately, I cannot answer that one, you see, I examined the code on the inside of the briefcase, and I'm sad to say that this was stolen property, as hinted by the code still intact."

"Wait, so whoever sent me the items stole that briefcase?"

"Yes, by any chance do you still have this jewelled butterfly?"

"Um... no, I'm afraid. It was stolen by a… um, we think it's a Vampire."

"What!?"

Mandy lets out a huff and speaks up. "Alright, just listen, because we have one hell of a five-way story."

September 14th - 9:22am - Tech Square, Dex-Labs.

Mandy had explained her side of the story, how the Vampire snuck into their train and stole her scythe, though she left out the purpose of said scythe and just said it was of personal property. She also explained how Diavoli Di Sangue supposedly destroyed their train, she then brought up that she's spent five days with a man named Dr Mario trying to make a cure for Vampirism, which was successful.

Phineas and Isabella brought up how his brother was blackmailed by a metal birdman to steal a Jewelled Butterfly and was injured for it. Dib brought up how her mother was killed by the same man who murdered Simon Mervaradi, and how they bumped into Trixie on the way, whom she claimed was also being hunted by Diavoli Di Sangue, whom the man was a part of, but she gave little other details.

And finally, the Eds brought up how they were attacked by the same Vampire who attacked her, and stole a Jewelled Butterfly too, making two of the same type of items that seem to have some sort of connection. Double D however never mentioned the fact that the package was delivered to him supposedly forty years before he was born, knowing there was no way he'd believe that, despite seemingly believing in the Vampire story.

Dexter listened carefully to all of it.

"I think that's everything." Phineas spoke up.

Dexter tilted his head back to them with a profoundly serious look. "I see." He then walked over to a desk where there was a remote and picked it up, pointed at the wall to the right of them and pressed a button.

Suddenly, the wall flashed a white light and revealed to be a giant monitor. Then three squares shown up on the screen with three photos. The left photo was of the Vampire, the same girl who robbed them of their jewelled butterfly and scary movie night.

Double D kept quiet, but felt his spine shiver, knowing this girl was way more dangerous than he originally thought.

The middle was of the birdman flying in the night sky, a six-foot tall man with a lanky frame, but was decked from top to bottom in black metallic armour, the head of the armour resembled that of a crow's head with red glowing eyes, black metallic wings looking like a jetpack, and the arms had blades on the sides to resemble wings but were clearly used for slashing more than flying.

The right one was the Diavoli Di Sangue emblem, human skull with bull horns and large fangs. It looked to have been drawn in blood, or blood coloured paint.

"You… have you been studying these yourself?" asked Isabella.

Dexter leaned against the desk with his arms crossed. "I practically run this city, my technology powers it, my will keeps it going, and my reputation allows me to gather more information inside and outside this city than you can imagine. And it's no coincidence that all three have been causing problems at the same time."

Dexter uses the remote again to highlight the photo of the Vampire, then the screen changed to multiple photos of the Vampire and several written documents about her.

"This Vampire you see is known as Kasumi Iwamoto. She came to this city about three and a half months ago, every night, or when there's a storm, she's been causing a lot of trouble, attacking people, breaking into places, stealing stuff, and so on."

Mandy interjected. "And Dr Mario and I have created a cure to prevent anyone from turning into Vampires."

Dexter nodded. "It was him who made me realise we were dealing with the Supernatural."

Mandy dug into her hip bag and pulled out the same container Dr Mario just gave her. "Since she bit me five days ago, we used it to our advantage to create this cure, but only I've tested it, the cells that would turn me are gone, but we don't know of any other potential side-effects."

Double D soon recalls the doctor they saw leaving Dex-Labs and imagine he might be the doctor Mandy was talking about.

Dexter smirked before turning back to the monitor. "She's been leaving the city more often, thanks to a tip from Mandark, we discovered she's trying to find these Jewelled Butterflies, I don't know what they're about, but given this Supernatural stuff, I imagine it's not good."

"Ferb told me they can't get into the wrong hands." Said Phineas.

"Speaking of which." Dexter used the remote again to change to various photos of the armoured bird man, seen in various unknown locations or in the sky. "This fella has been popping up recently too, about two months after Kasumi. The locals have been calling it, the Iron Blackbird."

"Iron Blackbird?" Mumbled Eddy.

"That's the thing I saw in the library." Said Billy. "He fought that Monkey."

Dexter nods. "According to our sources, he's been flying around causing destruction, not just in Tech Square, he's been deliberately attacking various random locations, stealing all sorts of rare artefacts, and if what you said is correct, is also after these Jewelled Butterflies. The question is… why?"

"This… Iron Blackbird guy, he said something about a new utopia." Said Phineas.

"That's usually not a good thing." Said Dexter. "But now, onto the last one." Dexter used the remote one last time and changed the monitor to show the Diavoli Di Sangue emblem, and various photos of men in blood red suits.

"T-That's him! The one who killed my mother and Simon Mervaradi!" said Dib, looking quite angry.

Trixie gave a nod. "They're after me too."

"The ones who blew up the train we were in." said Mandy.

"This was the easiest to research, they make their presence known after all. They're a cult that seemed to have founded fifty years ago, and seem hellbent on killing random people, aiming for the neck and heart with an unknown blade. But whatever they are, they're organised like crazy, apparently, they have thousands of followers, all of them have been hiding as everyday people. They're extremely dangerous, but thankfully, they're easy to arrest as they have a habit of killing their targets regardless of the conditions. However, lately… they've been getting more reckless."

"What do you mean?" asked Double D.

"They usually attacked wherever, but there was planning and strategy to their movements, so their attackers had a chance of escaping with good results. But about a year ago from my research, they've been attacking more blindly, making more of a scene, not making any strategies, so the attackers end up arrested or dead after the job is done."

Mandy speaks up. "It sounds like they're getting desperate, it's as if they want to get the job done no matter what, maybe there's a deadline or something… but, has there been any connections between the victims?"

"From what I can tell, no. There's absolutely nothing I can find that any of them had in common… other than the fact that none of them are less than seventeen years of age."

Trixie spoke up again. "That's accurate to what I've been going through, have there been any cases of people sending off their children to this group?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but I will look into this. But this is what I also learned. Kasumi, Iron Blackbird, and Diavoli Di Sangue… I've seen reports that they've been fighting each other."

"So, this means they're not working together, if we happen to come across any of them, we can probably bait one to fight another." Said Mandy.

Dexter turned to them once again with a raised eyebrow. "So… were you just implying that you're going after these Jewelled Butterflies?"

Billy nodded. "Yep! We wanna save the universe and the unicorns!"

"That Vampire stole something of my property. I'll make sure she suffers a slow and painful death!" said Mandy.

"That mystery with the Butterfly, and the Book. I have to solve them." Said Double D. "If finding these Jewelled Butterflies will lead me to the truth, then I'll do it."

Eddy flexed a bit with a very smug look. "We have a bit of a score to settle with that red-haired chick for ruining our Monster Movie Marathon. So, we're game."

Ed nodded. "Eddy and Double D are my best friends! I want to help out!"

"This Iron Blackbird blackmailed and injured my brother; I can't let him do that to anyone else. I'm going to fight no matter what." Said Phineas.

Isabella looked over to Phineas. "And I'm going to help you, whether you want it or not."

Dib spoke up again. "That sniper killed my mother and Simon Mervaradi, this Diavoli Di Sangue needs to be stopped, if collecting these Jewelled Butterflies will help, then so be it."

Trixie shrugs. "I literally can't go home until this whole thing blows over, and I want to stop them for good."

Dexter stands straight looking at all of them. "So, you're going after the Jewelled Butterflies, even if it crosses paths with Kasumi, Iron Blackbird and Diavoli Di Sangue?"

The Eds looked at each other, they could see it in each other's eyes, that determination to stick together, the feeling they had when they ran away to find Eddy's brother, the three nod at each other, before nodding to Dexter, committed to sticking together.

Dexter had a confident smile as he took a step forward to them. "In that case." He snaps his fingers, and a worker robot flew in with a metal briefcase, exactly the same as the one Double D had. Dexter takes it and places it in front of him, lower down so everyone can look, he pops it open to reveal the contents, which took the Eds by surprise.

It was a butterfly shaped gemstone, but the pattern and wing shape was different. It had longer antennas, rounder wings with two spiked parts on the end of each, and was an assortment of red, blue, white, and orange colours on the wings like a wave pattern.

"It's a Jewelled Butterfly!" exclaimed Double D.

"You had one this entire time!?" asked Phineas.

"It's beautiful." Said Trixie.

"I'm not a jewel expert, but even I can see this is good quality." Mandy muttered.

"Pretty." Muttered Billy.

"When I heard about these being hunted for by Kasumi and the Iron Blackbird, I had my surveillance bots search high and low for these. Took a while since it was in a stone box, but we located it in an abandoned truck on the outskirts of Genius Grove."

"Stone Box? Do you still have it?" asked Isabella.

"I do." Dexter places the briefcase on the desk, goes into a drawer and pulls out a small stone box, with nine golden tiles on every side of each, and each tile had a unique pattern. "This is an elaborate puzzle box, took me a while to figure it out, but I managed to open it and that's where I found this Butterfly."

"So, the Jewelled Butterflies are in puzzle boxes." Said Phineas. "The one the Iron Blackbird stole from Ferb was in a box."

"Wait, our one wasn't." said Eddy feeling confused.

"It's likely whoever sent us that package opened it in advance." Double D responded.

Dexter takes out the Jewelled Butterfly from the briefcase and hands it out to them, with Dib taking it. He looks at the design of it, it was extremely light, almost weightless, which didn't make sense given it was solid. "To think something so small can be so sought after."

Double D looks at it carefully. "It would appear to be a Two-Tailed Pasha, the largest butterfly found in Europe. The males have a wingspan of 6.5 to 7.5cm, while the females are somewhat lager with a wingspan usually between 7.5 and 9cm but exceptionally 10cm. The Two-tailed Pasha is a very fast-flying butterfly." Ed and Eddy took notice that everyone else looked at Double D weirdly, this was normal to them. "What? I know a lot about Butterflies."

Eddy ignores this and turns to Dexter. "So, what's so special about these gem bugs?"

"I did very thorough tests on everything I could, but it looks to be an ordinary gemstone, so it questions why Kasumi, and the Iron Blackbird are after them. Regardless, I'll trust it to you."

Dib gently puts the Jewelled Butterfly in his inner coat pocket. "Hm, so Ferb said there were seventeen Jewelled Butterflies. We have one, Iron Blackbird has one, and Kasumi has one. Unless they have more than one each, that's fourteen still somewhere and we have no clue where they are." Said Isabella.

Dexter adjusts his glasses. "I have a theory." Everyone looks over to him. "You see, my surveillance bots discover something similar in Townsville, but while I do have permission to have my bots scan neighbouring cities, I'm not permitted to have them take anything, and I have my hands full trying to keep this city safe. But if you go there as a representative, you should be able to get it."

"Where is Townsville and how do we get to it?" asked Dib.

"Two towns away, there's a train that'll take you there, the Gearshift Station to be exact."

Everyone else was silent as Double D looked at the monitor showing the three threats, then looked at the others as they looked at each other. This was even greater than he expected, but he wasn't about to back down, not in the slightest.

He soon notices Phineas stepping forward. "We'll do it. We have a lot to gain from this."

Dexter gives his own nod. "Thank you, return here any time you wish, I'll grant you special permission."

Eddy soon speaks up, realising they've been travelling without money since they never needed it. "So, hang on, we're going to take a train, how are we gonna pay for that?"

Trixie responded with a smug look. "I can handle that." She then flashes her bank card. "I'm not exactly a poor girl."

"She's not joking." Said Dib. "She's flipping rich."

Eddy looks up to Trixie, feeling his heart skip a beat again. "So, yer smoking hot and yer rich, you single?"

"Yes, but you're out of my league." She responds bluntly as she puts her card away. Making Eddy huff with annoyance. He was used to being rejected, but this one hurt more, regardless, he didn't intend to give up, but for now, back off.

Isabella turns back to Dexter. "We should keep in contact with each other too, just in case."

"Yes agreed." He takes out his phone. "But conversations like what we're having now, keep it secret outside of phone calls unless it's an emergency."

Mandy huffs a little as she takes out her phone. "As much as I'm gonna regret it, we should all exchange numbers if we get separated."

"Good idea." Edd responded.

"I don't have a phone." Said Phineas sighing.

"Me neither, I lost mine." Said Trixie.

"Then you'll just have to stick with one of us." Said Dib looking at Trixie. Eddy hoping to take advantage of this whole sticking together thing.

"Same with me." said Phineas.

After everyone exchanged phone numbers with each other and Dexter, the gang all leave at the same time, go down the elevator and step outside Dex-Labs and look ahead.

"Well, this is it." Said Phineas.

"One hell of a quest we're suddenly in." said Dib.

"Going against a Vampire, a robot bird and a murderous cult." Said Double D.

"For Jewelled Butterflies that we know nothing about." Said Isabella.

"We may be gone for a really long time." Said Trixie.

"Lots of going around and treasure hunting." Said Eddy.

"With already a lot of mysteries to solve." Said Gaz.

"Probably lots of monsters to fight." Said Ed.

"And we ain't got any weapons or powers." Said Billy.

"But we're not gonna back down, we have to move on." Said Mandy.

Everyone looks at each other, nod at the same time and move towards the train station. With the sun in front of them, casting their shadows far on the paths they walked.

"Cool, didn't think we'd coordinate that as well as we did." Said Billy. "We already make a great team."

"Shut up." Mandy and Eddy respond.

To be continued

So, this is the point where the five stories finally connect. Whether you wanna read all five or focus on one, that's up to you.

So a bit of trivia actually, I actually often ship Eddy with Trixie Tang from Fairly Odd Parents on my DeviantART, and it's been something I've done for years. Wether or not I'll do it here is yet to be decided.

Either way, hope you like it.