#Friend has a bunch of blue on him 'cause Will was petting him pfft

[sysig]

For a second request: Philza and Ghostbur interacting! Ive always found this idea SO interesting. Like, that's your son that you killed interacting with you even though it's not technically your son but he looks like him and kinda sounds like him but it's NOT him. The mental toll that would take.

Day 6 - So many friends!

[statistically-unlikely-monster]

Secrets No More

Chapter 2: Excuses and False Identities

This chapter is considerably longer than the first one. Also, this has a bit more focus on Edd than in the first chapter. I’m thinking about keeping that alternating focus so each character can have some spotlight, but nothing set in stone for that yet. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Tom and Matt vegged out for most of the day, watching cheesy shows on the couch and using commercials to hurry up and do chores for Edd. Ringo curled up on Tom’s lap, purring happily as Tom stroked the cat’s head.

“So, is there something going on with you?” Matt asked out of nowhere. He had his head tilted like a confused dog, bangs falling awkwardly in his face.

“Um...no? Why?” Tom lied. If it were anything else he would have dropped a hint, but this wasn’t something you could just dump on a friend and walk away from. Especially since Matt and his big fat mouth would blab to the whole town about it.

“Well, you’ve been acting really weird anymore, especially after dark.” Matt explained, fumbling with his hands as he spoke, “You leave in the middle of the night all the time. I tried asking what you were doing and you growled at me,” He held up his hands like claws, “Like an actual animal growl.” 

Tom’s heart sank. He didn’t remember doing any of that stuff, but if Matt was telling the truth, he saw Tom at least mid transformation, “I- uh… I don’t remember doing that.”

“That’s not all. There’s this weird purple light that follows you around. I don’t know what it is, but almost looks like that uh,” Matt wiggled his fingers, “That squiggly thing fire light does.”

“That’s crazy.” Tom dismissed, trying to hold a straight face. 

“Hang on, I bet I know what this is,” Matt interrupted him, rubbing his chin like the detectives he seen on TV, “Growling, lights, and leaving at night can only mean one thing,” He dramatically pointed at Tom, “You’ve been going to midnight furry conventions, haven’t you?”

Tom sat there in complete silence for a few seconds. His brain stalled on what Matt just said, and once it finally went through, he tried to fight back his smile, “Pfft! What made you think that?”

“Elementary, my dear Tom.” Matt replied, throwing on a full Sherlock persona. He got up and paced about the room as he explained his deduction, “Clearly you would be embarrassed of being a furry, so you only go late at night. The growling is you practicing for acting like an animal. The glowing is some kind of fancy rave light that you’re bringing to the convention.” Matt jabbed Tom’s chest with one finger. His face had a cocky smile that told Tom that Matt was being 100% serious, “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Tom forced down a laugh. His whole face was bright red and a huge grin went from ear to ear, “Oh yeah, you caught me,” He answered sarcastically, “Snnrk- You figured out my secret.” The dam finally broke, letting out a wave of laughter from Tom.

Edd happened to walk in just in time to watch Tom bust his gut, “What did I miss?”

Matt proudly pointed at Tom and announced, “I figured out why he’s been acting so weird. He’s a furry!” 

Tom tried to stifle his laughter, tears pooling in the corners of his “eyes”.

“Glad you finally came out about it,” Edd joked, stopping to pet Ringo before stepping past him to drop off some bags in the kitchen, “Anyways, I got some stuff for tonight. I was thinking pizza and crisps.” 

“Sounds good to me!” Matt replied, grabbing up the TV remote, I’ll try and find something to watch. He flipped through the different channels, eventually stopping at the news, “Whoa, hey Edd, check this out!”

On the screen was policemen gathering around a huge scene. Taped off was a smashed gazebo, a large portion of the park, and a neighboring house that had been burned down. Tom immediately recognized it as the place where he woke up, but he didn’t remember the house. 

“Whoa,” Edd gasped, leaning over the couch, “Looks like something big went through there.”

“Yeah, it burned down a house,” Matt nodded, suddenly turning to face Edd, “Ooh! What if it was a dragon?! How cool would that be?!”

Edd shrugged, “Could be. Weirder stuff has happened before.”

The announcer came on screen and started giving updates, “It’s still unknown who or what caused the damage on the scene. Police plan to bring detectives to investigate later today.”

Edd looked over at Tom, immediately noticing his face had paled, “Tom, are you okay? You didn’t get sick, did you?” 

“Huh? Oh, I’m fine.” Tom lied, tugging nervously on the neck of his hoodie, “I-I’m great. Never better.” He looked down and his heart skipped a beat. His fingernail had sharpened to a point, and started turning a deep shade of purple, “You know what, I’m actually not feeling that great. I’ll just go sleep it off.” He excused himself, hurriedly marching up the stairs to his room and locking the door shut behind him.

“...That was weird.” Matt commented before turning back to the TV screen, “ He seemed okay to me.”  He changed the channel to Professor Why and patted the couch next to him for Edd to sit.

Edd sat down, but continued to stare at the steps, confused as to what the heck was going on with Tom. 

The two of them watched TV until the sun started setting. The whole time, neither of them heard a peep from Tom. Matt didn’t seem to notice, but then again Matt had a hard time picking up on social cues, so to him all was normal. Edd on the other hand could just feel something was up. A motherly sixth sense if you will. 

“I’m going to go check on Tom,” Edd said, getting up from the couch, “Can you go start dinner? Just follow the directions on the box.”

Matt gave him a playful salute before heading to the kitchen. Edd crept up the stairs. Immediately, he felt his brain kick into fight or flight mode. The unease lingered at the landing like a fog. The source being Tom’s door. Despite this, Edd came up to the bedroom door and gave it a light knock, “Hey Tom? You good buddy?”

Someone on the other side of the door gasped and fell silent. There was some thumping around within. Curiosity taking over, Edd pressed his ear against the wood. Heavy footsteps paced about the room methodically.

Finally, he heard Tom respond, “Y-Yeah, I’m good.” His voice sounded deeper and scratchier than before. Edd couldn’t help but wonder if he ate a bunch of gravel or something, “I think I got a cold though,” Tom added with a cough.

“Do you need anything?” Edd asked, fighting back the urge to peep in through the crack in the door. As much as he wanted to figure out what was going on, he had the overhanging sense of dread that he wasn’t going to like what he saw.

“N-No. I’m just going to go to bed early. Goodnight.” Tom replied, his voice snapping back to normal mid sentence.

Edd backed away, “Well, goodnight then.” He hurried up and went back down the stairs, almost running face first into the plate of pizza in Matt’s hands.

“Where’s the fire?” Matt joked, flopping back down on the couch, “I mean, besides the oven that is.”

Edd’s heart jumped, racing around the corner to check the kitchen. No sign of fire anywhere.

Matt laughed from the living room, “Got you!” he shook his head with a doofy smile, “Yeah, couldn’t find how to turn on the oven so I just microwaved a few slices.” As he stuffed his slightly cold pizza into his mouth he muttered, “Where’s Tom?”

Edd shrugged, grabbing his plate and promptly stuffing it back into the microwave, “Sick...I think.” He muttered the last part.

The rest of the night was uneventful. Edd cleaned up the counter and did some dishes, biding his time until Matt went to bed. He had everything he needed ready and at the door. 

“Night Edd, I’m going to bed,” Matt yawned, shutting off the TV and stumbling up the stairs, “Heh, that rhymed.”

“Okay, goodnight,” Edd called back. He paused, waiting until the footsteps upstairs went silent. Quietly, he slipped on his old Coca Cola backpack and crept out the door, locking it up behind him. Stowing his keys in his pocket, he walked in the darkness, not letting his gaze wander from the sidewalk. He stopped at an alleyway. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he went in and dumped out the contents of his bookbag: a green mask from a superhero costume, some green basketball shorts, a green magician’s cape, black tights, green canvas shoes, yellow dish gloves, and an old gray shirt he painted a lighting bolt logo onto. 

Struggling to change in the darkness, he shoved his old clothes back into his bag and hid it behind the dumpster, “Alright, big park was it?” He talked to himself, kicking off the ground and slowly rising up. He could see the police lights from where he hovered over the buildings, “That should be it.”

Luckily for Edd, not all his powers disappeared after the whole radioactive TV dish incident. Sure, he wasn’t as strong as before, but he still made for a decent superhero. For the sake of his friends however, he played it off as all his powers had disappeared. Matt had a big mouth and would blab about his secret identity to anyone who asked, meaning villains could easily find him. Tom wasn’t much of a problem as long as he wasn’t drunk, but 99% of the time he was. So, he kept his lives separate. By day he was Edd, and by night he was Poweredd.

"What seems to be the problem here officers?" Poweredd asked, touching down in just behind the roped off area.

The chief turned around and sighed with relief, "Oh good, it's you. We can use all the help we can get with this one." He lifted up the tape for Poweredd to walk under.

The scene was full of police and detectives milling about the rubble and wreckage. Red and blue lights amid the darkness gave off an eerie feeling to the area.

"What happened here?" Poweredd asked, walking up to a nearby tree that had been ripped up by the root. The wood was carved in by large gashes that almost resembled claw marks. Sap oozed from the center and dribbled down into the grass.

The police chief shrugged, "That's what we're trying to figure out. In all my years, I never seen anything like this."

Poweredd wandered about the scene, mentally taking note of every detail. Large claw marks everywhere, trees uprooted, park buildings smashed, and a whole home burned down. He mumbled to himself, "Maybe Matt was onto something with the dragon?"

Suddenly, something caught his eye. A chunk of deep purple fur wedged underneath some rubble. Poweredd snatched it up and looked it over. The color seemed oddly familiar, but from where he couldn't tell. He mentally went through his memories, trying to find where he saw something dark purple. It was just on the tip of his tongue.

"Find something?" A detective asked, coming up to him.

Poweredd whipped around, sneakily stuffing the fur into his pocket, "Oh, uh nothing yet." He gave his best smile before going back to what he was doing. Purple fur. He had seen it before. But where?