It was a typical day in Peach Creek. Edd, Ed, and Eddy were in Edd's garage.
"Why'd you drag us here, sockhead?" complained Eddy.
Edd pulled out three futuristic-looking helmets hooked up to a large machine that sat in the corner. "Simple. I have invented a virtual reality machine and I would like you two to help me test it out."
"Can I fill in the bubbles?" asked Ed.
"I hate tests!" groaned Eddy.
Edd ignored them and put on his helmet. "You realize that if this is a good job, then we may market this as a scam!"
Eddy immediately put on a helmet. "A scam! Now you're talking! Let's start this baby up!"
Edd and Ed also put on their helmets. "We are scheduled to go hundreds of years ago to Paris," explained Edd.
"Big woop," said Eddy. "We don't know French!"
Edd began to press some buttons. "I do speak a bit, but the system automatically translates. Shall we be off?"
"Oo-la-la!" cried Ed.
Edd hit a final button. In a flash, they were all standing in a Paris square, looking up at the cathedral Notre Dame. Gypsies were everywhere, setting up for some sort of fair.
"What a lovely town!" raved Edd. "You can just smell the history!"
"I smell something," grumbled Eddy. "Don't people clean around here? Geez!" Eddy suddenly spied something. Hey, is that a scam?" He happily ran over to a booth where a gypsy dressed as a jester was putting on a puppet show.
Clopin: Morning in Paris
The city awakes
To the bells of Notre Dame
The fisherman fishes
And the baker man bakes
To the bells of Notre Dame
To the big bells as loud as the thunder
To the little bells soft as a psalm
And some say the soul of the city's
The toll of the bells
The bells of Notre Dame
"What a haunting melody!" smiled Edd. "Did you write that?"
The gypsy smiled. "I see you are not from around here, children."
Eddy jumped up in annoyance. "Children! We're pre-teens, buster! I HAD A PIMPLE!"
"Odd as you are, you amuse me. I am Clopin the gypsy!"
Edd looked around. "Yes, there were many gypsies in Paris around this time."
Clopin looked confused. "'Were?' 'Around this time?' You are treating us like the past! We are the present, boy!"
"Oh, yes, how silly of me!" Edd laughed innocently.
At that moment, the bells rang out loudly. Clopin looked up in awe. "The bells...Beautiful, aren't they? So many colors, sounds, and changing moods..."
"Certainly," said Edd, "I admire your love of architecture."
Clopin grinned. "Ah, but it's the story behind Notre Dame that makes it so mysterious."
Eddy sat down. "We better not get charged for this."
"You see," continued Clopin, "they don't ring themselves."
"They don't?" said Ed.
"No, silly boy! It is...the hunchback!"
Edd stared. "I never read about any hunchback, monsieur Clopin."
Clopin laughed again. "Why do you need books when you have storytellers?"
"I like this guy!" exclaimed Eddy. Anyone who insulted books was a friend!
Clopin: Dark was the night when our tale begins
On the docks near Notre Dame
Four frightened gypsies slid silently under
The docks near Notre Dame
But a trap had been laid for the gypsies
And they gazed up in fear and alarm
At a figure whose clutches
Were as iron as much as the bells
The bells of Notre Dame
"Who was this horrible creature?" asked Edd.
"Robot Monster from the moon?" guessed Edd.
Clopin gave Ed an odd look. "Your friend is a little...ahem, he was Judge Claude Frollo, hater of the gypsies!
Judge Claude Frollo longed
To purge the world
Of vice and sin
And he saw corruption
Everywhere
Except within
"What a horrible sounding person!" cried Edd.
"Is anyone else bored?" groaned Eddy.
Clopin continued his tale. "He singled a gypsy mother out, thinking she had stolen goods! She ran, but hit her head and died instantly. Frollo found that her 'goods' was actually a baby...a disfigured child. He was going to drop it down a well when the good Archdeacon came out. 'STOP' cried the Archdeacon."
"Good for him!" cheered Edd.
"Like a traffic light!" agreed Ed.
"Frollo was forced to raise the child as his own. He was locked away in the bell tower and was given a cruel name."
"'Soapbar?'" guessed Ed.
"'Mistake?'" guessed Edd.
"'Kevin?'" guessed Eddy.
"A name that means half-formed," said Clopin. "Quasimoto! He is the bellringer!
Now here is a riddle, try to guess if you can
Sing the bells of Notre Dame
Who is the monster and who is the man?
Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells of Notre Dame
"Amazing," said Edd, after a moment of silence.
"Boring," said Eddy. "Like there's really a freaky, scary monster up there."
"I gotta see it, guys!" cried Ed. Taking off at full speed, he actually ran up the wall of Notre Dame.
"Heavens above!" gasped Edd.
"Literally," added Eddy.
"Ed, you come back here!" called Edd, taking off after his friend.
Clopin watched the boys chase Ed. "You had better not let Frollo see that! He'll suspect the worst!" He paused. "Then again, when a boy is walking up walls, there's not much else to expect."
Not the best intro, but not the worst. In the next chapter, the Eds will met Quasi and the gargoyles.