Author's note: This story serves as the origin story of Mystery Inc. for Dimension Four, which consists of my revision and expansion of the Hanna-Barbera canon of Scooby-Doo, from SDWAY to 13GSD and the Superstar 10 films.
In this dimension, Coolsville is located in Southern California, near the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which is where the headquarters and production studio of Hanna-Barbera was located at.
Also, the time frame of each D4 story corresponds to the times the episode was first aired, so for instance, my upcoming revision of What a Night for a Knight! takes place on September 12-13, 1969.
In addition, I also make use of a floating timeline where characters ages once every two years between 1969 and 1991, so for example, Shaggy and other human members of the gang turns 16 in 1969, then they turn 17 in 1971, just so that they maintain their youthful appearance.
I don't own Scooby-Doo. Hanna-Barbera Productions and Warner Bros. does.
Chapter 1: Morning time and the radio announcement
September 7, 1968
The alarm clock went off at 7:30 as usual in the bedroom of Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, a fifteen-year-old teenage boy with dusty-brown shaggy hair, located in a house situated in the suburbs of Coolsville, California.
Groaning about the prospect of having to wake up early again, Shaggy stretched his arms and yawned before getting out of his bed.
In a sleepy fashion, Shaggy made his way to the nearby washroom next to his bedroom to wash his face and brush his teeth, nearly tripping over his pet Great Dane, Scoobert "Scooby" Doo, in the process.
"Like, good morning, Scoob." Shaggy said as he yawned once more.
"Rorning, Raggy." (Morning, Shaggy.) Scooby replied as he, too, stretched his four legs and yawned before getting up.
"Sure glad it's Saturday today, Scoob." Shaggy commented as he made his way to the washroom.
"Rou raid rit, Raggy." (You said it, Shaggy.) Scooby nodded in agreement.
After washing his face, Shaggy returned to his bedroom to change into his trademark attire of a green shirt and brown pants before proceeding to comb his hair while looking at the mirror. Then, he grabbed his school bag and made his way down the stairs to the dining room for breakfast.
His father Sam was already at the breakfast table finishing his coffee and breakfast, while his mother Wendy and thirteen-year old sister Maggie were enjoying their breakfast at the table.
"Morning, Norville." His father said as he put down the morning newspaper he was reading, revealing a fairly-handsome middle-aged man in his 40s with dusty-brown hair wearing a police uniform.
Samuel Chastain "Sam" Rogers is the city's chief of police, having have been promoted to the post by mayor William Barbera a year ago, and prior to that, he had a reputation as an excellent police detective who never fails to close a case. In addition to that, he was also a war veteran of the war in Europe more than twenty years prior before joining the police force.
Wendy Rogers (Nee Amon) has short orange-brown hair and is wearing a green dress with a large green bow. She currently works as a health care manager in a major hospital of Coolsville, and she had a reputation as an easy-going nurse who gets along with her co-workers well. She and Sam met during the latter's war service in Europe, during which she was working as a nurse for the Red Cross, and they later got married and settled down in Coolsville after the war.
(Based on the Scooby and Scrappy Doo short Moonlight Madness, I've decided to go with the idea of Shaggy's mother being of Austrian descent, with her ancestors immigrating to the United States in the mid-late 19th century)
"Like, morning, Mom, Dad, Maggie." Shaggy replied as he went to grab some bread slices and placed them in the toaster before moving to get a glass of water, a bowl and a cereal box.
"You sure look mighty cheerful today, Norville." Maggie commented as her older brother and Scooby dig in. Like her brother, she had dusty brown hair, and she was wearing a darker green blouse, a light brown skirt and an ascot that matches the skirt.
"Like, I've found some good music to play through the school's radio network for recess and lunch periods." Shaggy replied as he pulled out a few records he have brought from his bedroom.
"Cool." Maggie nodded as she read the album of the record and noted that it's from The Meedles. "I always liked the Meedles. Their music is quite good."
(Note: The Meedles is a fictionalized version of the famous 1960s English rock band, The Beatles, as I'm going to have a story in which the gang meets the band coming up (In a fashion similar to The New Scooby-Doo Movies and is in fact going to be incorporated into my revision and expansion of that series) and this site doesn't allow stories that contains non-fictional characters. Therefore, a lot of The Beatles music I mentioned in the stories of this dimension are music of The Meedles)
"You sure know how to pick good music for your schoolmates, Norville." Wendy commented.
"Like, I'm sure they'll like this latest album I've got from the store yesterday afternoon." Shaggy nodded as he put the album back into his school bag.
After breakfast, Shaggy grabbed his school bag and lunch before he and Scooby made their way to the front door, where Sam was waiting.
"Do you and Scooby want me to drive you both, or are you two alright with walking to school, Norville?" Sam asked.
Shaggy and Scooby glanced at each other for a brief moment before Shaggy replied, "Like, I think we're fine with walking to school, Dad. After all, our schoolmates don't refer to me as 'the swingingest gymnasium student' and "Central's fastest' for nothing."
"All right." Sam nodded. Seeing that his chauffeur Officer Watson has arrived, he added, "So I'll see you at home later in the afternoon, son."
"Like, see you later, Pops." Shaggy replied before his father made his way to the waiting car.
After he and Scooby watched his police chief father taking a salute from the officer and boarding the car, he proceeded to put on his shoes and tie his shoelaces before he and Scooby said their goodbyes to his mother and sister.
The Rogers lived near the intersection of Maple and Easy Streets located in the western Coolsville suburban community of Glensburg, which is a twenty-minute walk away from Coolsville Central High School, the school in which Shaggy and Scooby are attending as students.
As the duo made their way out of their house, Shaggy glanced at the mansion across Easy Street in front of where Maple Street ends and joins Easy Street.
Living in that mansion was the Blake family, who are among the wealthiest citizens of Coolsville. The part that made Shaggy curious about the family is the family's shy fifteen-year-old daughter named Daphne Blake.
Shaggy has known the girl for a while, ever since her family moved into the mansion after her father's wise business investments made the family wealthy. In fact, the young Daphne Blake has even attended the same public school as him during their pre-teens, and he also saw her in the hallways of Central High School. However, he never had any interaction with her, and he often spotted her alone with no friends, which for some reason made his heart sink.
Through the gate, Shaggy can see the Blake family chauffeur escorting the young teenage girl, who had long red hair and is wearing a purple dress, purple hairband and a green ascot that matches his own green shirt, into her car. She was also quite attractive in appearance, and Shaggy wondered why she isn't making any friends at school. In fact, he thought, a girl like her should have at least plenty of guys trying to go on a date with her.
Just then, Scooby asked, "Raggy, rhat's wrong?" (Shaggy, what's wrong?)
Snapping back to reality, Shaggy turned to Scooby and replied, "Like, nothing. I was just thinking about the girl across the street, Scoob."
Seeing Daphne getting onto her car through the gate to the mansion, Scooby nodded, "Ri see." Like Shaggy, Scooby also have often see Daphne on her own during school time and was puzzled by her keeping to herself most of the time.
Shrugging, the duo carried on with their walk to Central High School.
After the twenty-minute walk, Shaggy and Scooby made their way into the school's main lobby, with a few students saying "Hey, Shaggy." to them, with some offering handshakes to the duo.
Nodding, Shaggy and Scooby shook their peers' hands before carrying on down the hallway.
As they made their way to their lockers, a cat and mouse duo were seen chasing each other in the hallway.
"Morning, Thomas, Jerry." Shaggy said to the duo, who both paused to wave their greetings at Shaggy before resuming their chase down the hallway.
"Rose rwo rever ropped rasing reach rother." (Those two never stopped chasing each other.) Scooby commented as they watched Tom and Jerry racing down the hallway.
"Yeah, Scoob." Shaggy nodded. "Like, a good cat who can catch mice and never gives up doesn't speak much, right?"
"Reah. Ra-he-he-he-he-he-he!" Scooby laughed, even though he didn't get Shaggy's joke.
Just then, a voice says, "Well well well, look who's going to be representing our school in the county track competition, guys."
Turning to look, Shaggy and Scooby spotted a handsome-looking blonde-haired boy with a white shirt, light blue jeans and wearing an orange ascot with a group of two other boys wearing similar outfits, a boy they instantly recognized as Frederick Jones.
Frederick Jones is the son of the district attorney of Coolsville County Jefferson "Skip" Jones, who was a well-known defense attorney in Coolsville and have crossed paths with then-Detective Sam Rogers on a number of cases. It was well-known in Coolsville that the two men had a rivalry, due to them being on the opposite ends of the law and order spectrum, and now with Sam as the city's police chief and Skip the county's district attorney, that rivalry has become more high-profile, even though the two men had respect for each other on a personal level.
Given the professional rivalry between their fathers, seeing Shaggy and Fred having a rivalry wasn't much of a surprise to the populace of Coolsville Central High School. Both boys are involve in a number of school extra-curricular activities, with Fred being a member of a number of school clubs and being on the school's football team and has helped organized a few school events in the past, while Shaggy's music and athletic skills helped the school earn a lot of awards. He has also helped organized music and athletic events at school in the past and is the school's voice on it's radio network.
"Like, there's a reason why the guys at school called me 'Central's Fastest', Fred Jones." Shaggy replied proudly with a thumb pointing towards him. "I can run 100 metres easily in less than a minute."
"Reah, reah reah!" Scooby replied excitedly as the nearby students stopped what they were doing and watched the two rivals speaking to each other.
"100 metres in less than a minute? That's nothing when I ran across the school's football field to help score a game-winning touchdown without getting caught by any of the ballplayers from the other school!" Fred proudly replies.
"Like, good for you, Jones." Shaggy smirked. "Did I mention that I broke a new record in the state's track and field finals last spring?"
"Oh, yeah. You did good in that, Rogers." Fred nodded. "But I can do better than that when it comes to racing across the football field and help scoring game-winning touchdowns for the school's football team!"
"Well, we'll see to that, Jones." Shaggy replied as he and Fred shook each others hands in a "Challenge Accepted!" fashion, earning a sea of "Woah!" and "Oh!" from the crowd of students.
After the encounter with Fred Jones and his pals, Shaggy and Scooby made their way to their lockers to put away their school bags and grab some of the relevant stuff they will need for their classes. Then, Scooby made his way to the animal section of the school, where talking animals like Scooby have their classes.
"Ree rou rat runch, Raggy" (See you at lunch, Shaggy.) Scooby says as he prepares to head for his class.
"Yeah, like, see you at the cafe, Scoob." Shaggy nodded and smiled before Scooby left. After that, he glanced at his watch and noted that he's got five minutes before he's supposed to be on the air on the school's radio network.
"Zoinks! I better get going!" He remarked to himself as he grabbed the records, slammed his locker door shut, and made his way down the hallway to the radio station in the main office.
He arrived just in time, as the school's radio network operator was doing his finishing touches of checking the equipment.
"Morning, Mr. Rogers." The operator said as he saw Shaggy enter the room.
"Like, morning, Mr. Walker. I guess I've arrived just in time." Shaggy replied.
"You sure did, Mr. Rogers." Mr. Walker nodded before Shaggy went to take a seat and after testing out the broadcasting equipment, he placed one of the records he'd brought with him into the player as the bell rang, indicating that the students have five minutes before first period classes starts.
"Ten seconds to go before we're on the air, Mr. Rogers." Mr. Walker said as he and another operating assistant got down to work.
As the timer counts down, Shaggy put on his headphones as after the countdown to zero, the music from the record can be heard from the radio speakers located across the school.
The first song that Shaggy played through the radio was The Meedles "Hey Jude", which took up the whole five-minute duration of the break, and all of the students and staff can be seen nodding their heads at the music.
After the bell rang, Shaggy's voice can be heard through the radio speakers as he begins the school's morning announcements.
(Think about the late-Casey Kasem's radio voice as you read Shaggy's radio announcements. The idea of Shaggy doing radio announcements and playing music on the school's radio network is inspired by the scene in Chill Out where Shaggy does his best Casey Kasem impression while on the radio, and since Casey can do Shaggy's voice (After all, he's Shaggy's long-time, original voice actor), to me, it is natural for Shaggy to be able to do Casey's voice)
"Like, good morning, Central. It's Central's Fastest Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers behind the mike here with your morning announcements. Before I get to them, we must stand up for the playing of the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance." Shaggy spoke.
After that, Shaggy's voice was replaced by the playing of the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance as the whole faculty stood up from their seats and took a moment of silence afterwards.
After the moment of silence, Shaggy's voice returned and echoes throughout the entire school as he said, "Like, and now for the morning announcements. Starting on Monday September 16th, yearbooks can by ordered at the main office at a price of $10 through cash or cheques. Next, tryouts for the Coolsville Central Devils football team starts next Monday afternoon. If anyone has an interest in joining the football team or want to help Freddie Jones in securing victories for the Devils, then feel free to take part in the tryouts next Monday."
Shaggy then paused for a glass of water before continuing, "Know how to play a musical instrument? Want to perform great music? Then come on down to the music department for tryouts for the school orchestra starting next Monday. Trust me, it will be a lot of fun, especially considering the fact that you'll be performing with a group of awesome students and be practicing under the guidance of the great Mr. Bernstein."
After going through a few more morning announcements, Shaggy concluded, "And that's all for today's morning announcements, Central. Have a wonderful rest of the day!"
With that, the radio network went off the air.
Any thoughts on the beginning?
Please read and review!
