Scooby Doo: Then And Now

Episode One: An Ending and a Beginning

Then:

"Jinkies!" Velma Dinkley was astonished by what she had just found. There was a ten dollar bill, or at least the printing plate that would be needed to make a ten dollar bill. It was an obvious counterfeiting scheme, and this told her everything that she needed in order to figure out who was really behind this plot and why.

She had been doing this for years, and was quite good. It was odd, when she was younger, her friends and her would accidentally unmasked someone pretending to be a monster. It was the first of many. All their lives, no matter where they seemed to go, there was someone pretending to be a ghost or ghoul, trying to keep people away from their land for oil, money, or other riches, and they always made the same basic mistake, they tried it around Velma and her friends, Mystery Inc.

Velma had no idea that this was the last case that they would work on together. There were clues, but those bespectacled eyes that could see the smallest and least significant detail when it came to catching bad guys in masks, somehow managed to miss an important detail in her own life. The gang was growing up and they were all off on their own paths. Daphne and Freddie were off to Darrow College. She knew that, and they knew that she wasn't going to join them. She got a full ride through Duke and that wasn't something that she was going to be able to pass up. Shaggy and Scooby were going down to Georgia to spend time with his Uncle Nathaniel.

"Like, what did you find?" Shaggy Rogers asked her. He was long and lanky and she had to admit, there was something that she found cute about him when they were younger. Now? Now they were too close to have anything romantic happen between them. It would be like dating her brother.

"I found these plates. They are used to make phony bills." She smiled as she looked at the plate. "So we have the what they were doing. Now we just need to catch them."

"Do you know the who?"

She nodded slowly. "Oh yeah, I know exactly who is behind this. Now we just need to make sure that Freddie can come up with a trap that will let us capture the baddie behind this." Each member of the group played their own role. She was certain that the group wouldn't be able to operate without them all. When it came time to figure out the who and what, that was her job. Freddie was the leader and he was the one who always managed to come up with the plans and the traps. Shaggy and Scooby were the bait. They were the fastest and they were the ones who lead the ghosts into traps. And Daphne was the glue that held the group together. Over the years, Mystery Inc had made a few changes to their line up, but it always came back to those five.

Shaggy shivered slightly. "Like, no way man! I know exactly where this is going, and I'm not going to have anything to do with that!"

"Reah!" Scooby said shaking his head slowly.

Velma sighed. She knew exactly where this was going to lead. She reached into her backpack and smiled. "Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?" Scooby's personal brand of dog treats were the favored treat not just of the Great Dane but also of his owner as well.

Scooby and Shaggy leaned their heads together and whispered to each other. Shaggy pulled his head up. "Nope. Two. Each."

Velma grinned as she threw out two Scooby Snacks to them. Suddenly, Freddie came into the room from another part of the house. "Where's Daphne?" He asked them.

Velma and Shaggy exchanged glances. "We thought she was with you." It looked like they had another mystery on their hands.

Now:

Velma Dinkley had gone off to school and got a P.H.D. in Folklore and Psychology. And now? Now she hunts ghosts. Well, that's what some would say. Velma wouldn't. Velma had earned the nickname "Spooky" from her co-workers because of her desire to experience something that was really haunted, something that defied explanation, and she hadn't found it yet. But that wasn't for a sincere lack of trying. She wasn't sure if she was impressed by their using a X-Files reference or sad.

She had a TV show that lead her around the country investigating haunted houses and the like, but all it really did for her was to prove that there wasn't anything else out there. Men in masks, pretending to be something that they were not in order to chase people away from things that they had no right to. It was the same thing, no matter where she went, and Velma was starting to lose faith that she would ever find anything.

"So, what brings us to New Jersey?" Her camera man, Ned Burchill, asked with a grin. "Is it the wonderful smells or the fun times to be had on the boardwalk?"

Velma rolled her eyes playfully. "Neither. We're here to look for the Jersey Devil."

Ned nodded as he looked at his camera. He signed up with Velma two years ago in order to help with the network. They didn't believe in the show, but Ned did. He was happy to be part of the show, and he had to admit that Velma's snarkiness had grown on him over the years. And the way that she had that crooked smile and the way that her eyes lit up when she found a clue. And that was all before she ever said the word, "Jinkies." When she did that, he couldn't stop smiling. It was what he lived for each day.

This season they made a slight change. The producer for the show had decided that he wanted to get more hands on with the process and he invited himself along on the show. "Ghosts Across America" had a new format. There was going to be a counter point with the producer, J.J. Hakimoto, on every episode. Ned figured that J.J. was just going to get in the way, but that wasn't his decision, he knew that the orders came from his boss. So be it. "Alright Velma, what are we up to today?"

"Well, we are going to go to Pine Barrens and we are going to look into the Jersey Devil." She smiled softly and Ned raised an eyebrow.

"What are you not telling me?"

"Oh, well, the Jersey Devil is believed to live in…"

Suddenly the door to the van flew open and Ned and Velma turned to look at J.J at the door. "Really, Dinkley? The sewers?"

Ned turned around and looked at Velma. "The sewer? You are going to drag me into the sewers?" He sighed as he looked at the camera. "We're going to need to get some flashlights. This will be fun."

Velma smirked. "Isn't sarcasm my forte?"

Ned shrugged. "Was thinking I would give it a try."

Velma nodded slowly. She had found herself growing fonder of Ned as the time went by. At first she thought that his stubbornness was annoying, but it was starting to grow on her as she realized that it was actually him believing in something so much that he would fight for it. "Well, looks like we've got a plan for tomorrow."

Then:

She had been called Danger Prone Daphne, and it was quality that Daphne Blake was showing right now. She and Freddie had split off from the rest of the group when she had stumbled, and pressed her hand down on a statue of a small dog. The dog's head had pressed inward and the entire floor by the bookcase had slid downwards, and she fell hard. As she stood, she saw for a brief moment the Lochester Demon. He was big and scaly and...limp?

She raised an eyebrow as she made her way over to the monster and gently prodded him. To her surprise, the pointed eared head that was full of fangs collapsed off the shoulders of the beat and to the ground. "It's a costume?"

She leaned down and picked up the head. It had seemed terrifying just a few minutes ago didn't bother her at all now. She looked inside the now headless costume and stared at the inside. There was some sort of odd systems of pulleys inside. Daphne wasn't the smart one of the group, but she could tell that the way this was set up explained the odd movements of the creature's arms, how they didn't seem to bend correctly. It also explained how the creature could have four arms. The bottom two were well the regular arms went into, and the pulleys controlled the top two arms. And oddly enough, in the left hand, the pinky finger was stuffed.

"I wish Velma was here, I bet she'd know just what to do," Daphne muttered as she looked around and shivered. "Okay, you are on your own and the way you came up is ten feet above you. Now is the time for you to follow the...dimly lit cave and find the other way out."

Daphne knew that she had discovered a vital clue. She felt certain that this creature wasn't a real monster before that. After all, how could she? She had unmasked near a hundred people pretending to be something that they weren't and she hadn't seen any evidence of anything supernatural. She had been asked countless times why she ran from these things when she was faced with them if she knew that they weren't real. She went back to thinking about the creature's gloved hands that ended in sharp razor blades and wondered why anyone wouldn't want to run. Just because these things weren't really monsters didn't mean that they weren't really out to hurt her. And she had been kidnapped by enough of them to know how dangerous they could really be.

The thought really irked her. Her friends called her danger prone and she was sure that she had heard Velma mutter, "Of course Daphne has been kidnapped again," the last time that a ghost had grabbed her. People would say that she was the heart of the team, but was that how her friends really saw her?

Velma was brilliant, she was younger than the rest of them, but she had skipped several grades. She always had a level head and no small level of sarcasm whenever the rest of the gang got distracted. The only reason she wasn't the leader of the group was because while she had a keen mind, she wasn't always the most people oriented person.

That was clearly Freddie. He was the leader of the group and brilliant in his own right. He made all the traps, he did everything right. He knew how to use people to their fullest while making them feel like an important part of the team. He was also dreamy. Daphne didn't always think that way about him, but lately, these thoughts came into her mind more and more.

She didn't feel that way about Shaggy though. Maybe at one time, that summer Velma and Freddie were gone, but now they had a deep friendship. How couldn't they? She understood what he was; brave when he needed to be, but a coward at heart. She saw that more than the others did in him.

But what did the others see in her? Was she the damsel that had to be rescued? This was going to be the last time. Going forward, she was going to be somebody that could take care of herself.

She paused in the cavern. Did she just hear Freddie's voice?

Now:

Daphne Blake worked as a news reporter for the Crystal Cove WLCC news station. She was only a weekend anchor, but not anything important. Nancy always seemed to block any real path that moved her upwards. Daphne had some idea as to why, but she didn't see how that was at all her fault. But she knew if she continued to do a good job there was no way that she would be ignored for long. But would she have to leave Crystal Cove to get a real break?

It wasn't the first time that she had thought about leaving Crystal Cove. When she was in college, she gave real thought about leaving. Mystery Inc had just broken up for good, they had tried a few times to make it up over the phone, but their hobby was not one that allowed anything other than face to face interactions. In fact, the only one that she saw at all was Fred Jones.

There was always chemistry between the two of them, everyone could see that, but when they actually went out a few times, honestly, Daphne didn't feel it. When they broke up they tried to stay friends, but it didn't work. That was when she tried to determine whether she should leave the town. But something came up.

That something was someone that came up next to her as she stood outside the news station. "Hey babe!" The red haired man said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Daphne looked up with a soft smile and leaned her head on his shoulders. "Hey Rhett. What are you doing here?"

"Came to wish my lady love a good day at work. Do you want to go off for lunch today?"

Fifteen years ago had you told her that her life was going to go down this path, she wouldn't have believed it. She had known Rhett Herring for most of her life, but when she was younger, he made her life miserable. Not just her life but the lives of her friends as well. When she knew him back in the day he didn't go by his birth name, instead he went by a name that was inspired by his flaming red hair, Red Herring. The fact that Fred always thought that he was the person pretending to be the monster was not lost on her.

"I would love to do lunch today." When he smiled at her, she knew that she made the right call when she said yes to him. They had dated for three years when he finally proposed to her, at the spot of their first date. When she saw him in her journalism class, she felt like she had met him for the first time. When they were in high school, he was sent off to military school and those four years radically changed him. Gone was the bully who tormented others for his own pleasure and in his stead was a man who genuinely cared about others. "But I'm not sure when or where I'll be."

"Nancy's making you do on the scene reporting again?"

Daphne sighed. Nancy was the constant thorn in her side. No matter what happened, she was always there to stop Daphne from accomplishing her goals. And to think, Nancy thought she was competing against Daphne for something that Daphne had long since stopped looking for. Had Nancy just been more confident in herself, none of this may have been an issue, but Nancy was always measuring herself up to the red headed Daphne Blake. Daphne didn't see a competition, but Nancy did. A competition for the love of Fred Jones.

Then:

Fred Jones was distraught. This wasn't the first time that Daphne had been taken hostage, far from it. But whenever it happened, he was always concerned, but he did have the foresight to see what was coming, even if Velma didn't. It didn't take long for Velma and Fred to come to terms with what had happened. Fred had an idea of exactly what had happened to Daphne. She went missing when they were in the library. There was a secret passage somewhere because there always was. Nothing that they hadn't dealt with before. But that also meant something else, there was another passage there.

Fred had seen this too many times to be worried about that. If Daphne had just fallen into a trap, she would be able to find the other end. But he figured that he could help with that. "Daphne!" He yelled out. It wasn't the first time. It wouldn't be the last time. But he knew that it would be the last time he called it out like this. "Daphne!"

He led the group away from the library and they were heading down the hallway, when Scooby's ears perked up. "Rear that?"

Fred stopped and listened. Scooby's ears were always better than everyone else's. "What is it, Scoob?"

Scooby motioned towards the wall. "Raphne."

Fred leaned over and pressed his ear against the wall. Sure enough, he could hear faintly Daphne yelling out his name. He reached along the wall until he managed to find a brick that seemed to be loose. "Hey gang," he said motioning towards the brick, "I think I found something. Stand back." He pressed the brick inwards, and as soon as he did, the wall swung away revealing a secret passage and something else, Daphne!

"Like, am I glad to see you!" Shaggy said as he rushed forward and gave her a hug. Fred felt something twinge inside of him, but he wasn't sure what it was. But he did reach over and put a hand on both of their shoulders.

"Alright gang, now that we're all back together, we need to make sure that we figure out what's next."

"Well," Velma said stepping forward, "I think we need to examine our clues."

"Oh! I nearly forgot," Daphne said, "I found the Lochester Demon!"

"He's in the tunnels?" Fred asked confused.

"Well, part of him is." She looked at the confusion that went over all of their faces. "He's not a real demon." She added that for the sake of the others.

"Of course he's not," Velma muttered only loud enough that Scooby and Fred was going to hear her.

"I found his costume. And the weird thing is he has one of his fingers stuffed."

"The pinky on his left hand?" Velma asked.

As Daphne nodded Fred looked over at Velma. "I take it that you know who's behind all of this?"

Velma nodded. "I certainly do. However, in order to give the police any real proof, we're going to have to catch him."

Fred grinned as broadly as he always did in these moments. "Well, that means it must be trapping time! And do I have a trap that will help us out with that." He paused. "But I need to make sure that we have the proper bait."

Shaggy sighed as everyone turned to look at him. "Like, do I even wanna know?"

Now:

Fred Jones had gone through college and he managed to get his degree in something useful. When he was younger, he had wanted to be able to use his trap making skills to design and build useful things. However, that wasn't going to go anywhere and he knew it. But he had another skill set that was particularly useful, he knew every inch of the Mystery Machine.

He had loved that van in a way that most people never loved a car. He did his best work ever on that wonderful vehicle and he learned every thing that he could about cars because of that. It turned out that he was able to make nearly any car hum and it turned out that he was a wonderful mechanic because of that. It was how he made his living.

His shop was painted in a very familiar green, blue and orange. It was called the Mystery Mechanic. The name probably didn't win as many people as it may have if it was called Fred Jones' Auto Shop or something along those lines, but he wanted something to connect to his past life.

As opposed to the other members of Mystery Inc, he looked back at the world they left behind as the best years of his life. He had a new life and he knew that there wasn't going to be any way that they would ever return to what they had, but there were nights when he laid awake and stared at ceiling wishing that he could go back to where he was before.

He felt guilty about that. He hated how he felt about this life. He didn't want to feel like this. He felt like he was betraying her.

He knew that he had a life that most guys would've killed for. He was successful in his career, owned his own business, had no major bills to speak of and he had a beautiful fiancée. In fact, his fiancée was the most beautiful woman in all of Crystal Cove. That wasn't his opinion, that was from a vote from the viewers of WLCC television.

Nancy Chang was tall with pale blue eyes and long black hair. She walked like a woman whose destiny lay in her own hands, which it certainly did. She was the in charge of on air personalities and she made sure that she always got the lion's share of the work. She also made sure that her greatest enemy in life, Daphne Blake, didn't get ahead of her. She was afraid of Daphne. Terribly afraid.

And the reason for that was the same reason that Fred Jones stayed awake at night. He was still desperately in love with Daphne. When they decided to stop dating, it wasn't his decision. You always hear that these kind of break ups are mutual, but they never are. Daphne. Believed that it was the decision that they both made, but it wasn't. The first day that they went out, Fred had gone out and got an engagement ring. But it was not meant to be.

Nancy and him met in a history class, and they hit it off. Nancy was on the prowl, and she did what she always did. When she wanted something, she went directly at it. She asked him out for coffee and next thing that Fred knew he had a live in girlfriend. But that was as far as they ever made it. He knew that it was driving Nancy crazy, because she was dropping not so subtle hints about what she wanted out of life, that she wanted to get married, but Fred wasn't budging. He certainly loved her. But she wasn't Daphne Blake.

He sighed as he watched Nancy on the news and sadly shook his head. He wasn't sure how his life ended up like this. Once upon the time, he was in charge. People followed him. But now? Now he realized that he wasn't the leader of a group any more, nor was he the leader of his own life. It was funny. In times like this, when he was at his bleakest, he realized that he was really jealous of someone else. Not Rhett Herring but instead of Shaggy Rogers.

Then:

Shaggy Rogers looked down at his best friend for years, Scooby Doo and sighed. "Scoob, remind me, how did I get talked into doing this?"

Shaggy asked the question, but he knew for a fact how it happened. It was the same exact way that it always happened. Shaggy and Scooby was the fastest. That had a lot to do with the fact that they were the most afraid. Sure, every single monster and ghost that they had ever came across had been fake, but that didn't mean that the next one was about to be fake as well. There was a gambler's fallacy there, and Shaggy knew it. You can't base what is happening now based on what happened in the past. Those two things are not related. Besides, those things were really scary whether they were real or not.

Now they had done this song and dance a lot. Scooby and him were going to go out and get the attention of the monster. It would chase them and they would lead it into the trap that Fred had carefully laid out for it. From that point, it was about a fifty/fifty chance that the trap would go right. It was also equally likely that Shaggy and Scooby were going to be so afraid that they were going to forget what they were actually supposed to do and was going to trip the trap themselves. At this point, Shaggy had to wonder if Fred just thought that it was funny to send them out and see what horrible things happened. But it was going to be the last time.

Scooby and Shaggy were not going to college. Instead they were going to go and see his Uncle Nathaniel and see what he would be able to do for them. School was never their thing and now it was time for them to move onto whatever they were going to do. The rest of the gang had bright futures, and what was Shaggy going to do with his life? He wanted to become a chef, but there was a small problem associated with that. He couldn't=t stop eating the food long enough to actually have it judged.

So this was going to be their last run. He took a deep breath and he pushed Scooby out into the open. His dog gave him a slightly hurt look, but it didn't last as Shaggy joined him very quickly as well. "Like, I guess it's safe to go home, Scoob. I mean, Daphne found the costume; we all know that he's a fake. He's gonna have gone home. Betcha anything."

"Right, Raggy!" His dog was terrified. Anyone with a brain could see that. They should've held out for more Scooby Snacks. Why did they never do that?

These thoughts weren't going to last too long as the four armed Lochester Demon came out. "I told you all to get out!"

"Like, trust us, we totally want to!" With that, Shaggy and Scooby took off. It was their normal routine and they still despised it. Daphne had the money and Velma had the brains and Fred was leader and all Shaggy and Scooby brought was the speed. If they had any gumption, they may have been able to go out to the Olympics. But their speed was only in proportion to how afraid that they were. If there was a monster chasing them, then they would've won gold. Otherwise, they would've been lapped, even in a race that didn't involve laps. They just didn't care about it.

This was a rare moment for them. They turned the corner rapidly, and the monster was now in danger, as when it turned the corner, Velma let go of her rope, which lead to a giant fly swatter smacking it in the head. As it stumbled forward, it fell into a small pit. This was Daphne's cue to let go of her rope, and a large net came down over top of the Demon.

Shaggy grinned as he came to a halt, and the rest of the gang came out to celebrate. "Great work, gang!" Fred said, for what was going to be the last time.

Now:

Shaggy Rogers had left ten years ago in order to go and live with his Uncle Nathaniel. And that was exactly where he lived even to this day. And he thought that he was bothering his uncle about it, but he wasn't sure. Today he was doing what he did every Tuesday night; he was watching Velma on the television. He wasn't alone, he was sitting in the living room, in a vibrating recliner, with his favorite snacks in front of him. Every Tuesday, he would order from his favorite pizza place, though lately he realized that he would no sooner call the pizza place than there would be a knock at his door. It was starting to happen nearly at the same time. His Uncle and his dog were always there every week. It was about the only time that his uncle didn't look at him with disappointment.

Uncle Nat pointed towards the screen. "She's an old friend of your's, right?"

Shaggy nodded slowly. "Yep. Like, Velma and me go way back. We graduated together!"

Nathaniel nodded slowly. "And now she's a big time TV star, huh? I bet that would be really cool. That's a thing you kids are saying right, cool?"

Shaggy shook his head. "Naw, we say things like groovy."

Nathaniel rubbed the top of his head. "Are you sure? That sounds like things that we all said back in my day."

Shaggy shook his head. His uncle was so far behind the times that it wasn't even funny. Shaggy was happy with the way that his life was going. It was everything that he really wanted out of life. And the best part was that they only time that he ever got scared was watching Velma. In fact, he would call her after every episode. This time it was a marathon. He was going to be able to see her over and over and over. It was like old times without having to run around like a crazy person. He didn't want to run for his life. He always hated that part of the job the most.

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you kids hang out with Mama Cass Elliot once?"

Shaggy laughed and poked his dog softly. "You get that? He had to go and bring up Cass Elliot?"

Scooby laughed. "I ruv her!"

"Oh, I did too," Shaggy said with a grin, Abut let's be clear, Uncle, like, she died waaaay before I was born."

His uncle titled his head as he looked at his free loading nephew. "I was sure that you had mentioned her once."

"I probably had. I always thought that she was groovy. But that's like asking me if I had met Don Knotts or Don Adams!" Shaggy rolled with laughter, but his uncle didn't seem to be happy with him.

"You shouldn't make fun of your family." His uncle stood and stretched. "Norville," he never called him by his preferred name. Shaggy was named for Nathaniel's father and Uncle Nat felt that it was an insult to his father to not use the name, "I think I'm gonna turn in for the night. Don't stay up too late." He wasn't sure why he said that, he knew that his nephew wasn't going to do anything tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or the day after that. It didn't matter.

Shaggy nodded as he watched Velma on the screen. Scooby may have been happy with him, but it was pretty clear that something was going to have to change soon. Granted, Shaggy didn't know how soon. And he wasn't at sure why he was constantly thinking about the final adventure with his friends.

Then:

The gang stood around and looked directly at the captured Demon. "So like, who is it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Velma asked with a big grin.

"If it was, I wouldn't be asking, man." Shaggy was easily annoyed with Velma over things like this. Just because something was obvious to her didn't mean that it was obvious to the rest of them. Granted, he knew something that she didn't, and she would've been highly annoyed to realize that.

"Well, my first clue was that the person left only nine fingerprints on the printing plate, not ten."

"So they only touched it with nine fingers?" Fred asked confused.

"Well, I was thinking that a bit myself. However, it was Daphne who found the last clue we needed when she found the suit."

Daphne nodded. "It made sense and it matched up with the print. There was a fake finger in one of the gloves. Which told us something important about our culprit, they only had nine fingers!"

"But, like, we haven't met anyone with just nine fingers," Shaggy said as he scratched his head.

"Oh yes we have," Velma said.

Fred raised an eyebrow. "You're going to have to clue the rest of us in, Velmster, I don't think I can name anyone that we saw with just nine fingers."

Velma reached down and grabbed the top of the mask before she gave it a hard grab, revealing a young man barely older than they were. "Harry West?" The gang said in unison.

"Like wait just one minute! Harry has all of his fingers!" Shaggy said waving his hands in the air.

Velma shook her head. "I thought so at first as well. But when he was talking with us, he kept twisting the ring on that finger. And that's when I noticed that his entire finger moved. I just didn't say anything to the rest of you all because I thought it would've been rude to point it out. But once I saw the nine fingers, I felt pretty good about who was the Demon."

"One thing I don't understand," Daphne said, "is why did he even bother doing all of this in the first place?"

"That's easy," Fred said. "He was using this to print fake money. And if we all were around, we might've heard it. Printing money isn't quiet and he needed to keep people away."

They called the police and normally they would give their account and drive away in the Mystery Machine. But this time, it was different. This time, none of them seemed to be in a big hurry to get into the Mystery Machine. They stayed and talked for hours before they sadly got into the van.

Even then, they didn't go home. They went to an all night pizza joint. They went out and got some ice cream. They parked along the river and looked out at the stars. In short, they did everything they could to prolong this. Velma was leaving in the morning. Shaggy would be catching a bus the day after that. This was all coming to an end, it was pretty clear to all of them, even Velma who was trying to deny that anything was changing. This group was coming to an end. But an end did come. Eventually, Velma was dropped off at the airport. She said her goodbyes to the group and promised to see them in the summer. But strangely, she told Shaggy that anytime she needed help, she would come to see him. It was odd but comforting.

Now:

Shaggy stretched out his legs as he stood up. He was ready for his pizza snack. His uncle had long since gone to bed and his faithful companion was taking his fourth nap of the day. Scooby needed his energy to stay strong for their pizza. Shaggy figured it was about time to order it and he reached for the phone, but something made him pause. That something was a light that was in the driveway. He knew that the pizza guys were able to meet him almost as soon as he made the call, but they had never shown up before he made the call. These guys were getting good!

He didn't want to wake Scooby, the smell of the pizza was going to be enough to do that, and he knew that no matter what happened, Scooby always ended up getting the lion's share of the food. It happened every single time.

He walked to the door, but trepidation started to sit in. Something about the night seemed off. Thunder crackled in the air and he was sure that whatever waited on the other end of the door was nothing good. But then again, he did think that the mailman was part of a spy ring trying to steal his uncle's house, a childhood of chasing men dressed as ghosts had that effect on a man. But this was something else, something deeper. Shaggy sighed as a flash of lightning lit up the night sky.

There was a knock on the door that sent chills up his spine. He nearly ran deeper into the mansion, but he remembered that this was just the pizza guy, just like it was every Tuesday. There was nothing to be afraid of when it came to the pizza guy. In fact, like, that was the best guy in the entire world. He reached for the doorknob and froze. He hadn't actually ordered a pizza this time.

But that didn't matter, they had been matching him. Why not beat him? Why not? He was just being silly, right? He closed his eyes and sighed again. He reached down and grabbed the handle. With a sharp turn, he pulled the door open just as another bolt of lightning lit up the sky, momentarily blinding him. When his eyes adjusted, he was both happy and sad to see what was standing in front of him. Then he was mortified.

He was sad because it wasn't the pizza guy. That meant that he did not have magic pizza powers and had to actually place the order like normal. It was a bit of a let down, but he would never admit it.

He was happy because while it wasn't the pizza guy, it was someone he knew very well, Velma Dinkley. He hadn't seen his friend in a very long time. She went through college and became a big time TV star. And he was still loafing around his uncle's house. Some things didn't seem to change.

He was mortified because of the state that she was in. She had never been the one in the group to go out and get sun normally, that was Daphne and Fred, but she was paler than usual. If Velma wouldn't have mocked him for it, he would say that she had seen a ghost. But the thing that really drew his attention was the fact that her familiar orange sweater had splattering of blood on it. Whatever was going on, it was a big deal.

He didn't really have time to fully understand what she meant when she said, "We need help," which should've sent off a lot of warning bells for him, but instead, all he did was catch her as she fell forward