Disclaimer: I don't own Scooby Doo
Summary: 'Mystery Incorporated could take being unwanted. Take it with a smile on their face and the next mystery on their minds. But... being unneeded? That just wouldn't do.'
Warnings:... I can't really think of any. possibly cheesy? maybe a little O.O.C?
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It wasn't new for Mystery Incorporated to be unwanted.
It wasn't there fault, really. You give birth to and raise kids in 'the most haunted town on earth', their gonna want to know more. Or, in their case, want to know so much they end up solving the mysteries.
So they didn't fit in. So what? That'd never stopped them before. But the fear of their families finding out was to great for them to bare, so they did what any group of kids with a dog did when they wanted to be themselves as far away from there hometown as possible: they bought a van, repainted it into the glory of the present day Mystery Machine, and took off on a never ending mystery solving road trip. It was perfect, they went anywhere they wanted, took online classes, slept wherever they wanted, ate wherever they wanted, etc, and they didn't have to worry about the parents finding out about there (badly kept) secret mystery solving tendencies. They got away with it for months, a year (almost two) even, and would have kept getting away with it had it not been for the media and their never ending supply of nosy reporters.
At first, it was easy to avoid. Nobody in Crystal Cove watched the world news, and no one else would believe that a bunch of kids and a dog saved the day. But then... blurry pictures and fuzzy videos of them popped up online, their arrests and tactics to solving mysteries, the surprisingly well thought out explanations, anything and everything to do with them. Simply put, they became the next two minute craze.
And even then, they weren't found out. They'd never considered the possibility of the children driving around the country having any sort of connection to the 'mysterious mystery solvers.' It could've been a good for more months, even, before they finally figured it out.
But then they got a Tv episode.
It was horribly inaccurate. Daphne was the nerd and Velma was replaced with some lanky guy named 'Valos'. Scooby and Shaggy were homeless, starved, obsessed fans that followed them around everywhere, and Fred "didn't do ascots". They flew around the world in a gold jet and had multiple gang relations and a fallback bunker tucked away somewhere. All in all, it was pretty funny. Not at the time, of course, but later on they all had a good laugh over it.
Then the phone call came. Blurry videos and fuzzy pictures didn't make the connection, but the horribly inaccurate episode did. The ensuing argument was rather messy, and it let both sides hurt and confused. 'How could they do this? Why did they do this? Was that why they left in the first place? To be some free-lance Sherlock Holmes? Did they really think they could keep doing this forever? They better get back to Crystal Cove as fast as possible! They were in sooo much trouble when they arrived!' It hurt, it hurt a lot. The reason they'd left in the first place was to find someone who wanted them and their unwelcome ways, and the life of the road was a better home than Crystal Cove would ever be. But 'family' came first, so 'home' they went, dragging there tires and stopping as much as possible to say goodbye to the people they'd probably never see again and solve as many mysteries as possible.
They moved back, and the rest was history.
Unwanted, they could deal with. Unneeded? That was undealable.
Ever since they'd become Mystery Incorporated, since they started solving as many mysteries as they could get their hands on, they'd been needed. Unwanted, but needed. From the people they'd met and helped all over the world (it was a very busy road trip) to the familiar people of Crystal Cove who tried to chase them off but begrudgingly allowed them to help when it was necessary, they'd been needed. They didn't want the police or there neighbors to solve the mystery, they needed Mystery Incorporated. And the need helped with the silent wound of being unwanted.
But... now they weren't needed.
The curse was gone, the town fixed, and everyone was happy. They were wanted, but not needed. It wasn't supposed to work like that.
And they could live with that. A world in which they weren't needed. But a world without any mysteries... why where they still there? Yes, their parents had changed for the better, and life would be good in Crystal Cove if they stayed, but they wouldn't be happy, not unless they had some masked goons to chase down. Mystery Incorporated without a mystery to solve was like a trap without a trip line, or pancakes without orange juice and sausage on top, or designer boots without a matching purse, or a book missing a chapter, or a bone with no place to bury it.
Later on, as they drove across the country to the newest mystery, it occurred to them that they may never return to Crystal Cove, not without a mystery to occupy their time.
And they were okay with that. They'd take being needed and needing mysteries to being wanted and wanting to solve them from afar.
That's all folks! Review please! No flames!