Scooby Doo Files: SCBDO093237
The Ghost Professor
A van was running along on a busy street. Normally, vehicles have stickers on them. Some red, some blue, some have stickers with famous brand names like 'Nike' or 'Michellin'. Some have their organization names printed like 'DHL' or 'UN-FAO'. Some have stickers which meant nothing, probably even for the driver. For an instance, the words 'Desert thunder' printed on a normal 90's car's doors. The driver lives in N.Y. and there's no desert within 8000 miles and the vehicle had never even put a single tire on a desert area. Besides, a normal car like that would even get stuck itself in the muddy road in a rainy day in Ohio. So, how can it be a desert-thunder? Who knows? Ask the owner!
This particular van also seemed the same. The van was an 60's type one and nobody knew whether that kind of old vehicles were even allowed to put into the streets. The main attractive part of the van was, there was a sticker on its side doors which said, 'Mystery Machine'.
Duh! Mystery machine! Who wants a stupid sticker like that on a van? A three-wheeler with a sticker which says '4WD' is moronic; but a van with a sticker named 'Mystery Machine' is just… just…. you know…. Dumb.
And the other main attractive part about the vehicle was the way it was being driven. On the narrow road which was being separated into two by white double lines, the vehicles in the left side was coming this direction and the vehicles in the right side was going that direction. And the so-called 'Mystery Machine' was going on the middle of the double lines, just like a tramp-car running on the streets of London! And it was coming towards this direction too.
And the driver seemed to be suffering from Parkinson or some hand-shaking disease. Though it ran on the double lines, it seemed like it had reserved the whole road for itself; because it was driven in the zigzag way and it was probably going thrice the distance it was supposed to be going, driving like that! The other car drivers were wise enough to keep a hundred-meters' distance from the van and the driver of the van was driving coolly as he preferred; switching on double signals, wipers, gearing noisily and with the radio on, loudly. Who the heck was driving it?
"Could somebody give me a pill or something? I feel seasick," the blond-haired young man said to the others. He was one of the five people who were in the van. The handsome dude was sitting on the backseat. He was wearing a blue pants and a white t-shit.
"Gluurp! Browack! Bloob! Grawp!" The slender guy who was sitting on the front passenger's seat was already puking into the road. He had bushy brown hair and a thin body which contained not much of flesh. He was wearing a green t-shirt and a pair of brown pants. He raised his head up and talked to the guy who had just talked. "I'm sorry, Fred. I gulped all of them. But believe me, they aren't enough for this kind of situation…" he said and suddenly… "Blurrrp… Graaalp!"
"Eww! Shaggy, would you mind not letting the fragrance of vomit come into the vehicle?" asked the young light-brown haired pretty girl, who wore a fully-purple skirt and a blouse, with a red scarf covering her neck in style. "You might destroy my new lavender-perfume…"
"You are talking nonsense… Bluurgp…Gralllp!"
"Fred, can't you take the wheel from him again?" the other girl said. She was a dark-brown haired girl who was a little bit short from the others. She had thick-rimmed large-size spectacles on and she wore an orange blouse and a red short skirt.
"Roh! Roh! I'lll drieeeve. Thi…s is ro ruch run!" said the driver and began to continue singing with the radio. "Twinkle, twinkle leeetle rar. Whaat rou're doooeeeing up theeeere? Oh… looook at the treeees soooo high… like ruh peanut in the…."
What on earth was he singing? And what was with his voice? He was talking like he was talking with his mouthful. Wait a minute! He was talking with his mouthful! He was munching a… what? He was almost mouthful and again, he put a whole hamburger inside his mouth! He was driving, singing and swallowing hamburgers at the same time? And what a mouth he had! I mean literally! He had a big mouth and a big snout! He looked like a dog! Wait a minute! He was a dog! What? A dog driving a van! I think I'm loosing my mind! I need to drink a glass of water!
"At last! We are there…" Fred said, signing with tremendous relief. "Stop the car…"
No… the dog seemed to be driving vehicle without stopping it. What? The dog's still driving? I need another glass of water!
"Scooby! Stop the car!"
Oh no! The dog's still driving. Maybe it is not my imagination. Maybe it is a human in a dog-costume. Yes. That has to be it. And the guy inside the costume is called Scooby.
"We just passed the place. What are you doing? Just stop the car!"
"Araaare rou talking to meeeee?"
"Of course you idiot? Just stop the car!"
"What rar?"
"The one you are driving!"
"Rut I'm driveeeng a van!"
"Okay…" Fred said rolling his eyes. "Stop the van, then…"
"Rokay…"
The wipers were switched off. And the headlights were turned on. The double-signals were turned off and again, the wipers were back switched on again.
"What are you doing, Scooby? I told you to stop the ca… van!"
"I've gooot one reeeny weeeny leetle roblom. Hawoo do rou stoup it?"
"Use your foot. Use the right foot! No no! that's not your right foot. That's the left one and you are pressing the clutch!"
"What reeees the crutch?"
"Use your right foot and hit the brakes! Noooo! That's the accelerator! The brakes THE BRAKES….!"
"Oooohh the rother pedal… why deeed not tell me it waaas the roother pedal?"
WHAM! CLASH! SLANG!
"Okay Scooby… no more driving for you," said Shaggy.
"You ruined my makeup! Now I have to do it all over it again!" said Daphne, looking at her face with a small mirror on her hand.
"Aaa leettle preeevate time pleeeese…" Scooby said and ran near a wall and raised his hind leg and began to water the weeds near the wall and sighed with relief.
Hey! Humans don't pee like that, even if he's wearing a doggy costume. This cannot be happening to me! I'm seeing hallucinations! This time, I'm going to drink a hot coffee. After that, I won't be seeing talking dogs…
Oh no! The dog's still talking! Hey, maybe what if he's a genetic-engineered dog who can drive, sing and talk? Yes. It has to be it. This is the 21st century and anything's possible these days. From now on, I would have to accept that talking-dog thing.
"Oh… what have you done to my sweetheart?" Fred said, touching the damaged front side of the van. "Are you hurt, baby?" he began to pat on the body of the van.
"Soooory, Fred…" said Scooby- the amazing genetic-engineered and DNA-modified-talking dog.
"It's alright, Scooby…" Fred said. "We'll fix it on the way back as soon as we get over with this thing with Mr. Carter."
"Rou are fooorgeeving me just like thaaat?"
"Yes. But you are not getting Scooby biscuits for three months…"
"Ree moooonths! Roh no!"
"Did I said three? I meant four."
"Rour months without Scooooooby snacks? Roh no! Roh no! Roh noooo!"
"Poor Scooby…." Shaggy said, patting on the dog's head.
"I meant for you too…" Fred said to Shaggy.
"ME! Why me?"
"You were the one who insisted on giving the wheel to Scooby. No Scooby snacks for you too, Shaggy."
"Oh Scooby! We are really Dooooooomed!" Shaggy cried, holding Scooby.
"Shall we go and see Mr. Carter then?" asked Velma, ignoring the dramatic sequence.
"Hello How do you do? Thank you for coming. I'm Mr. Carter and I'm so pleased to meet you…" Mr. Carter greeted them in front of the hall where his exhibition was held. He was a tall man who wore spectacles. He was the main organizer of the Oklahoma Science Exhibition 2006. "You know why I asked for your help?"
"No. You just phoned us and asked us to come here and here we are," said Velma.
"This is Dr. Johnson," Carter said, showing the man standing next to him. He had white hair and beard and was wearing a white coat and he positively was a scientist of some kind…"
"Um… doctor, nice to meet you!" Shaggy shook hands with Dr. Johnson and kept talking. "Pardon me… but I think I have some sore throat…" he said, opening his mouth widely in front of the man.
"But I'm…"
Shaggy put his tongue out, showing his little tongue, which hang in there like a boxing bag. By the way he had opened his mouth the Doctor could see further down than the little tongue.
"Shaggy, he's not a medical doctor," said Velma.
"Ho… can he… be… o… doc….if not med…?" Shaggy asked, still keeping his mouth opened.
"He's a person with a highest kind of a degree, shaggy," said Fred. "In…"
"Physics…" Dr. Johnson helped him.
"So… he… can't help… wit… me…. So-trot?"
"No."
"Oh…" Shaggy said and backed away, closing his mouth and quietly slipped towards Scooby and said. "Scooby, I don't understand it. Why can't he cure my sore throat?"
"Beats ree…" Scooby said, thinking deeply, like he was a solving a math sum.
"This is why I called you," Carter began to talk. "Three decades ago, a renowned scientist called Prof. Donaldson had been carrying on his invention with….."
"Why is he talking French?" asked Shaggy.
"Beats ree…" said Scooby.
"But he passed away three months ago. Then, carrying on his work, Dr. Johnson had invented a new scientific instrument which can …"
"I think it is Spanish. Or is it Mexican?"
"Beats ree…"
"… he has placed his invention in this science fair. This is the only way which he can go further with his invention. Many rich people come here to see this fair and if somebody gets interested in his work and would have liked to fund his activities, he can carry on. But the problem is, somebody had sworn to destroy his invention if he places his invention in this fair…"
"And who's that?"
"The ghost of Prof. Donaldson." Mr. Carter said, talking in law voice.
"Scooby, I didn't quite hear what he had just said. What did he say?"
"Re raid there's ra ghost…" said Scooby.
"Oh… it's a ghost… It's a what? A G-H-O-S-T?" suddenly, shaggy jumped into Scooby's hands and Scooby began to keep holding Shaggy, with shattering teeth and shaking knees.
"Don't worry," said Velma. "By the experience we had, we are saying that there aren't any ghosts…"
"Believe me…" said Dr. Johnson. "They exist. I saw the ghost of my teacher with my own eyes. I have proof…"
After ten minutes, all of them were watching a videotape. In the video, they saw Dr. Johnson working with his invention, late at night, at where the exhibition is supposed to be held. Suddenly, a voice could be heard and with a flash, a whitish figure appeared in front of the table where Dr. Johnson was working on! The man looked old and he had a crooked smile on his face! Dr. Johnson was shocked with the sudden appearance of his teacher and the ghost-teacher began to scream at his student.
"I'm telling you for the third time, don't bring the invention to the exhibition. It's my invention and I'm not letting you get all the credit for that!"
Dr. Johnson at the video seemed speechless. He looked like he was scared to the bone.
"Don't even dream of disobeying me. Or I'm going to destroy your whole invention and eventually, I'll destroy you too…! Ha! Ha! Ha!" he laughed a cruel laugh and there was a sudden flash on the screen and when the screen came back to normal mode, the ghost was gone.
"Hmm…. Interesting…" said Velma, thinking. "Isn't it, Scooby?"
But Scooby was not there.
"Scooby?"
"Ri'm rin rere…" Scooby and his beloved friend, Shaggy came out from under a nearby table.
"What are you doing in there?" asked Daphne.
"Um… we went to do some investigation…" said Shaggy.
"Investigation on what?"
"Um… on footprints…"
"Yeah… on rinvestigation on rootprints…." Scooby said, agreeing.
"Oh Shaggy, ghosts don't wriggle under tables. There aren't any footprints under tables…" said Velma.
"Oh reah. That ris why wee rar coming out…" Scooby said with a stupid smile.
"With all of that danger, didn't you insure your invention?" asked Fred from Dr, Johnson.
"I did. I had to. I can't loose my precious invention. If the ghost destroys my invention and the documents related, I'm completely finished! I can't let that happen. I can't just sit and wait until my years' work is destroyed with a matter of seconds…"
"I agree with you," said Velma.
"… Many of the people in here believe in ghosts. Many of our other people who are introducing exhibits also had heard about this story and even they are now afraid to continue their work. Now my whole exhibition is at stake…" said Mr. Carter. "That's why I had to interfere with this problem."
"Oh, that's bad," said Daphne. "I'm sure that we can solve this problem."
"Can I have that tape?" Velma asked.
"Oh sure…" Mr. Carter said and ejected it from the VCR machine and gave it to her.
"We have a wretched van to repair…." said Fred, looking at his watch. "And the sun's almost ready to set."
"Dr. Carter, I'm afraid that we have to leave. But I promise you that we'll come again tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby would stay here," Daphne turned to leave.
"Oh no, I'm coming with you too," said Velma. "I want to see this tape again… I'm sure that Shaggy and Scooby will stay here."
"NO WAY!" both of them protested at once.
"I can't spend the night in a hall with a ghost in here," said Shaggy.
"Re reither" said Scooby.
"Oh… what a pity…" said Mr. Carter. "I even readied you dinner too…"
"Did someone say dinner?" asked Shaggy, exited. "Count me in!"
"Yeah. Re too!"
"I'll even sleep with Dracula inside his coffin, for a scrumptious dinner…" Shaggy said, smacking his lips, thinking about the roasted chickens he's going to have within a couple of minutes.
"I don't think that agreeing to stay here alone was such a good idea…" Shaggy said, walking towards the hall which had scientific objects, while he was rubbing his stuffed tummy, satisfyingly. The whole hole was in whole darkness and they were the only people alive, there, if the dead spirits aren't considered. They were supposed to patrol there and solve the ghost problem. But it seemed a little bit hard for them, since they even fear the word, 'ghost'.
Scooby ran and switched on the main switch and all the tube-lights in the hall began to blink and they became on.
"Good idea, Scooby," Shaggy said, admiring his marvelous idea. "Now we don't have to be feared about ghosts. They don't come out in the lit areas. At least, we have that as an assurance…"
Lucky Scooby and Shaggy…
"Heeeey Shageee, loooook at theeees!" Scooby said excitedly looking at a machine. It looked like a portable tape recording machine. It was named, 'AnimalLanguageTranslator'. Shaggy went there and read the leaflet next to it. It said…
The "A.L.T.Device" is one of the most modern machines which can identify 10 of the human languages and translate them into a 50 animal languages. The machine's technology is based on the researches the scientists have done for about six years, on the animal communication methods. The machine can only identify a limited number of short phrases and the unrecognizable words would still be heard as the original ones. The scientists are doing researches to overcome the…
"How do you work with this thing?" Shaggy asked and Scooby took the machine, which was attached to a belt and he wore the belt around his naked waist. He turned the switch 'Mic', on and a small red button blinked. Then he adjusted the 'Translate' rotating button and when it was rotated, the animal's name appeared on the small LCD screen, like Elephant, monkey, gorilla etc.
"How do you say 'hello' in duck-language?" Shaggy asked.
"Quack!" Scooby was saying hello. But since the digital indicator was turned into option- 'duck', not his words, but a duck's voice came out.
"Say 'I'm so happy to see you, Shaggy'…"
"Quack so quaaack see queck Shaggy"
"How do you say 'how are you' in doggish-language?"
"Booooow!"
"This is sooooocooool, I'll soon freeze!" Shaggy said excitedly.
Suddenly, the lights went off.
"Ha...! Ha…!" shaggy heard a scary voice. "I'm going to kill you and dance a Hula dance on your dead body…!"
"Scooby… two things. First… I'm scared of darkness. The other one… Since you are still wearing that thing, what kind of an animal talks English?"
Shaggy's whitish pair of eyes blinked in the darkness. Then there was Scooby's eyes too. And there were Velma's eyes. Hey… wait a minute! Velma's not here. Then whose pair of eyes was that?
"I'm the ghost of Prof. Donaldson…" the scary voice said.
"AAAARGH! SCOOBY! HELP ME!" Shaggy screamed and jumped onto the hands of Scooby.
Suddenly, the lights came back once again.
"Shaggy! Mew… light's Meeew!" Scooby said in cat-voice, standing near the main switch. He had just switched it back on.
Wait a minute! If Scooby's near the power switch, then who was holding on Shaggy?
Shaggy was still in Scooby's arms, who had just happened not to be Scooby! He was a whitish pale-looking male who had a spooky voice. Guess who is… Yes! You are right. Shaggy was in the arms of a thing which the Oxford dictionary would show like this- "(ghost)n.Thespiritofadeadperson,especiallyonebelievedtoappearinbodilylikenesstolivingpersonsortohauntformerhabitats."
"HOLY GODZILLA!" Shaggy screamed his head off and his hair stood like the Liberty statue's spikes on the crown.
"Boo!" The ghost said and Shaggy jumped out of its hands in an instant and ran towards Scooby. When he turned back, the ghost was gone. But after ten seconds, it was standing in a different place, laughing wickedly at him. This time, he really looked ghost-like with the look of transparency, which the ghosts seemed to be inherited from the nature.
"Oh… Scooby, this is probably our doomsday. Any last requests on your final seconds to live?" he asked while the ghost was coming towards them, laughing wickedly.
"Quack! Bow! Mew! Mountaaaain of Neigh! haaambooorgers…" Scooby said, smacking his lips, forgetting all about the terror related to the situation.
"Well, Scooby, that would've been my first pick too," Shaggy said too, smacking his lips, imitating Scooby.
After that, they seemed to have forgotten all about the ghost, who was a couple of yards away from them and began to dream about juicy hamburgers with extra onion and cheese.
What a two geeky weirdoes! Food can really make a revolution in those two mind-boggling boggarts' minds!
Suddenly, the front doors of the hall slammed to its sides and there stood Velma, Fred and Daphne, with a whole gang of police officers.
"Hi Velma!" Shaggy said. "I'm glad you came to see our moment of death. I don't think that the police officers would work in this situation. You should've bought the 'GhostBusters'.
"Sorry Shaggy, the Ghost Busters seemed to have left to Hollywood, to make 'GhostBustersIII'.Those guys are busy, working in the studios of 'Columbia Pictures'. But don't worry. The police officers would do the rest of the job," she said and turned towards the police officers. "Officers, bust that ghost!"
The ghost seemed to become troubled. Feeling extremely uneasy, as the officers were chasing it, it tried to run away. But the officers were faster. They jumped at the ghost from different directions and… THUMP! All of them had bumped their heads. The ghost ran through the bodies of policemen! And it was again heading towards Shaggy and Scooby!
"Don't worry, it's just a hologram!" Velma said and covered a secret overhead projector fixed to the wall, with a cardboard file. Suddenly the ghost lost half of its body. The one sided ghost still glided towards them.
"AAAARGH!" "QUAAAAACK" both of them screamed and turning back, ran away, scared to the bone with the half-ghost.
They turned back while running. It was still chasing. They ran faster. They turned back. It was still coming. They run more faster. They turned back. It had disappeared!
Before they could understand what had happened, they bumped into the ghost, who had just appeared from a corner and both of them fell on top of the ghost!
While the three of them were trying to regain consciousness, Velma, Daphne and Fred came there with the police officers.
"Let's see who's the real ghost…" Fred said and grabbed from his hair. Suddenly, a mask which covered the whole body came out.
It was no one other than Dr. Johnson, the owner of the same scientific object which was in danger.
"You!" Shaggy said.
"Mew!" Scooby also exclaimed angrily.
"But how can this happen?" Shaggy asked, still sitting on the doctor's body. "I once accidentally jumped into him and he was holding me and now I'm sitting on him. But previously, it ran through the police officers!"
"Yes. You had previously met the original person. The other one was just a hologram- a 3D object made in the mid air, based on some holographic projectors, three in the least. The man was scanning his body with the 3D scanner and had been projecting it on the hall, using the projectors…"
"Oh my God, How do you know it was him?" asked Mr. Carter, who had just appeared from nowhere.
"I checked that videotape you have given, again and again. When it's being played in slow-motion, I realized that the Dr. Johnson in the video seemed to become shaken, a teeny weeny time earlier than the appearance of the ghost. That's when I realized that it was a computerized high-class editing done by an expert. Then, the whole thing became clear. After that, we went to the police and here we are…"
"Why did you do it?" Fred asked from the Doctor.
"Probably because of insurance," said Velma. "Isn't it, doctor?"
The doctor said nothing.
Velma continued her talk. "I think that Dr. Johnson hadn't done a thing on forwarding his master's experiment. Maybe he just found some documents which the real Prof. Donaldson had created, but hadn't finished. He must have taken his chance. He didn't want the object really. But then he realized that by making up this ghost story, he can get the insurance money and if the invention is successful enough, he can get the prize money too. It's a win-win situation. But about the things I had just said, I have no clear idea. We'd just have to know about them from Dr. Johnson, himself…"
"I have the right to remain silent," Dr. Johnson said, angrily.
"Oh, you have the right to remain inside a cell for a long time and you have the right to remain there, counting bars too!" Daphne said, adding some humor to the situation.
All the others laughed.
"If we had wandered around, searching for the hologram, we would've missed the real fraud," said one of the police officers. "It was lucky that Scooby and Shaggy had managed to get him down. Unless, he would've escaped right under our noses!"
"And off the record- I disgust you teenagers and that stupid dog of yours!" Dr. Johnson said angrily.
"As always, you are the expert, Velma," Shaggy said. "And as always, Scooby, you are the hero!"
Scooby got so exited that he screamed his famous words-
"SCOOBY-DOOBY-QUACK! MEW! BOW WOW! HONK! MEW! GRRR! NEIGH! DOO!"
-The End-