Chapter 2: At the car rental, the drive, a text message and a video
After obtaining their luggage, the gang followed George's lead as they made their way to the car rentals.
"Dad, I thought Mr. Wayne has arranged for a driver to pick you up at the airport." Daphne said.
"I told Mr. Wayne that we can manage our own transportation, dear." George said. "Besides, his chauffeur Mr. Pennyworth is unfortunately busy with the arrangement of the business meeting, not that I mind renting a car for us to get to our hotel."
"Not to mention that we can have the opportunity to drive around ourselves, Daph." Fred added.
"I suppose you're right, Freddie." Daphne nodded thoughtfully.
Soon, the sextet were at the car rental office, though it has become apparent that their car renting is going to take longer than they expected.
"What do you mean my rental order has been misplaced?" George asked the clerk a few minutes later.
"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Blake." The clerk replied. "But our computer network has been down all afternoon and we're working hard to restore service. I'm sure your rental order will come up soon."
"I certainly hope you're right." George said as he turned to the kids. "Because I've got a business conference to attend in a few hours."
"Not to worry, Mr. Blake." The clerk reassured George. "I'm sure we'll be able to find your rental order soon."
Sure enough, the rental order under George's name was found as the computer network was restored another few minutes later, though as it turns out, the car delegated to George has already been taken.
"I suppose with a day like this, when the computer network is down, anything like this can happen." George surmised.
"Indeed, sir." The clerk nodded. "I tell you what: There's a Ford E-Series van that has not been allocated to a rental order that also fits the vehicle class in your rental order, Mr. Blake."
"Ah, if that's the only vehicle available, then I'll take it." George smiled.
As George proceeded with the transaction with the clerk, the rest of the gang looked around in boredom.
Shaggy and Scooby happened to be looking out the large window overseeing the major highway and the metro bridge leading to the airport, and as they spotted a metro train pulling into the airport, they both swallowed.
The train in question was covered with graffiti completely, and the train looked completely worn out with rust in some places, with the train itself looking like a New York City R40/A subway train.
"Like, that subway train looks kinda sketchy, Scoob." Shaggy said as he pointed at the graffiti-covered subway train.
"Reah." Scooby nodded in agreement. "Rat least Coolsville Metro trains don't rook like that."
It was then that Velma came to them.
"Alright you two, time to go." She said to them. "Mr. Blake's got the car keys."
"Oh, alright." Shaggy nodded. "Let's go, Scoob."
Soon, the sextet were driving down the highway as they made their way to downtown Gotham.
"Hmmm..." George remarked as he drove the van. "Not bad for a van, huh?"
"Indeed, Mr. Blake." Velma agreed. "Quite smooth, actually."
"And that's considering the fact that the highway's pretty much littered with cracks and potholes." Daphne said from the back row as she looked out of the window.
They soon drove by a road sign that says, "Welcome to Gotham".
However, with the graffiti sprayed on the sign, the sign was like "H*ll comes to Gotham".
Seeing the sign, Shaggy looked on blankly.
"That sign doesn't exactly look welcoming." He said, pointing at the sign in question as the city comes into view.
"I'm sure the sign's just in need of getting replaced, Shag." Fred reassured him. "It did look worn out to me."
"The spray painted message looks more recent to me, though." Daphne said.
"Relax, guys." Velma said. "We're here to enjoy the trip. It's not like the city has nothing to offer tourists."
Shaggy and Scooby both nodded thoughtfully, though there were shadows forming under their eyes.
George's given directions indicated that once they're on the Robert Kahn Memorial Highway, they are to exit the highway at the interchange with the Lewis Wilson Memorial Parkway, where they then travel east before exiting at Robert Lowery Boulevard.
From Robert Lowery Boulevard, they are to continue on in the northeast direction before reaching Gary Merrill Road, whereupon they then made their right turn onto Olan Soule Avenue before reaching the Wayne Crown Hotel, located just across the street from the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises.
"Here we are, kids." George announced as they pulled up at the front entrance. "The Wayne Crown Hotel."
"Wow." Daphne remarked as they got off the van with a chauffeur approaching the van to drive it to a parking spot in the hotel's parking garage. "The hotel sure looks grand, Dad."
"Indeed it is." George nodded. "I attended the opening together with Mr. Wayne and Mr. Crowne when the hotel opened in 2004, and it's really marvelous."
"I'll bet the restaurant serves good food, eh, Mr. Blake?" Shaggy asked as he rubbed his stomach.
"Reah, reah." Scooby nodded in agreement as he licked his lips.
"Oh, yes I'm sure." George smiled at the boys as they made their way into the hotel. "You'll be able to experience the excellent crusine the restaurant has to offer later this evening once I'm finished preparing for my meeting with Mr. Wayne."
"And during this time, Mr. Blake, can we drive around the city to look around?" Fred asked. "I've brought my driver's license with me."
George sighed before turning to the chauffeur, who shrugged.
"If you folks don't need me to drive your van down to your parking spot, then that's fine." The chauffeur said.
"In that case, I don't see anything wrong with that, Fred." George sighed after the chauffeur left. "Just be careful with the van, and remember about what I told you kids on staying safe."
"We will, Mr. Blake." Velma said. "Don't worry."
Shortly after checking into their hotel rooms, the sextet met at the van where George handed the keys to Fred.
"Remember what I told you kids about driving safely." George said to Fred and Shaggy, who are the only two in the gang to have their driver's licenses. "Last thing we want is for us to end up paying the car rental for damaging one of their rentals."
"Don't worry, Dad." Daphne reassured him. "Freddie's one of the most careful drivers. He learns fast on driving, taking him only two weeks of practice before he got his driver's license."
"Unlike Shaggy who ended up doing driving practice for more than a month before he got his this past June." Velma added.
"Either way, we can handle the van well, Mr. Blake." Fred said to George confidently. "Trust me."
"Alright, then." George nodded before seeing Bruce Wayne exiting the Wayne Enterprises building across the street. "Ah, Bruce!"
"George!" Bruce smiled as he spotted George and the kids and walked towards the sextet, where the two businessmen shared a handshake.
"How are you, old chum?" George asked.
"Well, the usual." Bruce nodded. "I hope the two-to-three hour flight from Coolsville wasn't bad."
"It wasn't." George said before turning to Daphne and the gang and added, "By the way, Bruce, I'll like to introduce you my daughter Daphne Blake and her friends. You probably remember Daphne."
"Indeed I do." Bruce nodded as Daphne smiled. "You've grown a lot since the last time I saw you, Daphne."
"Time sure flies." Daphne smiled as she looked up at Bruce. "How are you, Mr. Wayne?"
"Ah, everything's alright." Bruce smiled as George turned to the rest of the gang.
"And allow me to introduce you to Daphne's close friends." George said before gesturing towards Fred and added, "This is Frederick 'Fred' Jones, who's the son of Coolsville District Attorney Jefferson 'Skip' Jones."
"A pleasure, Mr. Wayne." Fred said as he shook Bruce's offered hand.
"Likewise, Mr. Jones." Bruce nodded.
Turning to Velma, George continued, "This is Velma Dinkley, who aspires to work at NASA some day."
"Ah, I see." Bruce said before shaking Velma's hand as he added, "I'm sure you'll be finding the aerospace engineering field a great adventure, Miss Dinkley."
"I sure do, Mr. Wayne." Velma smiled.
"And finally, this is Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers and his family dog Scooby-Doo." George said as he gestures towards Shaggy and Scooby, who smiled. "Norville is the son of Deputy Chief Sam Rogers of the Coolsville Police Department."
"Ah." Bruce nodded as he shook Shaggy's hand. "You kids must be the Mystery Inc. group I've read a lot about."
"Like, a pleasure to be of your acquaintance, Mr. Wayne." Shaggy said during the handshake.
"Likewise, Mr. Rogers." Bruce nodded.
"Rowdy do!" Scooby barked when came his turn to shake Bruce's hand, much to the multi-millionaire's surprise.
"Well, then." Bruce said after the handshake. "Anyways, Mr. Blake and I have some important business to discuss about, kids."
"Oh yes, they were on their way out for a drive around the city." George said as he turned to Bruce. "But anyways, remember what I said about being careful, and make sure you all return here before 7."
"And I've got my phone with me in case you need to call us, Dad." Daphne added as she showed her cell phone.
"Good." George nodded and smiled. "Have fun, kids."
"Sure thing, Mr. Blake." Fred nodded before turning to the gang and added, "Come along, gang."
As the kids head off, Bruce turned to George.
"I wonder if the kids are going to spend a lot of time visiting the museums." George remarked as he walked with Bruce across the street to the Wayne Enterprises building.
"Hopefully, they will stay out of the places that will be subjected to a raid later tonight." Bruce remarked as they pushed through the door.
In the brief second where he pushed the door open, a shadow reflection in the shape of a bat on the glass door can be seen by Bruce.
Meanwhile, the gang were driving around Gotham City, passing through some landmarks as they went.
Fred was behind the driver's seat with Daphne on the front passenger seat.
In the middle row sat Velma on her own while Shaggy and Scooby were seated at the back row.
"Smooth driving, Freddie." Velma remarked as they stopped at a red light.
"Yeah." Daphne nodded. "All the driving practices sure paid off."
Shaggy was looking towards the front before he saw something and said, "Like, I hope that the state of New Jersey allows teenagers with an out-of-state driver's license to drive."
"Why's that, Shag?" Fred asked.
"A police checkpoint up ahead at twelve o'clock!" Shaggy pointed forward.
Everyone followed Shaggy's gaze, and sure enough, they saw two police officers on the left by a stopped cruiser, which had its light flashing.
It was also that moment that Fred realized that he was on the left turn lane.
"Jinkies." Velma said as she noticed another car stopped in front of the police cruiser in question. "I hope those police officers were only speaking to the driver they've caught running the red light."
"I hope so too." Fred nodded as the green left turn signal lit up, and he followed the traffic in front of them in making a left turn.
The two police officers didn't make a move as the gang drove by, instead focusing on writing up a traffic ticket.
Watching the two police officers doing their business, the gang sighed in relief as Fred drove on.
"I guess that was a close one." Fred remarked.
"Indeed, Freddie." Daphne nodded. However, before she could continue, they heard a phone buzzing.
Sighing, Daphne took out her cell phone before adding, "Sounds like Dad's sending me a text or calling me."
Sliding her slider phone, unlocking it in the process, Daphne scrolled through her phone, whereupon her eyebrows arched when she saw no notifications.
"That wasn't me." She said after checking for messages and her call history and saw that the latest time her father had called or texted her was yesterday.
"Could it be either one of you guys, gang?" Fred asked.
"Uh-uh." Shaggy, Scooby and Velma all shook their heads after checking their own phones, with the former two noting that their phones were still off from the plane ride. "Not us."
"It wasn't me either." Fred said.
The buzz then came again, and Scooby's ears perked up as he tries to pinpoint the source of the sound.
"Rit's coming from re glove compartment." Scooby said, pointing to the glovebox in front of Daphne.
Daphne frowned as she opened the glovebox and they all arched their eyebrows when she pulled out another cell phone.
"Perhaps whoever rented this van last left his or her phone in here?" Daphne offered as she showed the phone to the others.
It was then that the phone vibrated again and the screen lit up.
Taking a look, Daphne saw that there was a text message being sent to the phone she's holding.
"At the Riverfront." She read the text message. "Cargo picked up?"
At the reading of the text message, the gang all shared a look with each other.
That early evening, over in Coolsville, Deputy Chief Sam Rogers was ready to head home and call it a day from work.
It came after long day of meetings with the other bureau chiefs, and Sam was quite worn out from the day.
As he prepared to go through he usual end-of-day routine, Lieutenant Krebs bursted into his office after a quick knock on the door.
"Sir, we've got a serious situation." Krebs said as he entered his office.
"What's up?" Sam asked when he saw the urgent look on Krebs' face.
"Take a look at this." Krebs quickly said as he lead Sam to his computer, where he has loaded up a news web page that includes a video on it.
Sam stood there wordlessly as he motioned Krebs to play the video, and what followed was shock and disbelief as they watched the video together.
In the video were four police officers, who in the beginning of the video were seen confronting a man.
Some insults can be heard, followed by pushing and shoving on the part of the officers when the man pulled out what appeared to be a knife.
However, the man dropped the "knife" in the course of the pushing and shoving, and the "knife" revealed itself to be actually a comb.
In spite of that, the officers were quick to subdue the man and started beating him with their batons.
When the man resisted, one of the officers started using a Taser on the man.
After getting Tasered, the man collapsed onto the floor while the two other officers continued to use their batons on them.
The man continued to resist before eventually getting handcuffed, during which Sam noticed the fourth officer kicking the man.
His blood begin to boil in anger as he saw the Coolsville Police Department patches and the badges the four officers wore on their uniforms, the same moment he heard one of the officers yelling a racist slur towards the downed man, who they handcuffed and drag onto the parked cruiser.
After the video ended, Sam turned to Kerbs.
"When was this first reported?" He asked.
"Just around seven thirty, sir." Krebs said before moving to the other news web pages he had opened. "And as you can see, the other news agencies have reported the video being surfaced in the past two hours."
Sam leaned down to look. He can see that besides the Coolsville Gazette, the video's contents were also reported on CNN, CBS, New York Times, Washington Post, the Daily Planet, the Gotham Globe and the Los Angeles Times.
In fact, on the LA Times website, the headline accompanying the video and breaking news story read:
"Shades of the Rodney King Beating: Four Coolsville police officers caught on tape viciously beating unarmed cold case murder suspect"
"This isn't going to end well." Sam said after reading the Los Angeles Times headline accompanying the video.
"No indeed, sir." Krebs nodded. "I'm going to contact the other bureau chiefs and divisional commanders and inform them of this news. No doubt this is going to catch fire before long."
Sam nodded as he stepped back into his office, where he pulled out his cell phone and called home.
"Hello, Wendy." He said when his wife answered. "I'm afraid I won't be home for supper tonight."
There was a pause before he added, "Go onto the Coolsville Gazette web page, and you'll understand."
Another pause went by before he added, "Oh, and tell Meghan that she is to stay home tonight. Under no circumstances is she allowed to go out, especially to downtown."
There was a longer pause before Sam said, "Alright. Talk to you later."
After hanging up his cell phone, he then reached for his desk phone.
When the party on the other end answered, Sam barked, "Get me Captain Joanne Spears. Tell her its very urgent."
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