Daphne awoke with a slight crick in her neck so grabbed a pillow and lay down next to Shaggy. She stared at the ceiling and wished Velma was here, she was sure that with Shaggy's help they could get things sorted out, well not here just right now as that would be a bit creepy. She wondered what Velma would think if she could see them now, after all they'd just slept together not slept together. She knew exactly what it would look like to Velma or anyone else walking in on them, they'd jump to conclusions, just like I did with Velma and Fred. What would Fred think if he saw them now, certainly not lay into Shaggy the way she had with Velma… just don't go there. But admitting to herself that Fred wouldn't have done anything, aside from nudging Shaggy in the ribs and make some dumb sporting themed innuendo, made her realise that this was all one-sided. She finally grasped what was going on; she'd been told that Fred was the only one for her so often that she couldn't think of anyone else. It wasn't fair on her or Fred, but especially on her. Time to get out there and see what's on the Y-chromosome menu where Y is for yummy, she looked at Shaggy speaking of yummy he looks so adorable when he's asleep. Jeepers where did that all come from?
Shaggy awoke to find Daphne looking at him, she briefly cast her eyes downward in a shy almost bashful gesture before returning to meet his "Morning Shag sleep well?" her voice was soft and gentle.
"Like yeah but more importantly what about you?"
"Oh I slept like a log; I've only just woken up."
"Man that's good, things are usually better after a good night's sleep."
"True, thanks for staying over; it would have been a horrible night otherwise."
"No worries Daph. So Scoob you ready for another day of cooking and eating amongst the flowers?"
"Reah," said Scooby.
"How about you Daph?"
Whilst Shaggy had an industrial strength digestive system she didn't "Nope, you go ahead Shag, I still feel a bit icky from all that hot chocolate. I'll join you later; let me know about Velma if you see her."
"Will do, like I think some toast will help you feel better."
They sat in the kitchen to have breakfast, Daphne turned on the radio to get the local weather report and the news. The headline news item wasn't concerned with the flower festival or the attempted abduction of Velma, earlier that morning a glowing meteorite had landed in the grounds of the Country Club.
"Jinkies," whispered Velma as she lay in bed listening to the same news bulletin, she rolled over in bed.
"Freddie, wake up and listen to this, Freddie? Oh."
She closed her eyes remembering that phones worked better when you called the person you wanted to speak to first, there again Dinkleys worked better when they'd had some coffee inside them why can't life be more like Star Trek? She reached out for the speed-dial button but the phone rang first.
Shaggy and Scooby arrived at the Country Club; Shaggy got out of his car and sucked in a lungful of air.
"Ahhhh all the smell of the country without the smelly bits," he said as he and Scooby began to walk to the festival area. He stopped and turned around at the sound of a car pulling up.
"Shaggy, give Daphne a call then you and Scooby follow us, we've got a case," called Fred as he got out of his car, Velma was just parking up in hers.
"What case?"
"One of the gardeners has just been attacked by a giant plant creature that grew out of the meteorite crater from this morning," said Velma as she walked towards him.
"Oh, one of those cases," he said wretchedly, Scooby cringed he pulled out his cell phone "Like Daph, time to get your game-face on."
The effect of yesterday was obvious when Daphne arrived, they stood around in the car-park not sure what to do, a difficult silence hung in the air. Velma sat back against her car with her arms folded; Daphne leant against her car not making eye contact with either Velma or Fred. Fred and Shaggy scratched their heads wondering how to proceed. To everyone's surprise Velma spoke first.
"Daphne, I know you are upset about what happened, but… I'm not sure where we can go as friends just right now, let's just take one step at a time, we'll get further that way. But we are still a team, we've been through rough times before, we will get through this one."
Daphne, not Daph, that subtle change in tone of how Velma addressed her cut Daphne to the core, deeper than she could ever have imagined. Velma stood up and held out her hand to Daphne "We have a case to solve, let's go do what we do best together, together." Daphne took her hand and smiled slightly, the bridge building had begun.
"But first we have to wait," said Fred.
"Who are we waiting for?" asked Shaggy.
"My parents, ah here they are," Velma waved at her parents as they walked towards the gang.
"Why?" asked Daphne.
"Well they're the closest Coolsville has got to astrobiologists so they've offered to advise us on this case," said Velma. Velma's parents arrived and greeting were said. Immediately Velma noticed that something was amiss, her parents seemed unusually excited about something.
"Well, we know a lot of what you kids do from Velma, but…" said Harold.
"Secretly we have always wondered what it would be like to actually be on one of you investigations," smiled Marilyn, Velma looked mortified by the prospect.
"Yes to join you at the coalface of detecting as it were, sifting for clues and the like," said Harold.
"You want to join us?" said Velma, both of her parents nodded eagerly "If you really want to but, emmm but what I tell you is like watching football highlights, you just hear the good stuff, not the hours of standing around doing nothing."
"But this way we get to spend more time with you dear, will with you and your bo…"
Yes mother, fine," interrupted Velma who continued in a gentler tone "but it isn't as easy or as fun as it sounds."
"As we're now on the case we've just got to go and get something from our car," with that Velma's parent's walked off, the gang all looked at Velma who just shrugged but she couldn't shake the premonition that something bad was about to happen. While they were waiting a couple of coaches pulled up and disgorged their passengers, cars began to arrive. The new arrival at the flower festival was already bringing in the crowds.
"Co-eee Velma dear!" Marilyn's voice cut through the hubbub of the crowd. Like the Red Sea before Moses the crowd parted to reveal Velma's parents, both wearing deerstalker hats and carrying large magnifying glasses. Velma didn't need to look to know they had also brought a deerstalker for her and that it would be slightly too big, so that despite all evidence to the contrary there would be room for her to grow into it. She held her head in her hands and wished for the world to end as her parents walked towards them looking at the ground through their magnifying glasses.
Velma dutifully donned her deerstalker which immediately slipped down to rest on her glasses.
"Here let me fix that for you," said Daphne and before Velma could react Daphne had secured the hat in her hair using a couple of hair grips and slides.
"Thanks Daph," replied Velma, Daphne felt her insides unwind like a spring, Shaggy was right, Velma wasn't one to hold grudges or stay mad for long. There was still a lot of work to do to repair their friendship, but now it was her turn, Velma had made two steps; the way was now clear for her to respond, but how...?
"Alright gang time to do out thing," said Fred, he proceeded to take them to where the meteor had landed.
The crater was to be honest a bit of a disappointment for all concerned. Smaller than a child's paddling pool it sulked near some singed shrubbery in a generally unvisited part of the Country Club. Right next to the crater was a hole in the ground where a shrub had once been.
"More of a splat than a crater I was expecting something more impressive," said Daphne while Velma and her father measured its width.
"Yeah like Scooby's done better when digging for fun," said Shaggy.
"So how big was this meteorite then?" asked Velma rolling up the tape, she rolled her eyes when she saw her father take a slide-rule out of his pocket.
"Size of a grapefruit by all accounts, it's been taken off to the Coolsville Technology College for safekeeping," said Fred.
"Man how big does it have to be before you get anything impressive?" said Shaggy
Harold looked up from his slide-rule "Let me put it like this, a three foot diameter meteor made of iron would have left a crater wider than a football pitch. This was probably a stony meteorite."
"You still use a slide rule?" said Daphne.
"Quicker than a calculator, plus it stops me letting the computer do the thinking; dangerous thing that, letting other people do your thinking for you."
"Yet you let mother pick all your clothes for you," whispered Velma to no-one in particular.
If the crater was a let-down what was leading away from it was not. There were clear marks on the ground where something had been dragged, or dragged itself along away from the crater towards the closest wooded area. A set of long undulating indentations each a few feet long, several inches deep with a semi-circular profile all heading in the same direction.
"Look at these marks on the ground," said Daphne. Harold and Marilyn each put one arm behind their back then bent over to look at the ground through their magnifying glasses.
"Hmmmm interesting," they said in unison, Velma just sighed.
"Something heavy was here, but these are no animal tracks," said Fred.
"A clue?" said Harold.
"'Fraid so," said Shaggy.
"Does that mean we can say jonkies now dear?" asked Marilyn looking up at her daughter.
"If you really have to, and it's jinkies," muttered Velma through a forced smile.
A few minutes later the Secretary of Country Club arrived with a gardener, Shaggy and Daphne nodded in recognition to the gardener, Wolfie Smith, as the Secretary shook hands with Fred.
"Mr Jones we are most reassured by the speed of your response to our request for help from you and your colleagues. This is Mr Smith our head gardener who was the unfortunate victim in this affair."
"So Mr Smith can you describe what you saw of the creature?" said the Secretary.
"It was dawn, not the best time to see things in detail…" began Wolfie.
"Why's that?" asked Shaggy quietly.
"The eye can't deal with the difference in contrast between the light sky and the dark land," said Velma.
"The most I can say is that is that it was big, fast, it just knocked me out of the way oh and there were a lot of tentacles," said Wolfie wriggling his fingers.
"Tentacles, tentacles, tentacles, it's always tentacles, why can't it be something nice like…" complained Shaggy.
"Ringuini," Scooby suggested.
"Yeah like linguini or some other carbonara based life-form, man that would be one alien we'd love to eat I man meet," said Shaggy dancing with excitement at the thought of meeting such a creature.
"Shaggy's been touched by his noodly appendage," said Velma quietly as she moved behind Fred to keep out of the way.
"He'll be touched by the end of my boot if he steps on my toe again," said Fred "Mr Smith did it make any nose?"
"Yeah, oh call me Wolfe by the way, yeah like wood creaking with a low rumbling sound in the background."
"As you can see Mr Jones not the sort of guest we would want around the grounds of this establishment," said the Secretary "there are rumours that some sort of radiation has caused the plant to mutate as one is indeed missing."
At that Velma and her parents made the same sceptical face and sound, Shaggy had to bite his lip to stop himself laughing out-loud at the sight.
"Can you show us where it went Wolfie?" said Daphne.
"Yeah sure it's this way, like Shaggy man your shoes untied." Shaggy bent down to retie his shoe while Wolfie guided the rest of them away towards the trees, the Secretary caught Velma's eye just as she was leaving so she stayed behind to find out what he wanted. Velma's mother also hung back with them.
"It is a pleasure to meet you again Miss Dinkley I trust you have recovered from your recent ordeal?" Shaggy had finished fixing his laces but hung around so he could walk back with Velma.
"Yes thank you Mr Secretary, it would take a lot more than that to stop me investigating this."
"That is just the kind of attitude we expect here, I look forward to receiving your application for full membership," said the Secretary shaking her hand "I will not impede your investigations further so I bid you good hunting."
"Thank you Mr Secretary, Fred will keep you updated on our progress," said Velma. With that she and Shaggy hurried off to catch-up with the others while Velma's mother remained behind to speak with the Secretary. The wind carried a snippet of the conversation to Shaggy and Velma.
"…as one is a member and the other a candidate there would indeed be a reduction in cost for hosting both the wedding and reception; did you have a date in mind Mrs Dinkley?"
Velma cringed and flushed a deep red, she gave a furtive look at Shaggy who appeared not to have heard what had been said or at least not grasped the significance. She wondered if you could actually die from embarrassment.
Thankfully they made it to the gang without any more revelations drifting in their direction. Wolfie showed the gang where the creature had entered the trees. The damaged undergrowth testament to the weight of whatever it was had passed that way. About twenty feet into the trees the tracks stopped in front of an area of disturbed ground about five feet wide, Velma and Wolfie examined the soil while Shaggy stood nervously in Daphne's way preventing her from getting close to the area. Fred, Harold and Marilyn looked around but the tracks did not go further than disturbed ground.
"Shaggy why won't you get out of my way?" whispered Daphne none too pleased at his unexplained behaviour.
"Like my Shaggy senses are tingling…"
"Unconsolidated, looks like someone has been digging here," said Velma, she slowly made her way to the middle of the disturbed ground.
"Deep B-layer soil," muttered Wolfie kneeling near the edge down and running his fingers through the earth.
Velma screamed, Wolfie cried out as the ground they were on began to give way. Wolfie was close enough to the edge to fling himself onto solid ground. Fred leapt across and plucked Velma from disappearing into the collapsing soil.
"Make that very unconsolidated ground," said Velma holding onto Fred "right let's try that again."
They all carefully approached the sunken area of ground. Fred kept hold of Velma while Harold had picked up a branch and stood ready to defend his daughter from dangers unknown. The area had sunk several feet and looked more broken-up and blocky than before. Shaggy prodded it with a stick but nothing moved. Daphne stood behind him and looked over, her hands on his shoulders ready to pull him out of the way but was soon distracted by the feeling of his lean muscles moving under her hand.
"Wait here I'm going to get a spade," said Wolfie heading off for the nearest tool shed.
Wolfie soon returned and set to work digging a few test-holes to see what was going on, carefully examining the soil he dug up.
"Looks like a collapsed badger set," he said leaning on his shovel "I guess something dug up the top which weakened the structure enough so that when we walked in it the whole thing caved-in."
"I agree," said Marilyn "however let us assume that the creature in question does exist, what does this mean?" she pointed to the patch of ground.
"Like it's like gone to ground big time," said Shaggy.
"Shaggy means the creature came here and decided to bury itself to take shelter, find food or some other activity, as it was sunrise we could consider the possibility that it is nocturnal in some way," translated Velma for her mother.
"Not necessary dear I've been reading up on the language of the streets so I can work with you homeboys. You get me blood? Phat, safe and above all I believe 'tis well wicked innit!" Marilyn paused and walked over to Velma "Are you feeling well dear you seem to have gone a little pale? Don't worry dear I just happened to turn on to one of those music channels to try out some rope music and thought I'd try out some of the language."
"Rap music mother its rap music." said Velma is a strained voice.
"Right gang lets form a line and walk through the trees to look for more clues," said Fred trying to get the focus back on the case.
"I need to mark this hole out so no-one falls in," said Wolfie.
"Shouldn't we be splitting up?" said Harold.
"Don't encourage him dad, that'll happen soon enough," said Velma relieved that they were doing something else.
For several hours they searched the grounds, every so often they found tantalising clues, tracks, areas of disturbed ground, disturbed and flattened shrubbery. It was near midday and they were examining a good set of tracks left in some soft ground. It was turning out to be a pleasant morning and Velma in particular was enjoying herself studying the tracks. Marilyn stopped examining the ground and looked at her daughter, totally absorbed in what she was doing.
"This is just like what Velma used to do when she was small, hunting for clues to her birthday or Christmas presents. Do you remember Harold?" said Marilyn happily.
"Yes she'd toddle about the house with her toy magnify glass and shout 'jikies' every time she found something interesting."
"Remember when she found a big bag of candy, every item got a jikies though each jikies was quieter and more muffled than the last due to the amount of candy in her mouth."
"Ahh then she'd have us sit down while she drew up on her easel all the clues she'd found and explained why it meant she was getting a particular toy she liked."
"Unless it was at Easter time when you could tell by her chocolate covered her face that she'd already been 'examining the evidence.'"
"I think I uploaded a photograph of that to my phone. In fact I uploaded all the photographs we have of her as a child to my cloud storage account last week, who wants to see?"
"Where's Velma gone? I'd just die if my parents did this to me," whispered Daphne to Shaggy as they headed over to look at the photographs, he pointed to Fred. An extra set of legs emerged from the back of his sweater, above which was a Velma-shaped bump. Hidden under Fred's sweater Velma put her arms round his waist and vowed to redouble her efforts at de-skilling her parents, and wiping their memories.
There was one area in which Harold and Marilyn memories were appreciated by the gang, even Velma, they had remembered to pack some food. A picnic in a shaded glade was a welcome change to their usual meal-breaks. They had even remembered to pack Velma's favourite sandwiches, mercifully without the crusts removed. Velma pulled her deerstalker down over her ears as her parents regaled them with the epic tale of a five year old Velma on her first real 'case' that of her disappearing toy rabbit or 'Looking for Mr Boing-Boing' as they titled it.
The picnic was the high-point of the day, even for Velma, as after that the clues came thin and slow. Aside from the notion that whatever it was seemed to be heading in the direction of the main greenhouses there was no evidence of what it was they were looking for. It appeared that their quarry had, possible literally, gone to ground. They did split up to look for clues, Harold with Marilyn; Fred with Velma, Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne. Aside from the elder Dinkley's who seemed to have a limitless supply of optimism and enthusiasm the rest of the gang could feel that they had found pretty much all that they would find but knew that they couldn't leave just yet.
Scooby walked behind Daphne and Shaggy, it was safer as the pair kept drifting closer together then when they noticed that they were right next to each other they would drift apart only to begin the process again. Things certainly were getting rather tactile; there was a lot of helping over logs, twigs and leaves going on. Occasionally they caught sight of the others and each time they shared a shake of the head, still they kept on looking. Much to Scooby's relief Shaggy and Daphne stopped drifting apart so Scooby could walk alongside them. As the light began to fade they headed for the rendezvous point to meet up with the rest of the gang.
"Don't be downhearted," said Harold "what we didn't find is as important as what we found. If we visit the areas again we will notice any change."
"I need to give them an update on where we've got to," said Fred indicating in the direction of the Country Club.
"OK Freddie, we'll have one quick look near the trees then we're done," said Velma. While he set off the rest scouted around the edge of the trees. Part way through this Velma got a message on her phone, she quickly read it.
"Right gang I think we're done for the night," she said putting her torch away.
"That's a good idea Velma, we're getting tired. We need an early night if we're going to join you tomorrow," said Harold.
"Sure you don't want to keep looking?" whispered Shaggy to Velma.
"Don't tempt me," she replied quietly then spoke in her normal voice "Good idea, so we'll see you two tomorrow." Velma hugged her parents and whispered something in her mother's ear. Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne then said their goodnights to Velma's parents.
"Like Velma what do you want… Velma?" Shaggy started to speak but Velma wasn't with them anymore. They looked around to see her disappearing into the woods where they had just been searching.
"Where's she off to?" said Daphne "Jeepers Shag you'd better follow her and see if she's safe especially with that invisible space tentacle plant creature whatever it is on the loose."
"Like anything for you Daph, I'm on it."
"While Scooby stays here to protect me," Daphne leant over and gave Shaggy a peck on the cheek.
"Knew they'd be a catch," muttered Shaggy as he walked off.