Chapter 7: The capture

The figure standing behind Velma emerged from the dark shadows, revealing it to be the Man Crab.

"Jinkies!" Velma exclaimed as she quickly moved out of the way as the Man Crab swing its claw at her, narrowingly missing it.

"It's the Man Crab!" Fred exclaimed as Janice and Janet gasped.

The Man Crab responded by growling at the intruders that had freed its prisoners.

"Let's get out of here!" Velma suggested.

"Not a bad idea!" Janet agreed as they took off running.

As the Man Crab gives chase, it looked up and saw Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne on the bike-o-copter.

"Zoinks!" Shaggy said as the Man Crab forgets about the others and prepares to leap towards them.

"We'd better dive!" Daphne said as they stopped pedalling, causing them to fall towards the ground while the Man Crab jumps into the air and misses them.

"Now let's get out of here!" Shaggy says.

"Right rith rou!" Scooby nodded as he pulls a lever, activating the rear-facing propeller that allows the bike-o-copter to move forward in addition to flying up and down.

As the Man Crab gives chase to the bike-o-copter, Fred and the three girls approached the wooden stairway.

"This stairway looks like a fast way back to the beach." Janice said.

"Yeah." Velma said. "Except that we can't leave Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne behind!"

"We've got to attract the Man Crab's attention!" Fred says before eying some loose boards nearby and thought of something.

Meanwhile, the Man Crab was making more attempts to jump at Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne on the bike-o-copter with no success.

Just as it landed on the ground, a wooden board was suddenly thrown at it.

Growling, the Man Crab turned towards where the wooden board had came from.

"Hey lobster!" Fred shouted as Velma, Janet and Janice each threw a wooden board towards the monster. "Come pick on someone your own size!"

Forgetting about Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne, who took the chance to escape and located the exit of the caves, the Man Crab charged towards Fred and the girls.

"Let's move out of here!" Velma shouted as they started climbing the wooden stairway with Janet and Janice leading the way and Fred and Velma close behind.

The Man Crab followed the four up the stairway, trying to grab them as it followed them up the stairs.

At the cave entrance, Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne landed the bike-o-copter on the ground.

"We made it out, guys!" Daphne said. "But Fred and the girls are still in the cave!"

"Like, I got a feeling they're heading out through the stairway Fred discovered earlier." Shaggy said, remembering that Fred and the girls were standing near the stairway when he last saw them. "And I think I know where it leads to."

His mind then flashes through the time when he witnessed the Man Crab kidnapping Janice and Daphne.

SHAGGY'S FLASH VISION

Standing near the locker tent, Shaggy watched himself and the gang chasing the Man Crab, who had grabbed Janice.

He watched the Man Crab jumping into the tent before pausing his flash vision.

Walking towards where Daphne was later grabbed by the monster, Shaggy looked around the area before noticing a particular area where the sand is slightly lower than the surrounding area.

Armed with a shovel, he then started digging the area in question before hitting what sounded like metal, steel perhaps.

After clearing the area in question, Shaggy found himself looking down at a trap door.

Rewinding the footage of himself digging the hole, Shaggy then resumed playing his flash vision, where he and the gang have approached the main entrance of the tent.

Walking towards where himself and the gang are standing at, Shaggy noted that from the angle they were standing at, there was no way for them to see the Man Crab getting out in the entrance on the other side and dragging Janice down the trap door, hence the reason why they didn't spot any disturbances in the wooden floor of the tent when Fred torn the tent entrance open.

END OF FLASH VISION

"Where?" Daphne asked.

"Like, right by the rear entrance to the locker tent, Daph." Shaggy replied. "Which is the spot where the Man Crab grabbed you. Come on!"

With that remark, the trio started pedalling hard as the bike-o-copter started to take off again.

Back in the cave, Fred and the girls were racing up the stairway with the Man Crab in close pursuit.

"Hurry, Freddie!" Velma shouted. "It's still behind us!"

"I know." Fred said. "The stairway is about to give in in any minute!"

Eventually, the four reached the ladder near the ceiling, and Janet was quick to climb it, followed closely by Janice, Velma and Fred.

At the ceiling, the three girls then started pushing hard on the steel door to get it to open while Fred looks down and saw the Man Crab climbing the fourth last stairs.

"Hurry!" Fred shouted. "He's gaining on us!"

Above the steel door, Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne wasted no time digging at where Shaggy managed to pinpoint the location of the steel trapdoor.

A few seconds later, they managed to clear the sand and worked to pull the trapdoor open.

"You guys are just in time!" Janet said as they managed to get the door open and climb out.

"We sure are." Daphne nodded as Janice, Velma and Fred climbed out.

Without wasting another second, as soon as Fred climbed out, he quickly slammed the trapdoor shut before the Man Crab can climb out and grab them.

Being shut in by the trapdoor, the Man Crab pounded on the steel door frequently.

During this time, Shaggy and Scooby worked quick to disassemble the bike-o-copter and used the rods to produce a large cage, which they then build over the steel trapdoor.

"Wait for it..." Shaggy says as they listened to the pounding.

Eventually, the trapdoor opened, and the monster emerged from the caves, only to find itself trapped in the cage.

The Man Crab grabbed the bars and shook them, hoping that they will snap. However, the shaking did little to help free it.

"Nice try, you lobster." Shaggy said. "You wouldn't happen to know that Scoob and I managed to weld the parts of the cage together in five seconds, did you?"

The monster growled as the reality of it being trapping in the cage sunk in.

"Nice work, guys!" Janet smiled. "You've caught the monster!"

"Wait until the sheriff sees this." Fred added.

"Yeah." Shaggy said. "Like, his face sure is going to be redder than the Man Crab's skin!"

Daphne and Scooby both chuckled at his remark as Janet and Janice went to fetch the adults.

One more chapter to go! Stay tuned, and please read and review!