"Get them!" screamed the elderly female voice. The rest of the goons ran along the shore towards the cabin "Should have done that earlier" she muttered to herself as she followed after them at a more sedate pace.
"Oh jeepers this is it" said Daphne and the gang ran to the cabin as fast as they could. Their route was shorter but was across country and the two groups arrive at about the same time and before the gang could react a crowd had surrounded the cabin. A group of people went inside but soon reappeared.
"They're gone! All their stuffs still here but we can't find them"
Silently the gang cheered, Shaggy looked down at the cabin, something was missing but he wasn't sure what.
"Well?" said a figure slowly walking up the path from the shore. They pulled back their hood off to reveal the figure of Verity Elms.
"They're not here" said one of the figures
"Don't just stand around find them!" yelled Verity
The goons ran off to the various places that Suki and Velma had visited on their stay. The gang ran after them, the seemed to run over most of the island but there was no sign of Velma and Suki, the gang were now as worried and the goons were desperate, finally when night had fallen they all headed back to the cabin.
"So?" said Verity
"No, we can't see them anywhere"
"I'm not surprised with all the noise you were making. Just be quiet and let me think"
While the goons milled around planning their next move the gang stopped to catch their breath; Shaggy looked up into the clear moonless sky, the soft milky smear of the galactic plane stretched across the night sky.There were more stars than he had ever seen. Velma would love this, he was sure if she had a choice about how to spend her last moments on Earth, staring at such a sight would be one of them, probably cuddled up with Suki in that hammock... the hammock! That what was odd about the cabin, the hammock was missing.
"Like gang" Shaggy spoke softly, the gang huddled round to listen
"What is it Shag?" said Fred
"Like I don't know exactly where Velma is but I can make a guess. She's in that hammock somewhere out of the way, up a tree or someplace like that where there's a clear view of the sky."
"So?"
"If we find Velma we can pretty much guarantee she'll then be in danger so if we lead these people on a wild goose chase..." Fred and Daphne nodded
"They'll be too busy running after us to actually look for Velma" said Daphne
"And Scooby can make sure that Velma is nowhere near any place we use to stage a distraction" said Fred
"Reah" said Scooby
"I can throw my voice" said Shaggy
"And I can make puppets of them and knock some heads together" said Daphne
"Operation Snowstorm is go" said Fred
"Where the hell could she be?" growled one of the men getting up and pacing around
"She should be ours by now. I don't think she's alone, someone's helping her" said Verity
"Listen" said another holding their hand up for silence
"Jinkies Suki, I think here would be a great place for a late-night picnic" a distant voice came from their right.
"That's her, let's go"
The goons ran in the direction of the voices only to find nobody
"Well I think over here would be better Velma" came a voice further to their right
"That way"
The goons dashed towards the sound only to find themselves tumbling down a slope, which somehow had been covered with grease, towards a pit full of mousetraps.
"Number 15a, gets 'em every time" whispered Fred as he and Shaggy crept away.
"It was a trap. That settles it someone is helping them" said one of the group as they returned to the cabin, occasionally slipping over.
"I don't care, kill them as well! We're running out of time, split up and find them!" screamed Verity. At that three goons went near the shore, three went towards the fossil site and two of them went along a path midway between the others. A short while later the last three followed the pair who had taken the middle path. After a brief discussion the gang also split up and set off after the groups. Fred followed the group near the shore, Shaggy and Scooby followed the two in the middle and Daphne went after the remaining group.
Fred ran ahead as fast as he could, he knew the trap he wanted, no needed to make. He'd dreamt this up when he was in Elementary School but hadn't had the chance to make it, until now. Fred worked like a thing possessed to assemble the mother of all traps. All his year of experience in traps were poured into this. After all this was a trap not to catch a villain but to save a friend. He had just finished putting the finishing touches on the trap when he say the three goon coming along the path. He quickly too up a suitable vantage point and waited. In silence he watched as the goons walked through, activated the trap... and carried on walking.
Fred looked crestfallen as the goons walked away "but, but it had multiple redundancy, fail safes and it was precision built" he whispered.
"We took the wrong path let's head back" he heard them say. He watched them walk back through his trap, when they were in the middle one of them sneezed.
"Bless y-" the goon was cut-off as the trap spring to life.
A spring platform shot up catapulting them into the sky, each was then caught by a spoon shaped piece of wood the size of a small bath which had been catapulted up by a separate platform. They landed on a ramp which guided them individually down to a platform. Each hung on for dear life as the wooden vessel they were in was spun round at high speed. Finally a sprung branch was used to throw them out across the lake when they skipped over the water to land on the opposite shore.
"Glad I remembered the hair-trigger" said Fred as he walked away.
The second set of three were making steady progress along their path, listening out for Velma and Suki.
"Should be at the fossil site soon, they've been there before" said the one in the lead
"Yeah during the day, I don't think they'll be there now" said the one in the middle, just then there was an usual noise from behind him "Watch your step back there. You OK?" there was nobody there anymore. He heart a similar noise from in front of him, he looked around, he was all alone "Hey what's going on?" he looked up to see a purple shape dropping towards him out of the trees. The next thing he saw was stars before it all went black.
Two of the goons were looking through the woods, hoping that the others had flushed out their quarry. They were looking out for signs that the girls had come this way when they noticed a piece of paper on the ground
"What's this?" said one up the paper.
"Its a flyer for the 'Look-Alike Missing Persons Service'"
"There's another" said the first; they walked forward and picked up another piece of paper. They both gathered round to read "'try our finding service for free, today only'"
"Greetings sirs, I see you've found our promotional literature"
"Reah romotional riterature"
The two goons looked up and saw two people in sharp business suits standing before them. Above them was a sign which said 'Look-Alike Missing Persons Service.'
"This way gentleman and be seated" Shaggy and Scooby guided the pair to a pair of chairs in front of a mirror.
"Remember rotally ree roday" said Scooby
"So what is this all about?" said one of the goons as they sat down.
"Re-enactment!" said Shaggy holding onto their shoulders and putting his head between theirs "The best way to find missing people is to jog the memories of others. You do that by staging a re-enactment using a look-a-like."
"Yeah, that makes sense, I've seen that done on TV" said the other goon
"Well now, who are you looking for today?"
"These two" said the first handing Shaggy a picture of Velma and Suki, obviously taken not long after their arrival.
"I see. So, what we have to do is this..." and with that Shaggy and Scooby set about making the goons appear to look like Velma and Suki.
"Hey, its them" said the goons when the pair were finally finished.
"Perfect, now get out there and jog people's memories, remember make it real, lives are at stake!" said Shaggy dramatically.
"Reah reak" said Scooby licking his lips.
"So go, go, go!" and with that Shaggy and Scooby ushered the goons down along the path. A few minutes later they were rewarded with the sound of a loud and above all angry confrontation.
"It's working but I can't keep this up forever" said Shaggy after they had regrouped at the cabin.
"Me neither Shag" said Fred
"You said it" said Daphne
"So what do we do?" said Velma
"The cave, if we can get them back in there then we can block them in again"
"If they don't?" said Daphne
"Then we can block the cave, even if they get hold of Velma, they can't get to that alter" said Fred.
"They're not going to be fooled by thrown voices anymore" said Shaggy.
"I think its puppet time" said Daphne
"Rello Raggy re're Relma and Ruki" said Scooby as he worked the life-sized puppets of Velma and Suki which Daphne had just finished..
"And I'm on a roll. I've got the perfect plan" said Fred as they all huddled round to listen.
"We've found them!" said Goon running up the cabin where Verity was sitting on a bench waiting for news.
"More tricks?"
"No, we've seen them. They've just gone into the cave. It looks like they are going to spend the rest of the night there."
"Are you sure you've seen them?" said Verity getting up
"Yep, I've seen them myself; me and the others saw them walk in"
"Let's go then"
The goons all assembled at the cave entrance, determined to no let their quarry get away from them this time. Suddenly Suki almost tumbled out of the entrance.
"Please, please help I was making a little film with a friend, we were messing around with an altar that we found. Now she's chained to it, I can't free her! Please help!"
The goons grinned at each other; finally things were going their way. Two of them reached inside their coat pockets, Suki backed away in panic.
"No, no stay away you've got guns!" said Suki and she turned and ran for the waterline. The two goons opened fired with silenced weapons hitting Suki multiple times in the back. She fell face down in the water and floated away. Satisfied they went down into the cave with Verity leading the way.
They rushed to the room where they came across Velma just as Suki described.. She was secured to the altar; a thick cloth had been tied round her mouth and another around her eyes. She was making an angry humming noise but wasn't moving. Without a even a nod to ceremony Verity took out an ornate dagger, cut Velma's clothes open, raised the knife above her head then plunged it into Velma's chest as hard as she could. It struck with a hollow 'thunk' and embedded itself in an inch or so and stuck fast. The sound of Velma's angry humming increased in volume.
"What the? It's a dummy!" snarled Verity
She yanked on the knife, it came away taking the chest panel with it to reveal the source of the humming.
"Hornets!" cried the goons
They ran down the tunnel towards the entrance only to see it blocked by another landslide.
After that the gang kept an active watch over the two possible exits finally the sky began to lighten. They returned to the remains of their camp-site and packed up. They returned to the area above the mouth of the cave. As the sun rose, the gang slumped against the trees, exhausted but triumphant. They had succeeded, the danger had passed, Velma was safe.
High up in an ancient oak tree in a hammock strung between a pair of sturdy branches, Velma and Suki lay wrapped up in green fleece blankets. They too were enjoying the sunrise as the finale to a night star gazing and love making.
"Spectacular" Suki sighed
"Yeah what a sunrise and what a night. Suppose we'd better get back and pack-up before we go sailing"
"Just one more time before we go" Suki pinned Velma under her and soon they were locked in a passionate embrace.
Having finally descended from the tree and collected all their gear the girls walked slowly back to their cabin.
"Y'know I'm looking forward to going back home. We need to be ready for the Sunday night bowling" said Velma
"Yeah Daphne's counting on us" said Suki in all seriousness.
Velma stopped and picked up a small object from the ground.
"Suki, look at this, a Scooby Snack. A fairly fresh one at that" said Velma holding the snack in her hand.
"Well there must be someone other than Shaggy and Scooby who likes them" said Suki
"For sure, they ship all over the world but I've never actually met anyone other than those two who will own up to eating them."
At the cabin they packed away their things, tided the cabin then loaded up the golf cart and headed for reception.
"Hello?" said Velma as she entered reception
"Oh hi Ms Dinkley" said Grant appearing from behind the counter "sailing is it?"
"Yes, can we leave our stuff here? We didn't want to have to rush back to the cabin after sailing."
"Sure, leave it behind the counter. How was the cabin?"
"Thanks Grant. This place is great, and that cabin was just beautiful. You all alone I wanted to thank Mrs Elms for giving us that upgrade?" said Velma as she and Suki carried in their luggage.
"That's good to hear. It's just me and the cook at the moment, I don't know where anyone else is. Anyway let's get you both afloat."
"This is easier than rowing" said Velma as they headed away from the mooring
"Oh sure, provided we don't need to turn around. You do know how to sail back don't you?"
Velma paused and scribbled some equations on a piece of paper then looked up "In principle, yes"
For the next couple of hours they happily sailed around the lake. At one point they went past their cabin and along the nearby shoreline.
"Jinkies! Suki look over there" said Velma as the pointed towards the shore
"What? I can't see anything"
"There's been a rock slide where that cave was. Looks pretty blocked up to me."
"I said it was unstable but I didn't think it was that unstable"
As Velma and Suki approached the jetty Grant rushed to assist them in mooring the boat then helped then carry their luggage to the jetty to await the boat. Both Velma and Suki showered him with hugs, praise and a generous tip for his trouble. Velma asked him to pass on her thanks to Verity for the upgrade which he said he would do. He returned to reception as the boat approached the jetty to await the next load of visitors.
The gang were sitting near the blocked cave entrance; they'd seen Velma and Suki sail past a few times, though Daphne had refused to watch after seeing them the first time, before returning to pick up their gear and catch the lunch-time boat to the mainland.
"Right, we'll get the next boat then head home, we should still get back before them. Even if we don't we can pick up some take-away along the way and make it look like we just went to get some food" said Fred
"Good plan Fred; we deserve a bit of a rest" said Daphne
"Can we just get some food on the way" said Shaggy
Their musings were interrupted by the sound of falling rocks below. They peered over the edge to see people stagger out of the cave entrance along with the occasional disorientated hornet.
"We're too late" said one of the goons as they saw the daylight
"I don't care about the legend, just do whatever you want with them then kill them. I want revenge" growled Verity
"Break-time's over gang" whispered Fred as they got up and followed the goons
Grant was doing some paper work when a puffy-faced Verity rushed in looked at the list of those people who had checked out and boarded the boat. She gave an exasperated growl and left without saying a word.
The gang followed Verity; it was clear that Velma and Suki were safely on the boat but wanted to know what was they were planning.
"We've been here before" said Shaggy as he pointed to a small cove where the boat they had sabotaged was moored and nearby to where their beached submarine could just be seen.
"Good job we sabotaged that boat" said Shaggy, Scooby pointed down and drew their attention to the activity below. It looked like the boat was being made ready to leave.
"Why are they getting on board then?" said Daphne
"They've fixed the boat!" said Shaggy as they head the engine and saw a plume of smoke rise from the boat's exhaust. With that Verity get on board then the boat slipped from its moorings.
"No. This just isn't fair" whispered Fred as they watched the other boat leave.
