Chapter 10: At the sheriff's and the chase
A short while later, the gang are at the sheriff's office as Stone digested the information they had just provided, and the frown on his face deepened.
"So you kids are basically saying that someone tampered with some robot dog, who then goes on a rampage around town, all while your pooch Scooby is mistaken for the dog." Stone finally asked, clearly not impressed.
"Well, if that wasn't the case, Sheriff, we wouldn't even be here in your office having this discussion in the first place." Velma pointed out.
"And yet, here you kids are, wasting your time and my time in trying to convince me that your dog was sent to Karmah in a case of mistaken identity." Stone said as he stood up from his seat. "Besides, as I said earlier, your dog is in Karmah for his own good, where he won't be a threat to anyone."
"In the meantime, while Scooby is locked up, the tampered Robot Hound is still on the loose, Sheriff." Daphne stepped forward. "You really think Scooby being locked in the asylum won't endanger anyone, but in reality, it doesn't make anyone safer when the real culprit is still at large."
Stone only glared in response, but before he could say anything, some smashing and screaming can be heard from outside.
Everyone arched their eyebrows when they heard the noise, which was then followed by gunshots.
"Hmmm..." Stone frowned as they heard the gunshots. "Sounds like your dog had smashed his way out of the asylum and has made a return to town, kids. Just what I needed."
The gang all frowned as the sheriff picked up the phone on his office desk and dialed a number before placing the earpiece by his ear.
"I'm calling the asylum to see if they've gotten any escapees." Stone continued as he covered the mouth piece. "Maybe they can shed some light onto your robot dog theory."
The gang shared looks with each other just as Stone's call was put through.
"Hello, this is Sheriff Stone speaking." Stone began when the party at the other end answered his call. "Can you give me a status report regarding one of your inmates?"
A pause went by before Stone continued, "Yes, the inmate in Cell 1969."
Another minute went by as Stone drummed his fingers on his desk, and then the drumming stopped as Stone hear something at the phone and his eyes widened.
"What?" He asked before turning towards his office window as he added, "There's got to be a mistake."
A pause went by before Stone continued, "Someone is attacking the town, just outside my office. Surely you're talking about someone in the human wing and not the animal wing, are you not?"
Another pause went by before the sheriff frowned. "There's no mistake. He's still in his cell, even though there's another mad dog outside attacking the town as we speak."
The gang shared looks with each other as Stone nodded. "It's a long story, but I will let you know when this is over. Good day."
He then hung up the phone before looking right at the gang.
"What do you know, it turns out that you kids are right." Stone said. "Your Scooby is still in his cell, even as a mad dog is tearing away outside headquarters as we speak."
The gang all rolled their eyes as they shared looks with each other, only for them to feel some rumbling as if there was an earthquake ongoing.
Before anyone in the office could react, a sudden explosion took place, forcing the occupants to duck behind the sheriff's desk for cover.
When the dust and debris settled, the five peeked out from their hiding spot, where the first thing they saw was a pair of glowing red eyes and a shadowed silhouette of what appeared to be a Great Dane.
"What in the name of anything holy is that?" The sheriff exclaimed as the shadowed figure approached them menacingly and growling.
Before anyone answered, the group gasped as the shadowed figure revealed itself.
It was a brown-furred Great Dane with glowing red eyes, a large jaw and wearing a blue dog tag. However, there were parts of the Great Dane where patches of the brown fur was missing, which partially revealed its metallic enoskeleton.
It was clear that the Robot Hound had patches of its brown fur shot off when it was engaged in the fight against the officers outside of police headquarters, and with a large patch of the brown fur missing on its head, the Robot Hound looked like a dog raised from the dead with the face partially decomposed.
With the Robot Hound growling menacingly at them, the sheriff instinctively reached for his rifle, disengaged the safety pin and opened fire towards the killer machine.
"Sheriff, bullets won't slow that robot down!" Fred yelled as the sheriff opened fire.
"If anything, it only aggregates the robot even more!" Velma added as the bullets only shot off the remaining patches of the Robot Hound's brown fur.
Stone gritted his teeth as he continued to try to shoot down the Robot Hound, only for the robot canine to abruptly sink its teeth into the barrel of the rifle, yank it right out of his hands and tossed it aside as if it was made of cardboard.
Then, the Robot Hound leaped towards the group menacingly.
"So you wanna play rough, eh?" Stone gritted his teeth as his hand grabbed a discarded water pipe that was laying near the desk. "Well, two can play the game!"
Just as the Robot Hound was to pounce right onto them, the sheriff unexpectedly gave the robot a big whack with the water pipe, causing it to smash right through the office door and into the wall across the hallway, all as his adjutant sat at her seat and was dumbfounded by the sight.
Seeing the motionless Robot Hound, the gang turned to Stone.
"Like, that was quite the hit, sheriff!" Shaggy exclaimed. "Where did you learn that?"
"Oh, I used to play college baseball and have represented Crystal Cove in the state police academy baseball games." Stone proudly boasted. "Good thing I still know a thing or two about giving that beast an effective whack."
"Well, beast or no beast, sheriff, are you convinced now that Scooby's not the danger?" Fred asked.
"More than convinced." Stone said as they all stepped out of his office. "You kids need to get out of here, right now, before that robot dog decides to wake up and cause more damage."
"So you're saying that Scooby is now innocent?" Velma asked.
Stone frowned before he said, "Just get out of here and get your friend to safety! I got a feeling that robot dog is hunting you kids down because you've stick your noses at where they don't belong!"
He then turned to his adjutant and added, "Sandra, I need you to call in the SWAT team up here and say that we've got an intruder here who is armed and dangerous, ASAP!"
"Right away, sir." The adjutant nodded as the gang quickly raced their way down the stairs.
Their timing couldn't have been more better, because as they were walking through the door leading to the stairway, the Robot Hound suddenly got up and growled.
Fred was the last to go through the door, and he turned and gasped when he saw the Robot Hound growled and making the leap towards him.
Velma, who was in front of him, quickly grabbed his hand and urged, "Come on!"
With Fred tugged by Velma, the door behind them shut just before the Robot Hound was able to get to them through the open door.
Just as the Robot Hound was thinking of ripping the door down, several shots were fired, and it growled before turning towards the source of the shots.
The shots came from the SWAT team that managed to arrive at the scene, where Stone was shouting, "It's over there, men. Take it down, whatever it takes!"
The heavily-armed officers nodded as they all took aim towards the robot dog, backed up by a dozen more of their own armed with metal sticks and batons.
The Robot Hound growled menacingly and its eyes narrowed as it comes face-to-face with the heavily-armed SWAT team.
Meanwhile, the gang wasted no time getting back onto the Mystery Machine and were speeding their way through downtown Crystal Cove, en route to Karmah.
"I hope the doctor has received word about what Stone had told us regarding Scooby's having an alibi during the Robot Hound's attacks." Velma remarked. "Because I can guarantee that the doctor is gonna find excuses to justify continuing lock Scooby up for further 'examinations' on his mental health."
"Well, as long as that Robot Hound is being taken care of by the sheriff, we should be fine." Fred said.
However, the minute Fred made the remark, they all felt something hitting the Mystery Machine.
"Like, what the...?" Shaggy wondered, only to be cut off in mid sentence as Daphne saw something in the side mirror.
"Jeepers, the Robot Hound's back!" She exclaimed as she pointed at the left side mirror.
Velma and Shaggy all looked towards the left side mirror, where sure enough, they saw the Robot Hound hanging onto the Mystery Machine's rear bumper.
As if expecting the gang to see it through the side mirror, the Robot Hound looked right into the side mirror, the cold glare in its glowing red eyes unnerving the gang.
"Hang on, gang!" Fred said as he jerked the steering wheel towards the right all in a sudden, leading the van to spin in the clockwise direction.
The spin caused the Robot Hound to let go of the rear bumper and smash into a nearby sign post, however, the robot dog refused to give up and made the leap right towards the Mystery Machine as it rights itself.
The minute the van stopped spinning, the gang all felt the Robot Hound landing right on the roof.
"Zoinks!" Shaggy exclaimed as the robot dog teared through the roof. "It sure doesn't give up!"
Then, seeing that the robot dog was about to grab Daphne, Velma swiftly grabbed the headrest of her seat and used the metal tubes attached to it to strike the Robot Hound in the mouth.
"Back off!" Velma shouted as she struck the Robot Hound in the mouth with the headrest.
Seeing that the metal tubes in the headrest wasn't deterring the Robot Hound from grabbing Daphne by her hair, Shaggy looked around and saw a crowbar in the back, and without hesitating, he grabbed it and slammed it right into the Robot Hound's head.
At the slam, the Robot Hound shook as it lost its grip on Daphne, forcing it to let her go.
As that was happening, the Mystery Machine was driving through a tunnel.
"Fred, do something!" Shaggy exclaimed.
Fred grunted as he once again jerked the steering wheel towards the right, leading the Mystery Machine to drive onto the tunnel walls and ceiling before returning back onto the road in a 360-degree spin.
As the van was driving upside down on the tunnel's ceiling briefly, the Robot Hound lost its grip on the roof and fell onto the road, right onto the path of an approaching tractor trailer hauling gasoline.
At the sight of the Robot Hound landing on the road in front, the truck driver gasped and slammed on the brakes while the Mystery Machine landed back on the road and sped off.
Just as the tractor trailer was about to hit the robot dog, it suddenly lurched to a sudden stop, puzzling the driver.
When he looked forward, his eyes widened when he saw the Robot Hound growling menacingly at the truck.
The robot dog then leaped onto the windshield of the cab and growled, causing the driver to quickly open the door and make a run for it.
With the cab empty, the Robot Hound then boarded the vehicle and its hind leg stretched towards the gas pedal.
With the tractor trailer driving off with the Robot Hound behind the wheel, the driver stare dumbfoundedly before pulling out his cell phone.
Meanwhile, the gang managed to get to the asylum, where they wasted no time making their way to the main office to meet with Doctor Sionis.
However, it was clear that the asylum's director and head doctor was hearing none of the gang's protests when they demanded that Scooby be released.
"I'm sorry, but just because your dog is innocent in the attacks doesn't mean he isn't at risk in suffering in a mental breakdown at some point along the line." Doctor Sionis folded his arms. "Until we can determine for sure if Scoobert is well enough to be released, he will need to stay here for further observations."
"But Scoob's doing alright for a dog living in a place like Crystal Cove!" Velma exclaimed.
"Yeah." Shaggy agreed. "Like, Scoob doesn't have any mental health history, as far as we know."
"Exactly." Dr. Sionis glared. "It's already unusual for us to treat a talking dog, not to mention we don't even know much about your Scooby's family history and other information we need, so until we can get a good lay of the land..."
The doctor paused in mid-sentence when their attention was drawn towards the office window overlooking the asylum's parking lot, where they heard several screeches and a loud honk.
Looking outside, the gang's eyes all widened at the sight of the truck speeding its way through the parking lot, crashing into several cars in the process as it sped towards the asylum.
"Jinkies!" Velma exclaimed as the doctor joined them.
"I don't believe it!" Daphne exclaimed.
"Like, doesn't that robot dog ever give up?!" Shaggy added as they recognized the Robot Hound behind the wheel of the tractor trailer, its eyes glowing red with pure hatred.
It was clear that the tractor trailer was not slowing down at all, let alone stopping before it hits the building.
At the sight, Sionis went to his desk and quickly pressed a button.
When the party at the other end of the intercomm answered, the asylum director barked, "Doctor Sionis here, I need the heavily-armed tactics team at the main entrance, right now!"
The minute he finished issuing the order, the director then turned towards the gang and added, "I suggest you kids get out of here before it all hits the fan."
Before the gang could respond, they heard heavy gunfire from outside as the truck skids out of control, and it was clear that the security team managed to take out a number of the tires of the truck.
As the truck skids closer to the asylum building, Velma realized something and said, "Doctor, that truck is hauling gasoline! It's gonna blow if-"
Before Velma could finish, the truck skidded right into the building, which was then followed by a deafening crash.
And then, seconds later, a deafening explosion took place and the whole building shook violently as if an earthquake had taken place.
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