Velma decided it was time to try out her theory that she could be heard. She needed to pick a time when the store was occupied but quiet, that gave her a window of just a couple before and after it closed. From the yawning and general sluggishness of her captors as they prepared themselves, and her, for the day ahead she guessed it was very early in the morning, her best estimate was 6am. From various snippets of conversation she deduced they were going elsewhere for much of the day which was ideal from her point of view as it reduced the chance of them interrupting her. Finally she was alone, she waited and listened for any signs they were still around. Satisfied that they had gone she began to slowly count to 3600.

Rudi yawned as he swiped into the FlatterPack store. He had some work to do on the stall before Sonia came to get things ready for the day. He shook his head sadly at the sight of the empty CoolBall stall; it was too bad what had happened there but there was nothing he could do about it and set to work on his own stall.

3598... 3599... 3600 Velma began banging on the pipe with her handcuffs as hard as she could and yelled as loud as possible. Her already muffled cries didn't get much beyond the room she was in but the banging noise sounded faintly throughout an empty dimly-lit store, empty all bar one person.

Rudi stopped what he was doing and looked up convinced he'd just heard a tapping noise. He was just about resume work when... there was a faint tapping noise. He closed his eyes and focused on the noise, regular metallic with a hollow ring to it, distant and muffled. The store was quiet but someone was making that noise; perhaps it was that Dinkley girl who had gone missing. He sent a message to his sister then set off to follow the noise.

Velma could feel her arms becoming tired. She changed tactics to using one hand at a time, determined to keep going for as long as possible.

Rudi quickly made his way into the basement as most of the piping and ducting was down there. He was sure that the sound was louder. The sound occasionally became irregular with the odd short pause, an sign that the source was not artificial rather it was human and getting tired. He hunted around the basement but couldn't locate where it was coming from. He was able to locate something else, in an otherwise disused room there was a very organised set of crates in one corner behind which was an old door lying on the floor, so far so junk room. He tapped on the door, solid… solid… solid… hollow. He pulled the door along the floor and there in the corner was a stairwell heading down to a lower level. He carefully went down the stairs into a dark corridor, dark but with a faint glow of light coming from where it turned a corner.

By the way the door burst open Velma knew that her plan had failed. As she was dragged to her feet she was shouted at in a language she didn't understand. She was handled roughly as she was moved to a different location, this time they didn't free her ankles and she was simply dragged down several flights to an even lower level to where, she was informed, she wouldn't be able to cause any more trouble. There wouldn't be a mattress anymore, she had lost that 'privilege', it would be a cold, hard floor from now on. She was backed against a pipe. Her hands were yanked behind it, she bit into gag and shook her head as the cuffs were secured as tightly as they could be without slicing her wrists open.

The hood was lifted up giving a glimpse of the world around her. Mercifully she caught a brief glimpse of her glasses as they were tossed onto a nearby crate. Velma moaned as the gag was tightened by a couple of notches then the hood dropped down.

"Hurry up, move! Someone is coming." the call distracted the person dealing with Velma and they didn't pull the drawn string closed around her neck just pushed her to the ground.

"Coming Mr Rusa," the person muttered under their breath as they stood up and walked away.

"Mmn-meees!" She didn't mean to but another piece of the puzzle had just fallen into place and she'd let out an involuntary jinkies. This earned her a hard kick on sole of her shoe and a further instruction to be quiet. Velma now knew where she was and who was behind her abduction, the why could wait. That kick proved that her captors had just crossed a line, violence would now become easier; the next video might not need make-up. It was time to leave by any means possible.

The Mystery Machine screeched to a halt in the car-park just as Mr Parker arrived. There was no piling out of the van this time as they needed to set up Daphne's wheelchair. That done Fred sat in the chair then Daphne sat on his lap as, she claimed, it was more comfortable. That done Shaggy revved himself up and gripped handles of the wheelchair.

Though the noise had stopped a while ago Rudi had decided to follow the direction it had come from for a while longer as there were now signs of the corridor being recently travelled down. The signs eventually led to set of rooms with connecting doors. In the last he found a floor to ceiling pipe. On one side was a mattress with bedding strewn about, the opposite side if the pipe showed fresh chip and scratch marks. On the floor were several empty rolls of tape. He knelt down and felt the mattress, it was still warm with traces of orange wool on it. He remembered his previous encounters with that Dinkley girl; she wore a lot of orange. He stood up and looked around. There were clear signs of the place having been occupied for a while, then hurriedly vacated.

What was her name now, Volvo? Vemma?

"Velma! Velma can you hear me?"

Daphne closed her eyes in terror and clung onto Fred as Shaggy ran for the door as fast as he could, with the wheelchair bouncing in front of him. Scooby got to the door moments before Shaggy and swiped his entry card through the reader and opened the door moments before Shaggy got there. They rushed on in, skidding round on one wheel the chicane that was the cutlery and other sharp pointy object isle causing Fred and Daphne to cry out in alarm. Finally Shaggy deposited them onto a couch in the staff common room and went to get the coffee going leaving Scooby and Mr Parker to deal with the shell-shocked Fred and Daphne.

Rudi paused; there was a soft shuffling noise nearby.

"Velma? It's me Rudi, from the herring stall, are you there?"

The shuffling grew louder, he closed his eyes to focus on the sound; something was wrong, the sound was coming from multiple directions. He opened his eyes, something was definitely wrong, just then the lights went out; he took out his phone and turned on the torch. There were shapes in the room, large shapes. There was the sound of small objects hitting the floor about his feet followed by a hissing noise. Smoke swirled around him; he could hear movement and voices around him. He decided to make a run for it and turned from the exit; before he could take a step he was hit hard over head from behind and fell to the floor. Before he passed out he looked up to see Icktharians emerge from the smoke from all sides and standing over him.