Velma quickly grabs her cousin before she hits the ground.
"Velma?" Shaggy's voice comes out from a few feet away, "Is that you?"
"Over here" the other replies, "Help me."
"Huh?" Shaggy notices Thelma in Velma's arms and understands the situation. Taking Thelma's feet, he and Velma take her to the Mystery Machine.
"What's she doing here?" Fred asks as Thelma is laid onto the van floor.
"Thelma saw me" is the reply.
"And she, like, fainted" Shaggy continues.
"Maybe we should try to wake her up" Daphne suggests.
Velma gently slaps her cousin's face on each side. "Thelma?" she says.
Thelma groggily responds. Seeing the figures above her, she sits straight up. "Oh, help!" she yells, "The dead have come to haunt me!"
"Thelma..." Velma tries to calm down her cousin.
"What do you want?" Thelma asks inching back against the wall.
"Just for you to be sensible!"
Thelma just keeps pushing herself against the wall.
Velma grabs her cousin's hand. "Feel the warmth of my hand" she says, "does a ghost have hands like this?" She then moves Thelma's hand to her wrist. "You feel that?" she asks.
Thelma nods. "Yes," she says, "It's your pulse. Velma..." her eyes began to water. She quickly embraces her cousin. "I thought I'd lost you."
"Aw," Daphne grins to Freddie, "you can tell they are really close."
"The hazards of having cousins so close they are like sisters" jokes Fred.
"What have you been doing?" Thelma asks.
"That's just it," replies Fred, "we don't know."
"Yes," continues Velma, "it appears that we have a whole day we can not account for."
"You have to be kidding!" Thelma says in disbelief.
Shaggy and Scooby raise two fingers. "Like, Scout's Honor" Shaggy says.
"It has been like we were in a coma," Daphne adds, "or a very deep sleep."
"Rand scary reams too!" continues Scooby.
"You mean you had them, too?" asks Daphne.
Shaggy and Scooby nod their heads "yes."
"You mean you had them, too?" Fred asks.
"Is there an echo in here?" the red-head looks confused.
"No," replies Thelma, "theoretically..."
Velma cuts off her cousin, "Don't bother to explain."
"Ah, well" Thelma says getting up, "It doesn't matter now. You guys just gave me a big scare."
"You scared me, too" Velma replies, "For a moment there, I thought you were going to beat me senseless!"
"I know I would never do that to you" the other shoots back, "Dead or alive."
"Even if I looked as if I was going to attack you?"
"Forget it" Thelma turns her attention to the rest of the gang. "Where are you going to stay for the night?"
"We were thinking of camping out here in the van" Fred replies.
"Are you sure you don't want to come to the house?"
"We don't want to 'scare' anyone else" Daphne answers.
"Then again," Fred thinks aloud, "it would be a good place to hide."
"I see what you mean" Thelma nods, "It's best that very few people know that you are really alive."
"But, like, if we aren't dead," Shaggy brings up a scary question, "who are those bodies they found?"
"Reah! Reah!" agrees Scooby-Doo.
"Jess!" Thelma says cheerfully as she and the gang walk in the kitchen through the back door.
"What is it?" her husband says running into the room. He suddenly stops in his tracks at the sight of the gang behind Thelma.
"Jess," Thelma jokes, "you look like you are seeing a ghost."
Jess does not answer.
"Are you surprised to see them?"
"You mean," Jess stutters, "they're real?"
"Of course, they are real!" laughs Thelma.
"But how?"
"That," replies Fred, "we don't know. I guess someone up there likes us."
Bingo quickly runs into the kitchen and starts sniffing the gang.
"What has gotten into you?" Thelma asks Bingo.
Jack and Jill soon run into the room and stand at the doorway. They are followed shortly by Sarah.
"Is it them?" asks Jack.
Bingo turns to them and replies, "Yup."
The children quickly run up and hug Velma.
"We thought it was you" Sarah explains, "We just had to make sure."
"What are you talking about?" Velma says, pushing the children away.
"Do you kids know something that none of us know about?" snaps Thelma.
"Well..." the twins try to distract their mother's attention.
"That's it!" Jess yells, "Everybody into the den—NOW!"
The children swallow hard.
"I can explain everything" Jill says, as she, her brother and Sarah stand in the middle of what they would call 'the council of elders'.
"I would like to hear that explanation" Velma says, crossed.
"It is a long story" Jack says.
"We have time" Fred says.
"It all begins with the phone call" begins Jill.
"The phone call we received the other night?" clarifies Daphne.
The children nod.
"Our plan was to have Gomer spike your drinks so you would be out of the way" Jack continues.
"Like, spike our drinks with what?" demands Shaggy.
"A simple and harmless colorless and tasteless concoction that I developed. It simulates the effects of drunkenness. If used properly."
"If used properly?" his father asks.
"It is really meant to be taken with alcohol and not soda pop" Jill explains, "The idea was to sell to a spy agency for their operations. It can just be added to one drink and takes effect immediately."
"As you have probably noticed," Sarah continues, "if taken with cola, some interesting side effects occur."
"Like, is sleeping a whole day one of them?" asks Shaggy.
Jack nods "yes."
"And strange dreams?"
The children look at each other in confusion.
"What about those people they found?" asks Daphne.
"They aren't just any people" says Sarah, "They are robotic clones—your robotic clones."
The three children get strange looks.
"We took a sample of your DNA, put it into a special machine which we had made to make an exact duplicate of you" Jack says, "The only difference is that they can be either controlled by us via computer or they can think for themselves."
"But they can't be realistic," Fred objects, "even our murders would have noticed the difference."
"No," Jill shakes her head, "they are so sophisticated that it even produces the exact internal tissues. They are literally human robots."
"Like, you kids are freaky" Shaggy shudders as he and Scooby embrace each other.
"One last question:" Jess concludes, "What about this party?"
"Oh," Jill's face turns red, "I'm sorry. I hacked into your computers and saw in your e-mail that this friend of yours, Melbourne O'Reilly, was having a party for his younger brother's birthday, who is a big fan of yours, and he invited you. It was in the same time you would be visiting here."
"We figured that since Melbourne knows you so well, if we could fool him, then these robots would be the greatest technological advance to date" finishes Jill.
"What about the Mystery Machine?" inquires Fred, "How the heck did it get here?"
"I carried it with me on the plane" replies Sarah.
Jill places her arm around her cousin, "Sarah as created a little invention of her own." She holds up a small remote control. "This little device," she says, "has the capacity to shrink or enlarge any object."
"We didn't mean for anyone to get killed!" Jack yells out, "You've got to believe us on that."
Jess looks at his watch. "It's getting late," he says, "we'll talk more about this in the morning."
"And don't you three think that you are not in trouble" warns Thelma, "because you are in enough up to your ears."
A/N: Well, this is it for the night. I don't know when my next update will be—hopefully soon.