Back at the High School, the teachers were relieved to be able to report that the two missing members of Mystery Inc. had turned up safe and fairly sound, apart from a few bruises where Fred had landed on top of Velma by accident.
"But still no Sugey," Mr Green sighed, leaning against the long-suffering trophy cabinet and wiping his glasses on his fluffy green jumper. Velma nodded.
"She wasn't down there; we don't know where she could have gone."
Daphne rubbed the sole of her foot where she was getting a blister from walking so much in her new high heels.
"Maybe we should have another look at the tunnel?"
Fred looked at her, confused.
"Why?"
"I don't know, I've just got the feeling that we missed something. Call it my women's intuition…"
Fred and Velma exchanged amused looks; they had encountered Daphne's "women's intuition" in the past, and it hadn't always had a good outcome. The last time they had put their trust in it, they had nearly lost the Mystery Machine.
"It was just a tunnel, Daph," Fred replied. "It only had the one entrance here, and it only led to the field."
Daphne shook her head.
"I still want to take another look."
Since Daphne's "women's intuition" was the only lead they had, the group returned to the tunnel and opened it, then began the awkward descent into the slimy, mucky death trap that was the tunnel.
After ten minutes of walking, Shaggy suddenly stumbled on something. It looked like an innocent rut in the floor, but Shaggy insisted that it had moved when he'd caught his foot. He knelt down, getting steadily to the point where it was hazardous to stand near him due to the gelatinous filth he was coated in, and pushed it hard. The rut did move, and as soon as it did a flap opened in the wall next to the gang. Daphne, with a feeling of triumph, led the way in. Fred and Velma exchanged looks again, only this time they were looks of surprise and amazement. For once, Daphne's famous intuition had helped, not hindered, the mystery.
A thin voice was coming out from somewhere. It was clearly not Sugey's; it was a male voice, tired and slightly weak.
"I have you. Mystery Inc. will fall into my trap at any moment. I will never let them escape… not after what they did to me…"
Fred drew in his breath sharply.
"So who's going to go in? What do we do now? If we walk in there, we're walking into a trap, and by the sound of that guy, probably something pretty nasty would happen to us."
Dr Patterson nodded.
"And that's why I'm going in."
"Dr Patterson, no!" exclaimed Velma.
But the science teacher was already making his way into the small opening, holding up his hands. Sugey screamed as she recognised her teacher, but the thin voice only hissed "Silence, girl!" and then fell silent again, contemplating the man before him.
"Who are you?" came the thin voice, after a pause.
"I'm Dr Harry Patterson," Dr Patterson replied, still holding his hands in the air. "I found this tunnel. Who are you?"
"David Carswell," the voice replied, and the gang drew in breath as one; this was the guy who had tried to rob his own bank and the guy who had been behind the mask of the Creeper so long ago…
"I was the Creeper, once. I was a bank robber, but a bank manager, at the same time. I tried to fool Mystery Inc. when they got their interfering noses stuck into my business, the fools. But that group of teenage twerps won the battle. I was thrown into prison with no promise of ever seeing the light again.
"Well, two months into my imprisonment, my health, before sturdy, began to wane. I was diagnosed as having a rare heart disease, which meant I would die within five years. Since the judge decided that I should be given the dignity of living out my final few years out of jail, I was released. But while I was in that prison, with guards past my door every brutal second of the day, I was dreaming up my punishment for Mystery Inc… they would pay for what they did to me… I was determined that they would…
"And this is what I did. I researched them by hacking into state files. The leader first, then the others. And what did I learn? That one of them had a young sister, one who would be easy to use as a lure, and that she would be singing in a school concert soon. I found that out on her Bebo page. She was telling all her little friends about it. I was so happy… I had my lure. But would my plan have worked without the little quirks I added? The tunnel in the stage, which you found; the costume of the headless ghost, which I made in prison; the magnet system which slammed the doors and trapped the audience in the hall; a little tinkering with the famous Mystery Machine, to ensure it didn't start for a while, that one was only partially successful; and my little prison chamber, which I intended those fools to be trapped in permanently and to starve to death in. All the little special effects that I learned in prison, they came in very handy for my plan. And the school was so close to where I was based, it was almost as though the heavens had planned for this to happen, and that they intended me to have my revenge…
"And I'm afraid that nobody is going to stop me. So, Mr Patterson…"
"Dr Patterson, actually," Dr Patterson replied evenly, although Velma saw his hand edge towards his pocket and that it was shaking. She grasped Fred's arm hard, for no reason other than it was the closest living thing she could grasp, and edged a little closer to the opening. Carswell took a deep breath, and then carried on talking.
"Well. I'm going to have to keep you here, in case you know Mystery Inc. and might tell them, and then once they are mine I will let you go. By that time I will be long gone anyway. You would never find me. And soon I will be gone anyway. My health is so bad now; I doubt I will live another five days. My doctor wanted me to go into hospital, but I said no. I wanted to succeed with my plan to take those meddling kids with me into the afterlife… They will pay for inflicting such misery on me… I want them in my grasp… AHA!"
Velma had been edging forwards more and more, unable to believe what she was hearing, and suddenly realised that he could see her head, although only in shadow. She quickly stepped back and trod hard on Scooby's tail.
"ROUCH!" Scooby yelped, before realising what he had done. Carswell's eyes grew wider as he realised that he had just told Mystery Inc. his plans to do them in, and that the whole of Mystery Inc. was in his little hidey-hole, at his mercy.
"Mystery Inc.! How I have anticipated this day…"
He reached over with one trembling, slightly bloodless hand and pressed a button on the metal control panel next to him. The entrance to the cave was suddenly locked. Fred, no longer caring that he might be seen, rushed across and tried to open it.
"The leader, here at my mercy…" grinned Carswell, reaching over to the panel again and pressing a second button. A huge plexiglass divide came down between Fred and the rest of the gang, slamming its way onto the floor. Daphne screamed, "Freddy!" and charged towards the plexiglass, hammering it with her fists and beginning to panic. With a grin, Carswell brought down a second divide, this time separating Daphne from the others. Velma, Shaggy and Scooby huddled together, not wanting to be separated, and could see Dr Patterson calmly sneaking behind Carswell as the manic-seeming man laughed wildly, watching as Daphne became more and more agitated inside her plexiglass cage.
With the sudden flick of a switch, the plexiglass suddenly retreated into the ceiling, freeing Fred and Daphne (who both looked relieved and rushed to the rest of the gang) and opening the huge door that had covered the entrance.
Carswell turned round with a roar of rage, and Dr Patterson reacted as quickly as a bolt of lightning; in barely a second he was pointing a Taser at the man, his eyes fierce. Daphne screamed and clung to Fred, mistaking it for a gun.
"This would probably stop your heart for good, and if you think we'd save your life after all this you've got another thought coming," Dr Patterson hissed, his chest heaving. He turned and looked towards Mystery Inc.
"Guys, get out of here. Take Sugey and get back to the school. I'll tie up this guy and bring him, but I want you to be safe. I don't trust him as far as I could throw him."
Shaggy and Scooby walked forwards and took the keys for Sugey's cage, which was clearly visible in the corner when they walked into the cave, and unlocked it. Sugey, clinging to her brother and missing one shoe, made her way away from the cave with Shaggy and Scooby. When they were at the door, Daphne rummaged in her bag and found Sugey's missing shoe, which she handed to the young girl without a word. Sugey took it and put it on and, with a smile of gratitude to Daphne, vanished into the tunnel.
But Carswell was not to be defeated so easily.
"My plan will WORK!"
He suddenly thrust his sharp elbow up and Dr Patterson crumpled with a sharp cracking sound. The Taser fell to the floor in his limp fingers and was fired at Velma, who shrieked and fell to the ground. Daphne rushed to her friend, but Fred ran towards Carswell and tried to snatch the Taser out of the man's hands. It discharged and hit the wall, missing Fred by centimetres, and Fred doubled his efforts to wrestle it away from the man. Carswell took one more look at the three and stood shakily, then punched Fred in the gut and started running towards the wall, which opened as he rushed towards it and revealed a tunnel…
"Come on!" Daphne gasped to Fred, who straightened up with some effort and started running after him; Carswell's blow to his stomach had doubled him over. Velma groaned slightly as they vanished, leaving her in the cave alone apart from the unconscious Dr Patterson. She felt no resentment for them, only a slight tinge of panic at being left without them. Slowly and painfully she stood up and, accepting that in her condition there was little she could do in the chase that she presumed was now in action. Instead, she crawled over to Dr Patterson and began trying to wake him up.
