Scooby, Fred, Scrappy, and Daphne went with the pixels and got into the door that they unlocked.
"Hey look up there gang!" Scrappy pointed to something that looked like a telescope that came out of a cereal box.
"Rit's a toy telescope, like the one that comes in my Frosted Flakes." Scooby said.
"Oh boy Uncle Scoob, I'm gonna get it!" Scrappy jumped to get the scope.
Unfortunately, he didn't notice the not-at-all expensive-looking vase sitting next to the telescope.
So when he jumped off and got the telescope, the vase bounced off and it shattered to smithereens. What a way to start off the next leg of their journey.
"Augh!Scrappy! That was a beautiful vase and now it's in pieces!" yelped Daphne, covering up her shocked gasp.
"It was probably bought at a dollar store! Besides, it didn't look all that great anyway…" Scrappy sarcastically remarked as he opened his tag and put the telescope inside.
"Still, that had to be owned by someone…" moaned Tippi.
Scooby then heard a door creak open, followed by a distressed high-pitched wail. Everyone glanced over their shoulders to see none other than Maid Mimi running up like someone had just died.
"You broke it! You broke my most favoritest vase! DOOFUSES! I loved that vase more than anything! And you BROKE it! NYAAAAAGH!"
"If you really loved it, it wouldn't be perched on a place born for bashing!" protested Scrappy.
"Oh, you'll pay for that, yes you will…" Mimi's anger cut him off, her expression almost snarling. "I'll have you know that the vase cost 1,000,000 Rubees!"
Mimi jumped in front of everyone, causing them to cringe in fear. "So hand over that money! Now! Or you're DONE FOR!"
"Jeez, I don't even have that much in Rupees!" Scrappy guffawed.
"That's insane!" exclaimed Daphne.
"I know! Who would waste so much money on a stupid vase?" Freddy sighed, shaking his head.
"That is not what I meant…" Daphne scolded her boyfriend.
"I dunno, I do have to agree," shrugged Scrappy.
"Either way…" Tippi cut in, focusing on the situation at hand. "Rubees? Oh, I don't believe any of us carry any of that particular currency…I don't suppose those are anything like dollars and cents, are they?"
Mimi appeared stunned. "Dollars and cents? No one uses DOLLARS AND CENTS anymore, you peasants! I SPIT on your dollars and cents!"
"They sound kind of like Rupees…but I don't have enough either, like I said," Scrappy stated.
"…so what are you saying? Are you telling me that you don't have any Rubees at all?" Mimi concluded, sternly staring at the slowly-nodding group. "Well, guess what? You're just gonna have to work it off then! Until you work off your debt, you naughty little things, I OWN YOU! ENJOY LABOR! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!"
"So much for cute little maid girl…" gulped Daphne.
Within seconds Mimi returned to being her "extra sweet, cutesy, innocent, normal self". "Yes, so, you can earn Rubees in the generator room on the top floor. Once you earn 1,000,000 Rubees, you can come pay it off at the room in the back. You can also check the balance of your debt there. So! Get to work, servants!"
Oh no! Our heroes had been in debt of a million Rupees and now were working off their debt to that little imp.
As she skipped away, the crew just stood there in disbelief.
"I can't believe it!" Daphne exclaimed.
"This delays our time to search for the Pure Heart greatly…" Tippi murmured.
"Hey, this actually may give us time to recuperate." Fred decided. "Give us time to make some sort of game plan and a sort of break, you know?"
"Freddy…we only have two Pure Hearts, and the Void grows as we speak…there really isn't time to waste." Tippi reminded him.
"I know that, but what else can we do? We're trapped in the mansion thanks to that weird Mimi chick…" Freddy remarked.
"And Merla is still somewhere in here- she has to be!" Daphne added determinedly.
They had arrived in the energy room and boy were they in it for a real surprise. They had to jump to make energy just to earn one rupee per jump, in fact there were more people Mimi had enslaved. They then stopped and took a breath outside of the room.
"Boy..." Scrappy huffed "We gotta earn these rupees and stop the void and FAST!"
"But how do we do that?" Scooby asked his nephew.
Scrappy took out the telescope from his tag and noticed he could see through a wall.
"There's something through that wall." Scrappy pointed "Let's break it open and see what it is."
"Boomer!" Fred said to the bomb shaped Pixl "Can you blow up the wall and get Scooby inside?"
"No problem dawg." Boomer told them. He went down to the wall and blew a hole in the wall.
"If my calculations are correct..." Scrappy pondered "Uncle Scooby could fit through that hole."
"Rye got it Scrappy!" Scooby walked into the wall.
"Hey look!" Thoreau told his Great Dane friend.
He smirked upon finding a hole in the wall that lead to a hidden large chest. Thoreau, who was accompanying Scooby, cheered with delight.
"I can feel another Pixl in there!" he cried eagerly.
When the lid cracked open, a tiny voice whispered: "Know the secret?"
"CUZ I DO!"
A triangle shaped Pixl came flying out, looking quite excited. Thoreau was also thrilled at the sight of a new Pixl pal.
"So, do ya know the secret, pard? Well, do ya? Iffen you close yer peepers…and imagine real hard…that the world's gone…Why, it's just about the biggest dern thrill ever!" The Pixl said.
"Ruh?" Scooby asked.
The Pixl then blared, "WHUH-HUH? My senses are tellin' me that you're the hero! Whoa…hey, welcome, pard. Got some bad news though. Looks to me like yer lacking in thrills."
Why did Scooby have to endure this alone? This guy talked like a hillbilly.
"I can't give my powers to anyone who's too skinny in the thrills department. So here's what we do, pard! I'll recharge your thrill gauge in the next three seconds!"
Scooby stared at the Pixl like it was crazy.
"You ready? Here goes! OOOOOOONE! TWOOOOO! THREEEEE! FIIIIIVE!" Slim counted.
It was amazing that they all managed to fall asleep within 'ten seconds'.
"FOOOOOUR! SEVENTEEEEEEN! THREE-POINT-ONE-FOUR! ONE MARZIIIIIILLION! TEN!" The Pixl continued counting.
Scooby jolted back awake as Slim, the Pixl's name, had finished counting. He fluttered to the top off the chest and started at Scooby with glee.
"No yer all chargified, pard! Yepper, now you've got yer thrills! Now remember we Pixls got loads of power, so you'd best be real careful with us! We had a little dustup with them Ancient 2,000 years ago….but we're pards now. So let's go have us some thrills, huh? C'mon!" Slim said to his new allies.
"Great to have you around Slim." Thoreau said.
"Aw shucks!" Slim responded "So what're you doing here?"
"Re have to pay off some imp named Mimi." Scooby explained "She enslaved us into making 1,000,000 rupees for her. We'll never make that kinda money in time to save the world."
"Rupees?" Slim asked "Why I know a place where they got enough to pay off yer debt."
"Really?" They asked.
"Yup!" Slim said "It's upstairs and I know the code to get into the safe."
Slim guided them to a wall, but they saw it as a dead end.
"There's nothing here." Scooby said.
"Naw pardner, this is a secret path to the safe." Slim explained "We need to break it down."
"You mean, we are gonna get down, jam, and drop it like it's hard?" Scooby asked.
"No Scooby" Daphne corrected him "He means we have to use something to break the wall."
"That's easy, I can easily bash through the wall with my super hammer." Scrappy said "Tada tada tada! Puppy power!" He smashed the wall with the hammer and the wall was smashed to bits. There, they saw a path leading to a safe.
"There it is gang!" Fred pointed to the safe.
"Tada tada tada! Puppy power!" Scrappy charged towards the safe.
"Scrappy wait!" Scooby called for his nephew.
But Scrappy didn't hear, he was too excited to stop and listen when suddenly...
"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" Said a voice sounding like Mimi's "ACTIVATE LASERS TO BURN."
Lazers started shooting out of the wall and shooting at Scrappy and the gang. They ran out and escaped.
"Well that went well." Daphne crossed her arms.
"That Mimi character must have state of the art security systems." Tippi said "Maybe we can find a way to destroy it."
"Yo, yo, yo man." Boomer butt in "I gots this."
Boomer fluttered over to the security alarm systems' control panel and layed right on it. And in just a millisecond, he exploded the entire system.
"The system is exploded." Freddy said "Let's go gang!"
They ran to the safe and stopped in front of the door.
"How are we gonna open the door?" Scooby asked.
"Why don't you use the magic paintbrush to vaporize the door?" Fred asked Scooby.
"Rokay!" Scooby took out the magic paintbrush and vaporized the door with thinner.
"Rubees!" They all exclaimed.
"That's enough to pay off that little brat!" Tippi said.
They all took their own share of the rubees and couldn't wait to see the look on Mimi's face.
Scooby, carrying his part of the Rubees, led the way to Mimi's room. When they entered, she was sitting at a dignified office desk, wearing a cute little business uniform and smiling at them. The grin sent shivers down their spines.
"Oh, hi there! Big welcome! So happy to have you here at Rubee Saving and Loan! First off, THANKS for taking out a special Rubee loan! Now, what can I do for you?" Mimi asked.
The five of them strolled up to the counter casually, Fred placing a hand on the desk and giving Mimi a smug look.
"I'd like to pay off some Rubees." They all said.
Mimi maintained her eerie grin. "Super! Let me just take all those Rubees off your hands!"
"We'd love nothing more." Daphne said.
Scooby, Scrappy, Fred, and Daphne all dumped their part of the million onto Mimi, slightly snickering to themselves. Mimi's cheerful expression didn't falter, however, as she claimed the mound of Rubees.
"There you go! Well, thank you SO much for paying off your Rubee loan in…full…" She stopped right there.
Mimi froze. Then she began to freak out mere seconds later, her two squarish pigtails standing out on end.
"WHAAAT?" She yelled.
Scrappy couldn't resist grinning. "Gotcha!"
"How did you earn enough Rubees to pay it off?" she chattered insanely and in disbelief. "That's not supposed to happen! No! You've broken my wonderful curse!"
Mimi continued to pout as she started to float in midair. "Nyeah! I'LL GET YOU! Aaaaaah…"
She exploded into a million parts.
"So that little imp put a curse on this mansion." Tippi said "I knew there was something about her."
"We'd better get back to finding Merla." Scrappy said "Let's go!"
The mysterious handmaid Mimi disappeared in a bizarre explosion…what exactly was her plan, and why did she try to enslave Scooby Doo and friends? After the incident, Daphne noticed stairs going down.
"Here we go!" she said. "I wonder if Merla is down here?"
Our heroes all thought the same thing as they traded worried glances.
The five friends solemnly made their way down, knowing there was no other path to follow.
Author's Note: Well, now they are on their way to the basement. Next chapter, we will continue with Velma's subplot. Who do you think this prisoner in Bleck's castle is?