History Lesson
They all jumped into the ship painting, and with a splash they were in the sea. The water was cold, but Mediterranean cold and not Atlantic cold. They landed in the water near the ship, but at first they thought it was going to pass them by.
"Ahoy! Help!" they called up. Finally a rope was thrown to them and sailors hauled them up.
"Who are you?" asked a burly man with gray-tinged black hair.
"Mabel and Dipper Pines, sister and brother," said Mabel. "Who are you?"
"I am Odysseus, captain of the fleet," said the man.
"Fleet? I only see one ship," Dipper said.
"The others were lost to the Laestrygonians, a tribe of giant cannibals who threw rocks at our ships," said Odysseus.
"Oh dear," said Mabel.
"Like, you understand these dudes?" Shaggy asked Dipper.
"I understand it perfectly, but I don't know why," said Dipper.
"It's all Greek to me," said Shaggy.
"Me too," said Scooby-Doo.
"Your companion speaks a strange tongue. What is your story? Are you escaped from a shipwreck?" asked Odysseus.
"Not exactly," said Dipper.
"We are far from home and we cannot put you ashore," said Odysseus. "I'm afraid we will have to treat you as spoils of the sea and make you our slaves. The men will appreciate the young woman; we have been a long time without female companionship."
"No!" said Mabel, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Leave my sister alone!" said Dipper, charging at Odysseus with arms raised.
Odysseus stopped him with one arm. "You are brave, but you lack strength. I will take your strange cloth helmet as a token of victory."
As he took Dipper's Pine Tree hat, Dipper's hair was brushed aside, revealing his Big Dipper birthmark.
A grizzled old sailor who saw the mark came forward. "I have heard tell of this, Captain. This is the mark of Domiclese, the hero who helped overthrow the old Olympian gods."
Dipper pulled the history book out of his vest and thrust it at Shaggy.
"Shaggy, find anything about Domiclese and read it aloud," Dipper said in English. "Our freedom depends on my being mistaken for this guy."
Shaggy quickly read out the story of Domiclese, a young shepherd who had challenged the Greek gods, who turned out be a robot or android with a "laser face," which he used to destroy Apollo and Mercury, signaling the beginning of the Great Robot War which overthrew the old gods. The victory led to a time of slavery and oppression by the robot victors, until they in turn were overthrown with the help of a Trojan Horse.
"Domiclese is no hero to me. He helped bring about the even worse rule of the Titans," said Odysseus with a scowl.
"But now you've defeated the Titans at Troy, so men are free," said Dipper. "Without my part it wouldn't have happened."
"Good for you, bro-bro," said Mabel.
Odysseus nodded. "King Domiclese, what you say has merit. You and your companions will be treated as our friends and allies. But we are still lost at sea. It will take a long time before I can return to my home country of Ithaca and help you return to your own land."
As the ship sailed on, Dipper and Mabel explained to Shaggy what had happened.
"Zoinks, that was a close call," said Shaggy. "Lucky for us you have the same birthmark as this Domiclese guy."
"If is is luck..." Dipper said softly.
The old sailor who had spoken up for them before came closer, and asked, "King Domiclese, the legends say that as a reward for your help the Titans sent you and your sister Callisto to the far future, to live new and happier lives starting from childhood again. What is it like there?"
"It's, umm, an interesting place. There are chariots that run without horses, and others that carry people through the air," said Dipper.
"Amazing," said the sailor. "And now you are back for good?"
"I'm only back to get the Sword of Domiclese, that is, my sword," said Dipper. "It is needed for a mission in the future time."
"One of your men may have kept that for you, sire," said the sailor. "I hope you will find it when you return to your native land. It was a great trophy of your victory over Apollo and Mercury, was it not? The sword they thought to threaten you with when you challenged them, hanging it over your head by a thread."
"Umm, yeah, that sword," said Dipper.
"Tell me, what do you know about his sister, Callisto?" asked Mabel.
"It was a tragic tale," said the sailor. "She was seduced by the god Zeus in the form of the goddess Diana, whom she worshiped and loved. She gave birth to a son, a boy named Arkas. But plotting among the gods led to both her and her son being made into the constellations of the Great Bear and the Little Bear. That is why Domiclese bears the mark of the seven brightest stars in the Great Bear, in his sister's memory."
"She's a constellation?" asked Mabel. "But, I was thinking that maybe I could be her."
"You most likely are, if you are the sister to Domiclese in the future world," said the sailor. "The legend is that the spirit of Callisto was placed in a new body. Both she and her brother were made young again and sent forward in time."
"But what about her son?" asked Mabel. "Was he left behind?"
"Since they were coming back as children, he could not be with them right away. But it was promised that she would meet her son again one day in the future."
"Land ho!" came a cry from aloft.
The sailor bowed. "Now I must return to my work and help with the landing."
"Dipper... is it possible they could really be us?" asked Mabel.
"I don't know," said Dipper. "It sort of fits... I mean, my birthmark is a pretty strange coincidence."
"Like, please explain," said Shaggy.
"Res, please," said Scooby.
The twins told the Mystery Inc. members what they had learned about the legend.
"You realize what this means?" said Shaggy. "Like, put that together with what Soos said about being a demigod, with a deadbeat Zeus dad and a missing mom, and you'll see that..."
"Soos is my son!" said Mabel.