"Like, Fred, are we there yet? I don't know how much longer I can wait," Shaggy groaned from the back of the van.

"Try to be patient, it's only our second day of driving Shaggy, we won't get there for another three," Daphne replied.

"That's right Daph, and once we get to Washington, it'll be time to solve another mystery," Fred added excitedly.

"Like, I know, I was talking about the next rest stop, Scoob and I are totally starving," Shaggy responded, "isn't that right, Scoob?"

"Reah, starving, rehehehehe!" Scoob confirmed.

The van sat silent for a few uncomfortable seconds. Daphne turned to Fred, "Hey Freddy, one of the locals recommended a place called Sugarfoot's, maybe we could stop there before leaving town? I don't think we'll hear the last of it if we don't…"

"Sounds good to me. What do you think, Velma?" Fred asked. Velma was vigorously tapping at her phone, she seemed too engaged to notice the conversation. "Velma?" Fred reiterated.

"Sure, whatever," Velma muttered.

"Everything okay Velm?" Daphne asked with concern.

"Like, yeah, you've been more glued to that phone than Fred is to traps," Shaggy added on.

"I'm fine, just texting Marcie," Velma sternly and stoutly replied. Suddenly, everyone was thrown against the right side of the van. It was unclear where the sharp sounds of shattered glass stopped and the screams of terror and pain from the gang started. The chaos lasted only for a moment before everything went still again. No one spoke. Fred broke the silence.

"Is… is everyone alright?" Fred stammered. His entire body was blanketed in cuts, both shallow and sharp. Outside, booming crashes could be heard every few seconds, on top of car horns and screams of panic.

"I think I'm okay… my glasses, where are my glasses..." Velma replied. Clouds of dust poured into the van from the broken windows, making it difficult to breathe.

"Scooby, will you get off of me?" Daphne remarked with a weak voice from the back of the van, "I think I sprained my wrist."

"R'its not me..." Scooby's voice replied. Fred felt his way to the glove box. He ran his hand across the front, struggling for the lever. Another explosive sound went off outside.

"Got it," Fred announced as a small pop sounded from the front of the van. Shortly after, many strange mechanical noises began panging away. The rhythmic whirring and clanking in the walls of the van shook it gently. It was as if a small village of robots had come to life in the walls, bustling away, living their lives entirely unaware of the pain and suffering just outside. Daphne pushed at the person on top of her, and to her surprise, the body hit the floor of the van with a cold, metal thud. One long buzzing sound went off for a few seconds, and then a sliding sound finished with silence. Lights came on.

The gang looked in horror at what sat limply on the floor near Daphne's feet. A small pool of dark liquid grew around Shaggy's motionless body. Velma and Daphne both let out a bone-shattering shriek in unison. Scooby let out a long, painful howl.

"Calm down gang," Fred said as he climbed to the back where Shaggy and Daphne were. He dragged his index finger through the pool of liquid, examined it closely for a moment, sniffed it, and then gave it a lick.

"Freddy, what are you doing? That's Shaggy's blood," Daphne sobbed. The Mystery Machine began slowly tilting back to an upright position. Fred had rigged the van with stabilizers among many other attachments to ensure its safety. Daphne often complained of the night terrors he would have. He would wake up screaming his lungs out, the sheets soaked from tears shed in his sleep. Every time it was the same dream, but more of a memory. Fred wasn't sure which it was anymore. The Mystery Machine would explode in front of him, the heat from the blazing inferno would become so intense it would envelop his entire body, and then he would vanish. He didn't just vanish in a physical way, he felt himself vanish on a conscious level. It was as if he died, and felt the nothing that comes after, and then he would wake up. He hoped that if he knew his van was safe, if he could just make sure that it was safe, the night terrors would end.

"It's not blood Daphne, it's soup," Fred said, "Shaggy's alright, he just needs a little encouragement. Velma, you got that box of Scooby-Snacks from the store didn't you?"

"Oh, right," Velma felt around the floor for a moment before locating her glasses, "let's see they should be… actually Fred, Shaggy looks pretty hurt. Maybe we should pull out the Scooby-Snax..."

"Now's as good a time as any, Daphne?" Fred agreed.

"Right, I have them in my purse upfront, Velma would you mind?" Daphne said, pointing to her bag, which was partially spilled near the gas pedal. Velma removed a small plastic sandwich bag from the purse holding ten small biscuits. Velma carefully took one out and passed it off to Fred. Fred held the Scooby-Snax biscuit in front of Shaggy's nose, which began wrinkling. Shaggy suddenly sprang to life.

"Like, do I smell Scooby-Snax? I thought we were saving them for tonight? Hey, like what's goin' on?" Shaggy asked, looking around the van in confusion, "like great, looks like I spilled tomato soup on my shirt again, maybe it's time to go back to red, ha-hoo" he laughed.

"See gang? Shaggy's fine, now let's investigate the mystery outside," Fred declared.

"The only mystery is whether or not the people who hit us have insurance, '' Velma joked.

"Like, insurance is a whole mystery of its own to us, right Scoob?" Shaggy added, giggling with Scooby-Doo. The Mystery Machine was now completely upright, and the mechanical noises ended, replaced with the hiss of hot gas being released. Fred climbed into the front seat, and then opened the door and left the van, with each of the gang following after him.

Outside, thick dust clouded the view. They were in the suburbs. A large chunk of the road just in front of them was missing as if a scoop had been taken out that continued for another quarter of a mile, going through several homes. The rubble was burnt.

"I'd say the statistics were in our favor with this one, we were only a few meters from disintegration," Velma said, inspecting the damage.

"What could have done this, a meteor?" Daphne asked, looking through the holes in the houses for the source. They went too far for her to see the end easily.

"Looks like there could be a clue at the end of this flaming rubble, let's go gang," Fred waved as he began marching along. Velma and Daphne began to follow, but Shaggy and Scooby stood and looked at each other, they nodded.

"Like no way man, what if that thing's radioactive?" Shaggy argued. He crossed his arms and Scooby nodded in agreement.

"Aren't you forgetting Shaggy, I still have your Scooby-Snax," Fred said, waving the biscuit.

"But like come on, back me up on this one Velma, isn't this dangerous?" Shaggy pleaded to her. She looked to Shaggy and back at Fred.

"Shaggy makes a good point, we don't know much about what made this crater, but we do know it had to be powerful," Velma said. The gang felt a powerful tremor and then heard a raspy yell.

"Gyaaaa! Get away from me Hank, I don't want to have to use my full strength on you," a voice cried from a distance. The gang looked to the skies and saw a body flying up from what appeared to be the end of the crater. Another body leaped up towards it, unleashing an uppercut to the other's gut that launched him another 30 feet in the air.

"I told you not to mess with my truck, Dale," the voice of the person who threw the uppercut said. Fred recognized it as the one from the gas station earlier.

"Hank Hill..." Fred uttered. Everyone's eyes were glued to the glorious aerial combat above.

Hank landed on a roof nearby, he didn't look away from Dale for even a half-second. Dale reached the peak of his ascent and began falling back down. Hank jumped from the roof and positioned himself directly above Dale, carrying his velocity into a spinning down kick to Dale's back. This quadrupled Dale's falling speed and in the blink of an eye, he hit the road a few blocks away from the gang. A puffy cloud of red gas rose from the spot.

"Like, what's happening? Is that some kind of spooky blood gas?" Shaggy asked, his voice quivering as it often did.

"No… that gas… it's a toxically enhanced pesticide, and it's coming our way fast, run gang," Velma yelled, turning to run from the cloud. It crept over the suburb slowly, enveloping homes one by one. Hank fell into the cloud.

"Mr. Hill," Fred yelled out, Daphne turned to Fred.

"You know that guy, Fred?" She asked him. Dale leapt out from the cloud, sporting a gas mask reminiscent of a plague doctor mask. He began a speech, his voice muffled by the mask.

"You can't say I didn't warn you, Hank, I'm sorry it had to end this way," he said, softly landing on a roof safely outside the range of the cloud. He rubbed his back and began limping away.

"Hold it right there, did you think I'd fall for that sloppy substitution Jutsu?" Hank's intimidating voice boomed from within the cloud. A large blast followed by a shockwave dispersed the cloud, along with several houses.

"Like, if this goes on much longer, the casualties could hit the dozens, man" Shaggy cried out. He began hyperventilating and ran back into the Mystery Machine. Velma had fled the scene and the gang, she only ran three blocks before tripping over a curb and losing her glasses. All around her bits of hot shrapnel fell from the sky, destroying mailboxes and windshields.

"My glasses, I-" Velma's panic was interrupted by a voice.

"Here, take this and follow me," a woman said, handing Velma her glasses. She promptly put them on. The woman held out her hand, she wore a teal tank top, blue jean shorts, and large square frame glasses. The most noticeable feature was her massive feet. Velma took her hand and they ran.

"What just happened?" Daphne asked Fred, who was locked in the fight.

"Mr. Hill did something to smash the ground, it dispersed the entire cloud of gas, and a few houses too..." Fred looked down, "these guys are powerful Daphne. This could get ugly."

"I'm ready, Freddy. We've all been preparing for this, haven't we?" Daphne said to him.

Fred looked up to her. She always knew how to calm him down. He smiled. "Yeah, we have."

Hank Hill launched himself into Dale, who jumped to the side, dodging by mere centimeters. The tiles of the roofs they stood on broke off with ease at their feet. Dale swung out his right arm, as he did, small nozzles dug out of his fingertips.

"Kya," Dale yelled, as a cloud of brown mist shot out towards Hank. Hank took a deep breath and blew at it, sending the cloud back towards Dale.

'Stop shooting that damn gas at me Dale, it's making it harder for me to kick your ass," Hank said as he ripped his white t-shirt shirt off, revealing an eight pack and bulging pectoral muscles. His body snaked with veins like rivers of gold, it was like looking upon the majesty of an ancient Greek statue.

"So, you wanna play it like that, huh? Shya," Dale said, pulling at his brown button-up. Several buttons popped off. He looked down and yanked the shirt again. Two more buttons popped off, leaving only the top one. His shirt spread out like a curtain, revealing a blinding white, scrawny six-pack.

"No more games, Dale," Hank said, jumping at him with an ax kick from above. Dale crossed his arms and blocked the kick, pushing Hank off the roof and onto the road. Dale swiftly removed a pistol from his shoe and began unloading a clip at Hank, who ran along the road towards Dale, weaving between the bullets with ease. Dale's clip ran out just as Hank lept towards Dale with a punch. Dale dropped a smoke bomb and the house dropped to the floor leaving a cloud of dust in its wake.

"What happened to them?" Daphne said, moving closer to Fred for comfort.

"I don't know, I can't see that Dale guy anywhere. Could he be dead?" Fred replied, his voice cracking at the end. The dust began to settle.