Disclaimer: I don't own Scoobert Doo or any of his friends, OK? All I own is bratty little Dylan.
"You think he did it?" Dylan asked Velma as they rode on a bus. Velma wasn't answering. She was thinking critically about what happened back in the museum. Dylan folded her arms. "OK…pretend I didn't say anything…" Velma still wasn't listening. She was caught too deep in thought.
"…It doesn't fit…" Velma murmured. There was a problem with the mystery. Why on earth will Thomson tell that he went out to buy G-13 screws, if he was the one who stole the sweater? A real criminal would've dropped too many clues if he did that. Velma tapped on Dylan.
"Dylan, I don't think he did it." Velma concluded. She knew Dylan wouldn't take it calmly. A major torpedo was coming her way. She was expecting some kind of a rant or something, but Dylan had another way of being angry…
"Why must you make it so difficult for me to get an A, Velma?" Dylan's cold, piercing and emotionless voice rattled in Velma's ears. Velma looked at Dylan. The teen was looking outside the moving bus. The girl was already radiating a great deal of upset. Velma wanted her to have great career day, but what was happening now was the complete opposite. But she was only doing her job as a mentor.
"Look, Dylan…when you solve a mystery, you don't dive in headfirst into conclusions." Velma instructed. Dylan scowled slightly and rolled her eyes. "You always collect clu-"
"The man said that he bought G-13's!!!" Dylan exclaimed. "Can't you, like, take that as a confession already!?"
"He didn't do it because he DID confess that he bought G-13's!!!" Velma was now starting to completely hit the roof. Dylan fell still. She may be a punky brat, but she was still an open-minded person. Velma was right. If he was the criminal, he would've lied about it or not say that he went to the hardware store to buy the screws. Dylan was silent for a while. Velma wasn't speaking either. They were both looking in the opposite direction from each other. There was a short period of silence.
"…I am such a turd." Dylan simply said. She wanted to say, "I'm wrong", but she has a potty-mouth reputation to live up to, and an ego to protect.
"Don't say that, Dylan." Velma sympathetically said. She heard a mild grumble. Velma felt her stomach and found out that she was hungry. "Look, why don't we get something to eat? It's nearly lunch anyway." Dylan had a real smile on her face as she nodded, something Velma never really expected from her student.
Meanwhile, in Daphne's scenario…
"Here we are, kiddo." Daphne exclaimed happily. The nerdy kid was so confused.
"…Why exactly are we here…?" The kid asked squeamishly. The two were outside a huge building with a gigantic sign that said…
"The Coolsville Supermall!" Daphne chimed in. "Come one, kid. We've got a lot of work to do." She said, dragging the nerdy kid inside the mall. A large directory was the first thing that greeted them as soon as they entered the mall.
"Ah, yes! The directory!" Daphne said with a broad smile. She trailed one finger down the directory until she found what she's looking for. "OK, here we are! Let's go, kid. We're going to the salon." She said, lugging the kid further into the mall.
Back to Velma and Dylan…
Dyl and Velms got off the bus and were now in front of the mall. They entered it to have a nice burger or something. Dylan spotted a McDonald's fast food chain immediately.
"Look, a McDonald's. I want to eat. I'm starving." Dylan pointed at a Ronald McDonald statue visible from the outside the food chain. Velma beamed lightly at the girl. She checked her wallet.
"(Oh, god. I'm broke.)" She worried, sweat dripping down from her forehead. Her wallet was as empty as their stomachs. She turned to Dylan and tried to ask her for money.
"…Do I look like a bank to you?" Dylan boorishly answered. Velma knitted her brows. Dylan sat on a nearby bench. They were in the mall square, where the fountain was. Velma sat down next to Dylan.
"…Great. We have no money, we're starving and we just left a mystery still unsolved." Dylan cursed. "How am I supposed to get my grade now?" Velma heaved a sigh of intimidation and anxiety. Splendid, just splendid. This was the kind of thing Velma feared would happen. The student wasn't enjoying herself one bit, and she's being dogged by the kid's attitude problem. She was feeling that she wasn't being a good mentor. Dylan on the other hand, was very upset. Instead of investigating the burglary, there they were sitting hungry in the mall square, watching little kids throw nickels into the fountain. But then an evil idea struck Dylan. To Velma's immediate surprise, Dylan went into the fountain and started collecting coins from its bottom. People who saw them had the same reaction. Others laughed, while others started to call the attention of mall police.
"What the hell are you doing!!??" Velma frantically screamed, running to the fountain. "Do you want to get arrested or something?" She tried to get Dylan out of there before the mall's authorities come into the scene.
"Do you want to eat or not?" Dylan asked, irritated, gathering as many coins as she can.
"Yes, I mean, no, I mean- oh, just get out of there!" Velma fretted, clenching her fists in uneasiness. Dylan ignored her and continued collecting. Suddenly both of them heard a man shout.
"Look, there's the trouble-maker!" The man was accompanied by the mall authorities. He was pointing at Dylan, who was caught red-handed pilfering the fountain of the coins.
"Uh-oh…" Dylan dropped some of the coins she collected. "We're in sooooo much trouble…"
"We??" Velma riposted. But before they get into another argument, the mall police came in for the apprehension. "Oh, man!!! Let's go, Dylan!" Velma grabbed Dylan's hand and made a run for it.
"Halt!!! Stop right there!" One of the authorities shouted. Soon enough, the mall police chased Dylan and Velma. Velma saw that the mall cops were chasing them.
"See this snag you got us in???" Velma said while running, still holding the dripping wet Dylan.
"Well…uh…if you weren't broke, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!" Dylan's reason was obviously blown out of proportion. Velma didn't talk back. All she wants to do now is to get Dylan to a safe place where the police won't capture her. The mall police was totally gaining on them. But then, to Velma's instant panic, Dylan pulled her hand from Velma's grip and stopped running.
"What is up with you?" Velma asked alarmed. "The mall authorities will detain you!" Dylan simply crossed her arms.
"…Please. Just shut up and trust me." Dylan garbled. Velma didn't know what the girl was talking about. She went back to Dylan, just to find out that the mall police was already very near. The mall police then reached Velma and Dylan. Dylan had better act fast.
"Good gravy! The hooligan dragged Ms. Dinkley into this mess!" A mall cop was astonished to see Velma with Dylan. "Don't worry Ms. Dinkley. We'll apprehend this delinquent!" Dylan tried to make a diversion to panic the cops. She grabbed Velma and threatened to hurt her. The mall police was alarmed.
"What are you doing!?" Velma whispered in nervousness.
"I'll get us out of here, just trust me, OK?" Dylan hissed back.
"Oh no! She's attempting to take a hostage!" The mall cops screamed. "Rescue Ms. Dinkley! Now! GO! GO!" The leader instructed. They rushed to Dylan, armed with a net gun and a pair of handcuffs.
"Dylan!" Velma shouted. Dylan took a deep breath and recited an "incantation". This was when Velma's nightmares were finally coming true. Dylan was reciting some sort of "spell".
"Stirips deeh ym llac…" Dylan recited. Velma was being freaked out. All the thoughts she had about Dylan being just an occult fan slowly turned into thoughts of her student being a modern day witch. The mall cops heard the creepy charm as well. "…Dael su yawa morf eht regnad erofeb su!" To the mall police's surprise, a red cloud of smoke suddenly appeared in front of them and was enveloping both Dylan and Velma.
"Don't let the smoke bother you! Proceed with the rescue!!!" Commanded the leader. But as soon as the smoke cleared up, to the cops' bewilderment, there was no one there. It couldn't have been a smoke bomb, thought the leader. The kid didn't throw anything on the ground to generate the smoke. …But how exactly did they escape?
Somewhere in the mall…
"… whew Good, we lost them…" Dylan heaved a heavy sigh of relief. Velma, on the other hand, was already at quitting point. She stared queerly at her student, who returned with a bored look.
"What? Is there a bug on my face?" Dylan asked mockingly. Velma shook her head. The woman in orange leaned against a wall and slid her back down until she was sitting on the floor. She was extremely exhausted. Crazy ideas ran through her mind again.
"(Oh, damn it! This is just what I feared!)" She thought. "(The girl's engaging in black magic!)" For the first time ever, Velma had no explanation for the phenomenon Dylan just pulled. The girl in black didn't drop anything to create the smoke. The kid recited uncanny words that she found really disheartening…or was she just being too absurd?
"Put yourself together, Velma!!!" Velma screamed at herself, almost tearing her hair in half (figuratively speaking of course!). Dylan looked at her with crescent gray eyes.
"Come on." Dylan said in her usual accent. She reached into her pocket. Velma heard some tinkling from the pocket. She swore they were the nickels Dylan stole from the fountain. "I think we have enough money for a pretzel." But Velma wasn't budging. Dylan sighed thickly.
"Okay, I know what you're thinking!" Dylan said. "Look, I'm not a witch OK? I'll explain to you later."
"What? I wasn't-" Velma tried to get her defense up, but Dylan blocked her.
"You know, it doesn't take a genius such as yourself to see that you're so afraid of me." Dylan taunted in her aloof tone. Velma said nothing. She appeared to be still shocked "… sigh I'm not gonna cut your head off and shrink it, OK? Come on. We've got to eat." Dylan extended one white hand. Velma smiled at her student and took her hand. And you know what? Today's events keep on getting pretty unexpected. Velma was looking at Dylan's face, seeing something that was seldom there.
"Wh-what? Do I have a zit or something?" Dylan asked, as Velma kept on looking at her face. "I didn't put anything on my face, OK!" But Velma had a different answer.
"Yes you did." The older woman said, pushing her glasses up her nose. "And you should put on that smile more often." And for the first time, Dylan felt herself feeling flushed.
Dylan and Velma were eating pretzels near the pretzel stand in the mall. Dylan used her "stashed" money to buy them the food, and luckily, the mall cops weren't bugging them again so far.
"…Finally, food!" Dylan said, taking a sip from her soda.
"So…" Velma suddenly said. "How did you do it, Houdini?"
"Do what?"
"You know, the witch- er, the little chant?"
"Oh…that." Dylan had the tone of boredom in her voice and dropped her heavy lids again. "What else? Smoke screens." Dylan said, throwing a small pellet into the ground. The pellet generated a red cloud of smoke, just like the one earlier.
"But…you didn't…" Velma incoherently said.
"I watch shows on how witchcraft is exposed…I mean, I'm totally into that stuff…" Dylan explained, taking a bite of her pretzel. Velma almost spat out her soda.
"…Excuse me?" Velma said hesitantly.
" sigh I told you before, I just like that stuff. The truth is witchcraft is so similar to magic you see on TV." Dylan explicated. Velma wasn't sure if she wanted to believe her student. "It's just a matter of how fast your hands are. In my case, I've mastered the smoke screen tick."
"So…the smoke was just…a phony?" Velma asked. "Wow. You're pretty good with tricks."
"I told you my probable career might as well be khaning people." Dylan joked. "With hands like these, I'm gonna make millions."
"So none of the chanting was real?" Velma asked to be sure and safe. Dylan finished her pretzel and started to walk off. She stopped and looked at Velma.
"I'm afraid so." Dylan said. Then there was a short pause. "…I'm afraid it was 75 hoax…" Dylan smiled as Velma ceased eating and looked at her panicky. "Hehe…just kidding." Velma smiled happily. Just then, at the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a man entering a nearby hallway. He was wearing a blue jumpsuit. Yeah, we all know who this is.
"Jinkies…it's Mr. Thomson." Velma muttered. She grabbed Dylan and pointed to him. "Come on, Dyl. I think we'd better see what he's up to."