Part Four

"Zoinks! Scooby Doo, where are you?"

Shaggy found himself in a room of blazing whiteness and scrambled to his feet. The room felt like it went on forever, yet at the same time was just big enough to hold him. He reached out to put a hand on the wall and fell flat on his face.

"Ouch"

"No not try to escape Mr Rodgers. You will find that breakout is quite impossible"

The voice came from far in the distance and down the back of Shaggy's neck simultaneously. Was he looking down on him or had the sick freak hoisted him high above so people could look up at him? He pulled himself, back onto his feet and found he couldn't see more than a metre in front of him. He squinted into the brightness.

"I was back on the rocket with the gang. There was no air" He double taked, "Am I in heaven?"

"No Mr Rodgers, you're quite safe… for now"

"What do you mean, man?" Shaggy asked, "Where's the crew? Where's scoob?"

"All your questions, will be answered in time." The voice replied, "In the mean time, try to get some rest."

Velma found herself in a room of darkness. Once again, the voice called out to her from all directions at different pitches and volumes.

"Jinkies!" she squirmed, clamping her hands over her ears "Stop that!"

The voice stabilized and finally the words became audible.

"Velma-elma-elma-elma-elma-ma-ma-ma-ma-a, Velma-elma-elma-elma-elma-ma-ma-ma-ma-a, please-ease-ease-ease-ease, help-elp-elp-elp-elp!"

"What? Who? Who is that?" she called

"Velma-elma-elma-elma-elma-ma-ma-ma-ma-a, they've-ey've- ey've- ey've-ve-ve-ve, got me-got me-ot me-ot me-t me-t me-me-me-me-ehh" The voice echoed on

"Who's got you?" Velma asked.

"Jeepers-eepers-eepers-pers-pers-ers-ers! Creeper-reeper-reeper-eeper-eeper-per-er!"

"Daphne? Is that you?" Velma replied "You see the creeper?"

She took one step forward, but it was enough. She'd walked face-first into a wall and crushed her glasses. "oh no" She groaned "Now, I can't see even if there is light"

Fred could hear Daphne's voice too. "I don't know who you are, but you're a sick individual and should be locked up! What have you done with Daphne?"

Shaggy's voice came from six feet behind him. "Like Fred, what's all the shouting man?"

"Shaggy?"

"Who else? Look, I'd like to talk to you" the voice said "It was about what you said to Daphne"

Fred realised he'd now admitted his feelings for Daphne in front of the whole gang. "Um…Yeah?" he cautiously replied.

"Well, what she said to you wasn't true dude" Shaggy said "She loves me!"

"WHAT?" came Fred's response

"Oh yeah, we've been seeing each other for a while" Shaggy continued casually "She only sees you because she feels sorry for you not having a girl. I expect she feels the same about me, she's been dating half of Coolsville!"

"You're lying!"

"I wish I was Fred" said Shaggy "Truth is, she just can't say no to anyone! Ha! Ha! Including me. I make good use of her, sending her down the pizzeria to get food at any time of the day"

"You stole my girlfriend and then used her as a Pizza Girl!" Fred yelled, clearly enraged "Not only did you betray me, but you treat women like waitresses! You're a class five idiot!"

"Say that again Fred!" Said Shaggy sternly

"I SAID, you're a class five IDIOT, beatnik!" Fred roared.

Before he knew it they were both down on the ground in a mass of thrashing limbs and flying fists. Fred had made the first move, unable to contain his anger and shoved Shaggy onto the ground with a thud, but the slacker had countered him straight away but grabbing his foot and bringing him onto the ground too, only he landed particularly vulnerable on his back, giving Shaggy ample time to deliver a few nasty blows to his face, but his first opportunity came to fight back and kick him in the stomach, breaking the too of them apart and giving Fred the upper hand. "Perhaps a knuckle-sandwich will satisfy your hunger" he snarled, giving him just that. Getting to his feet and examining his bloody knuckles, he realised something was wrong.

"Like, groovy groovy g-g-g-g-groovy scoob scoob sc-sc-sc-sc-scoob"

A robot. Still standing in darkness, Fred was unable to evaluate the likeness. Still, it was better him and not the real Shaggy. He never knew he could get so out of control over his feelings for Daphne. At least he knew she returned them. Better not mention this to her or the rest of the gang when he finally located them.

Little did Fred know, Shaggy was not the only one to be mimicked by a robot as his robotic double seized hold of Daphne's neck and threw her into a corner of the pitch black room.

"Freddy, it's not true!" she wailed

"All these years behind my back with one of my best friends!" said the robot Fred "Every time I split up to search for clues, I was searching with a liar!"

"Can't we just talk about this?" Daphne stammered

"Talk? What about all those talks we had sitting on top of the mystery machine at night looking up at the stars and talking till the sun came up? And for what? For you to go behind my back with a sponge-back-boned slacker with no brains and an eating disorder!"

Daphne felt the robotic hand clamping down on her hand and getting tighter and tighter "Freddy, you're hurting me!" she screamed and was forced to let loose a kick to the chest of the robot Fred, who slowly collapsed onto the ground, exposing what it truly was.

"C-c-c-c-c-c-c'mon, gang gang gang gang g-g-g-g-g-gang…"

Pandemonium had broken out in Shaggy's room as the robot Scooby chased him throwing various non-vegetarian foodstuffs at him.

"Scoob! I did not destroy the Scooby Snack recipe from the Coolsville Patent Office, honest!" Shaggy howled as a tin of Spam narrowly missed his rear end.

"Rou've rated re for rears and rever rold me! Relma rold me ro!"

Shaggy hit the deck as a box of fillet steaks flew over his shoulder and then started running once more. "I don't hate you dude, I'm always singing your praises Scooby"

"Rou rie to ry race roo!" Scooby growled and launched himself at his owner, who screamed and ducked out of the way to see Scooby hit the wall and smash into a thousand pieces.

"Like, weird!" a shocked Shaggy remarked, "It was only a robot Scooby. I suppose the real Scooby would have eated half the things he threw, ha! Ha!"

"Well done Mr Rodgers" came the booming voice again "You have passed the first of many challenges that await you. This was an easy test, but they will get harder as the time goes on."

The black slit appeared in the brilliant whiteness, which appeared to be a door, so Shaggy walked through it and found himself in more pleasant surroundings.

"Groovy, like, some sort of café!" He observed, the fine furnishings of leather sofas, bean bag chains and a buffet which immediately caught his attention. That was, after the arrival of his best friend.

"Raggy!"

"Scooby Doo!" Shaggy cried and jumped into a bear hug with his dog. "Like, where are we?"

They peered out of a wall-to-wall window over the barren landscape that lay before them. No life seemed to be there at all, but they were about to find out there was.

They had landed on the Planet of Monsters