Chapter Five
The Failure Five
April 5, 2013, 11:00 p.m.
Crystal Cove
The Air World/The Earth World
Fred stared at the already opened barrier that was once the first door to the cursed treasure of Crystal Cove—or as they later found out, the Evil Entity's lair. He then looked towards his friends and slowly made eye contact with Marcie Fleach. He frowned as he saw what she was trying to do: she was trying to buy them time to destroy the Entity. He knew that leaving Marcie alone with his parents was a death sentence, but he had no other choice.
"We have to go! Let's go while we have the chance!" he exclaimed to his friends. They couldn't stay for too long, they couldn't fight back; not with Pericles ready to hurt them if he could.
"No, I can't leave Marcie! I won't do it, not without her." Velma exclaimed, her eyes wide in desperation and fear. She didn't dare to move.
"You have to! Go on, destroy the Entity while you have the chance! I believe in every single one of you!" Marcie said as she held Pericles by the neck. "I'll hold him off for as long as I can."
Velma wanted to voice her objection to the decision, but it was too late. Shaggy had already pulled her away, leaving Marcie to fend for herself. As they passed through the door and went across the bridges that led them to the second door, the gang heard the sound of gunfire in the distance. Scooby whined as he turned around to look at Velma, who didn't dare to look anyone in the eyes. Everyone knew what it meant at that point, there was no point denying it.
Shaggy sighed, trying to show some encouragement to the others. "Like, we have to go. We can't stay here for much longer."
And so they did.
Once they had arrived at the second door, Velma fell to her knees. She looked towards Shaggy, Daphne, and then Fred, until she looked over to Scooby. Tears were trying to spill from her eyes, but she wiped them away before they could fall.
"Velma, we–" Daphne tried to say, but Velma had stopped her from continuing.
"Let's just go." Velma quickly said, and without another word, she walked towards Shaggy and grabbed the backpack. She looked through it until she found the bowl.
"Like, Velms. We should talk."
"No, I'm fine." Velma said, kneeling down to put dirt into the bowl.
"Velma, let me do it. It could be a trap for all we know." Fred started. He began to fear that whatever the door had in store for them—it wouldn't be good. But Velma didn't think much of it.
"Let's hope it is, then."
Daphne grabbed her friend's shoulder before she could step anywhere near the door. "Velma, we're your friends. You don't have to treat us like we aren't. She made the choice to help us–"
"What choice?! You don't have the right to talk about what was her choice or not!" Velma snapped, pushing the redhead's hand away. "She's dead! We left her to die! My friend is dead, and there is nothing I can do about it!"
Suddenly, the bowl glowed in a dark green. Noticing the grief in Velma's voice, Daphne took Velma into her arms to give her a hug. "Listen to me. Marcie wouldn't want you to be like this."
Velma frowned, looking away from her friend.
"She would want you to finish this. To finish what this thing started– who knows how long ago."
For a solid minute, Velma didn't dare to look Daphne in the eyes. Again she felt tears piling up in her eyes. She didn't want to show them just how broken she was, but she was doing it anyway.
"...I'm sorry I snapped at you."
"It's okay, we're all in this together, Velms. Let's put an end to this. For Marcie." Daphne assured her by giving her a sincere smile.
"Like, for Marcie!" Shaggy exclaimed, hugging both Daphne and Velma in a tight hug. "We'll like, destroy that thing and get her back! One way or another!"
"Shaggy, I don't think it works that wa–" Daphne started to say before Fred cut in.
"He's right, we'll get her back. Don't worry, Velms." Fred said confidently. He gave a small smile to her and nodded to himself. "If this Entity corrupted all of Crystal Cove, it could probably be affecting the reality of things too. We can get her back, and maybe fix everything that's wrong with Crystal Cove."
Velma pulled away from the hug, looking at everyone. "But I thought you weren't very fond of Marcie because she wasn't like Daphne."
"So that's what you told her! I was wondering why she gave you that look like she was going to kick your ass or something." Daphne said, crossing her arms. She furrowed her eyebrows at Fred. "Why the hell did you tell her that?"
"I was uh... uh… I was at a low poin–"
"Frederick Jone– Chi– Whoever you are! Just because she was helping you while I was stupidly dating an asshole, doesn't mean you should degrade her!" Daphne said.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know what I was saying, okay?"
"Renough, rhere ir no time! Re hare to go!" Scooby Doo exclaimed to his human companions and looked at the door.
"Like, Scoobs is right! Velma, do the honors."
Velma nodded and walked towards the scale in front of the door. She stared at it for a while before putting the bowl on it.
The bowl glowed again, but this time, Velma felt her body being electrocuted with 1,000 volts as she was pushed away from the bowl. She fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably from the sudden trap.
"Velma!" Daphne cried out as she ran towards her friend. She held her close and was startled when someone long dead came into vision.
Ed Machine, former henchman of Mr. E, appeared before them. But this Ed Machine was different: his eyes glowed green, and his body, while worn out from the time that had passed since his demise, didn't look decayed, but still had a green-ish color to it.
"Ed Machine!" Daphne yelled, anger evident in her voice. "What are you doing here?!"
The man laughed as he looked at everyone. "Ed Machine is gone, my children. It is I, your creator." he introduced himself.
"Like, zoinks! That is so wrong!" Shaggy said as he shook in fear, cowering behind Fred.
"You're not here, you're still trapped! Even if you influenced the town, one thing is for sure: you're not our creator!" Daphne said with determination. She growled slightly at the possessed body. "You're just a manipulator!"
"Oh, but I am. I made you become friends, remember? I made you who you are. I made your dreams, nightmares, desires. You are my creations, destined to join me in conquering the universe." the Entity said, a smirk written on his features. "Abandon the idea of destroying me. Help me, and once I rule... I'll help you."
Fred shook his head, stepping away from Shaggy and closer to Daphne and Velma. "Forget it! We're here to destroy you! Not to join you!"
"Oh, but you will. Mark my words, my children. Emotions can do a lot to a person." the possessed body said, its eyes slowly looking over at Velma.
"Especially grief."
While still shaken up by the trap, Velma looked towards the possessed henchman. She slowly shook her head at this.
The possessed body of Ed Machine laughed as it backed away from the group.
...
Shaggy and Daphne helped Velma walk throughout the rest of the Earth World's path. Fred was in front of them, trying to think of a plan to stop both his parents and Pericles for good.
While Velma wanted to help him plan a strategy, her mind was elsewhere. The words that Ed Machine had spoken still lingered in her mind, and every time she tried not to think of it too much, they would appear again before her.
"Emotions can do a lot to a person. Especially grief."
"Hey, Velma?"
Velma snapped out of her thoughts quickly, looking over at Shaggy. "Yeah?" She could only say, as her next word would be a grunt from a bad step she had taken.
"Sorry, my fault." Daphne said, holding onto Velma a little tighter. "Are you okay?"
"Like, Daph, you took the words right out of my mouth. I was just about to ask her." Shaggy gave a small laugh, then said, "But yes, are you okay? Like, you've been quiet. Like, too quiet."
Velma looked at both her friends and sighed. Would she lie to them? Tell them she was fine and be done with it? No… Shaggy could always tell who was lying to him, or lying in general. It was in his nature, it was understandable. He was just worried– no, he IS worried. Worried for her, worried for everyone.
Daphne would know that something was wrong and try to fix it somehow, even if it wasn't her problem.
Seeing Daphne like this scared her for some reason. Velma knew that she was just trying to help in one way or another, but Velma didn't like receiving help from others.
"I don't know guys, I don't know if I'm okay." Velma said. It was at least half true. She didn't know what she was feeling. Scared, because of what they were going to do? Grief, because of Marcie?
"I don't know if I'm ready to find out what's behind those last two doors... and what is going to happen once we destroy it."
Silence lingered in the air for a while before Daphne spoke her mind. "I know what's going to happen." she said with assurance.
"Like, you do?" Shaggy asked, scratching the back of his head in thought.
"Of course! We destroy the Entity, capture Pericles, and get Marcie back. Simple. It's easy and foolproof." Daphne said, clapping her hands together as she continued. "I'll personally make sure that it happens. I promise."
Velma shook her head. It was crazy talk in her opinion, and it didn't make much sense in her mind. "You need to put more thought into that plan... Besides, what if it doesn't work?"
"What?"
"What if we can't get her back? What if we don't stop Pericles? What if we can't destroy the Entity?" Velma asked, quickly adding, "What if we are actually heading straight towards our deaths?"
"Not going to happen." Fred cut in, "Not when all of us are here. We can do this, together. We're the only ones who can do this. We have the Heart of the Jaguar and that's all that should matter from this point on."
"Reddy ir right." Scooby said, wagging his tail.
"Come on, we have to keep going." Fred said, his hand in front of his friend. "We'll destroy it, I promise."
For a moment, everyone looked at each other, waiting for any input on the matter. Surprisingly, Shaggy's hand was on Fred's first.
"Like, there's no going back."
Daphne's hand rested on Shaggy's. "Whatever the Entity tells us, I don't believe it. We aren't his creations, we are who we are because of us."
Velma nodded, her hand on top of Daphne's. They were in this together until the end. That's what should matter to her right now.
They continued their walk until they finally found the second door. Everyone stared at the wall of water, thinking about how to get through it. Shaggy instinctively looked through the backpack and found the Spaniard's helmet and pushed it into the wall.
"Shaggy, wait–" Freddy quickly warned, but it was too late. The wall had started to fall. Fred quickly held on to the supposed door and realized that it wasn't actually a door—it was a boat.
"Everyone on the boat, now!" Fred screamed as he put the boat down, getting the attention of the others. He made sure everyone was on the boat before he got in himself. But, something caught his eye right before he had his foot in: He saw one of Pericles' robots running towards them. Fred cursed himself as he realized that Pericles was catching up to them.
Fred quickly pushed the boat into the cascading water and got into it. The robot stopped as it neared the end of the rocky cliff and looked down towards Mystery Incorporated the Second.
Velma looked towards the cliff and saw the German robot staring at her intently. Velma's mind quickly made up a plan to stop Pericles once and for all.
Even if she had to die trying.
April 6, 2013 5:30 a.m.
Crystal Cove
Fire World
After the brief mental crisis Shaggy had suffered a few minutes earlier, the young Mystery Incorporated stood in front of the last door: the fire door, which led to the Entity's chambers.
"This is it gang, let's make it count." Fred said, as he took out the flintlock from the bag. Once the old gun was in his hand, it glowed, until Fred had to drop it. "Ow!"
"Are you okay, Fred?" Daphne asked, checking his hand for any burns.
Fred nodded at her reassuringly. "I'm okay Daph, the flintlock was just hot. That's all."
Daphne frowned, grabbing the flintlock carefully. To her surprise, the flintlock wasn't hot. It was cold. "What are you talking about, Fred? The flintlock is cold to the touch."
"What?"
Shaggy grabbed the gun, quickly dropping it as it burned his hand. "Like, zoinks! Are you sure Daph? Like, it's freaking hot!"
"I'm serious." Daphne said, grabbing the Flintlock again. "See? It's not hurting me."
"Maybe you should do the honors, Daphne." Fred suggested. "Go on, open the d–"
"W-w-wait!" Velma interrupted, "Before we open the door to whatever is in there... we should say our final goodbyes."
But before any of them could speak, German robots surrounded the group, forcing them to drop the flintlock, the bag, and the Heart of the Jaguar.
"Pericles! But row?" Scooby questioned as a growl escaped from him.
"Ah, my dear kinder. No matter what happens, I will have my treasure. I will release the master, and I will release hell on earth." the small purple parrot said.
"We are really disappointed in you, son." Brad Chiles said, crossing his arms. "Leaving your dear friend behind to take us down? Please. It seems that you kids don't remember who we are. Right Judy?"
"Yes Brad, I agree."
Velma gave a snarl. "You bastards. You're all a bunch of lunatics. You had... no right."
"Like, Velms..."
"Oh no, Velma. I had every right to kill her. She was an obstacle that I had to get rid of. I know you understand it perfectly."
Velma furrowed her eyebrows and growled, "You're wrong. You're also an obstacle to it. You're just a pawn for that thing, just like everyone else in this chamber. If it wants something dead, you do as it wants and kill for it. You're no different than the rest of us. You're just a minion, and when it's done with you, it'll kill you as well."
Daphne's eyes widened, looking at Velma from the corner of her eyes. In her mind, the words of the possessed Ed Machine started to make sense to her already.
"Emotions can do a lot to a person. Especially grief. Right, Velma?"
"Really? Is that what you think of me, Velma? You have a lot of nerve to tell me I'm just a pawn while I have my Kriegstaffelbots ready at my disposal. Do you really want to die spilling these useless lies?" Professor Pericles threatened. The robot he was perched on started to move towards the brunette.
Fred stepped in front of the robot, interrupting its path purposefully. "Don't you dare hurt her. I'm warning you."
Before Pericles could command his robot to destroy the gang, Ed Machine appeared, pushing both the robot and Fred away from each other. "That is quite enough, you've all done well."
Mr. E, also known as Ricky Owens, was startled by the appearance of his former right-hand man.
"The sacrifice has been made, without it you wouldn't be here. Why do you think the groups that I created before you perished when they slowly found pieces of the Planispheric Disk?"
"Like, are you telling us that Marcie's death was part of your scheme?!" Shaggy questioned, his nerves getting the better of him.
The man nodded, a smirk written on his face. "No, it's part of the prophecy. The same that tells you to release me, rather than to destroy me."
"Forget it, we're destroying you. No more distractions from you!" Daphne said, running towards the undead body, her fist ready to connect with his head. But he had other plans. As the fist connected, Ed Machine disappeared, making Daphne accidentally put the flint to the lock of the fire door. The door caught on fire, blinding everyone in the area except for the possessed body of Ed Machine, who gave a smirk at the sight of the last door of his imprisonment. For him, everything went according to plan.
"The door has been opened. If you wish to have your dreams fulfilled, seek me out. Once you have joined me, I will give you everything you want and more. I will be waiting..." With that, the body left, leaving everyone to their thoughts.
Judy Reeves looked towards her husband, waiting for his okay to have his belt. Once Brad caught on to the plan, he gave his belt to his wife.
Judy then quickly whipped the belt towards the redhead, catching her arm with it. She smirked to herself as Daphne screamed in pain, remembering that the twerp was actually allergic to fake animal skin. She pulled the teen towards both her and Brad and quickly wrapped the belt around her throat.
"Daphne!" Fred screamed, "Let her go! Now!"
Judy shook her head at this and suggested, "Not a chance, sweetie. You'll have to ask the professor to let her go."
"Let me go, you fucking coward. When I get my hands on you, you'll be sor– AGGHH!" Daphne threatened, before it quickly became a grunt as Judy tightened the hold of her neck with the belt.
Professor Pericles chuckled darkly, "This is really unfortunate, my kinder. Especially for you, Frederick. I really thought that we could join forces to release our master, but now in order for you to have your dear Daphne back, you must do whatever I say... Unless you want me to command my robots to finish the job..."
"Fine... whatever, I'll do what you want." Fred said, surrendering.
Daphne clenched her teeth, anger evident on her face. "Fred! Don't listen to him! I can get out of this, really!"
'Daphne's in trouble... What should I do? What if it happens again? Another death on my hands. First Marcie... now Daph–' Velma thought, but a voice interrupted her thoughts.
The voice didn't come from anyone in the group, but it was somehow... familiar to her. "You're thinking too much of it."
Velma shook her head at this, shaking the voice away. When she looked up, everyone was frozen in place. Velma panicked slightly at the sight. Was it a dream? Was she actually dreaming all of this, and Marcie was actually alive? Could it be?
"You're not dreaming this. I stopped it for you, I see potential in you." The voice called out again, this time closer to Velma than before. When she turned around, the image of a hooded figure stood before her. Velma took a few steps back, startled by the newcomer.
"Jinkies, who are you? Why did you stop it? Pericles has the upper hand, I can't do anything about it." Velma said.
The figure smirked under the hood, then said, "I know how you feel, I've felt it. You and I are the same, we became what we are because we lost someone we loved the most. There's one thing you do to stop Pericles Velma… But you have to do one thing..."
"And that is?"
"In order to stop Pericles and get your revenge for Marcie, you need to make a pact with the Entity."
Velma shook her head. "Another one of his tricks? Forget it, I'm not interested. I'm here to destroy it, not to join sides. Tell him to get it through his skull, if he has one."
"Velma, you don't know what you're about to get into. Your friends will suffer a worse fate if you don't make the pact, you have to do it, one way or another… Trust me on that..." The figure walked away from her. "When you have decided, you'll know what to do. You were always the smart one. I know you will make the right decision. Aren't I right?"
Just as the figure was out of her sight, time suddenly continued. She looked towards her friends and then at the German parrot. 'Enough is enough, I'm putting an end to this.' She stepped towards Pericles and said, "Fred's not going to do what you want."
Pericles frowned at this, his claws slightly tearing the German robot's arm. "What?"
"We will all do it, including Daphne. Under one condition."
"Go on."
"Scooby doesn't go in, not while you're around."
Scooby's eyes widened, as both Shaggy and Fred looked at one another.
Daphne slowly moved her head down to look at Velma. From where she stood, Velma didn't even look fazed after suggesting something so daring. She was starting to fear what Velma would suggest next. 'What are you trying to pull, Velms?' Daphne asked herself, as if Velma could reply to her telepathically.
Pericles' eyes widened at the condition. "Do you know what you are asking, Dinkley?"
"The Entity wants the best vessel to take over from, if I'm right... The Entity wants Scooby... but Scooby is not the right vessel for it. You, however—you're something else, and I know that you wouldn't want the opportunity of ultimate power to be given to some animal like him, am I right? You don't want to waste any precious time with him." Velma persuaded. She felt anxious as she waited for Pericles' answer, but somehow, she knew that this would work.
"Interesting, you really are one intelligent girl…" Pericles muttered, "But how will I know this isn't a trick from all of you?"
"We don't have killer robots like you do, If we do something you'll just kill us on the spot… No matter what we try, you already proved that to an innocent teen…" Velma said, her hands balling into fists as memories of Marcie began to appear in her mind. "We lost already."
Fred frowned, looking over at his parents. He sighed as he nodded, "She's right, you won. We played in your hands easily… Just… Let our friend go… Please."
Pericles looked towards the two adults nodding at them to release the redhead completely.
Judy released Daphne completely, kicking the teen to the ground. "We're happy that you made such a wise friend there Freddy, maybe you should learn a thing or two from her… Not from the traitorous Blake here…"
"Nnhh, I fuckin-"
"Daphne."
Daphne looked up at Velma, staring into her eyes. The brunette's gaze felt cold and harsh towards her, it was like she was a different person over the small period of time they were stuck in the 4th dimension. One moment she was a crying and suffering mess over the loss of Marcie and then she turned…
Into something else…
It wasn't Velma anymore for now on...
In the shadows, the figure that had talked to Velma moments earlier stared intently at what was happening and frowned. Velma had made her decision, just as Feralle had planned. Now, the only thing she had to do was to make a pact with the Entity, and everything would fall into place just as the demon had predicted.
'Using Pericles' pride to your advantage, huh Velma? Ferralle was right, you were going to fall into the Entity's hands one way or another… Which means it's already starting… The real Nibiru is beginning to take shape.' The figure thought as they followed the two groups, minus the dog, into the chamber. They stared at the dog for a while until they voiced, "Little dog… Come with me… I will take you back to the surface."
"Rill my friendr rtop Pericles?"
"Your friends will stop the parrot, but will not stop the being that's trapped. But I know how we can stop it… I know that you may not trust me at first… But understand that my intentions are good..." the figure said, walking with the great dane away from the fire chamber. The being looked back, sensing the doors closing on their own. "They are on their own… But know that they will be okay if they stay together…"
Scooby Doo gulped, sensing grave danger as the door to the Entity's chamber solidified. Not letting anyone else into the chamber, he hoped that what the hooded figure said was true… that they would be fine without him...
Oh, how wrong he was...