(A/N: Mystery Inc. will appear in this chapter and so will Marty Lagina, his son Alex, Kevin Dykstra and his team. If you paid no attention to the author's note in the first chapter, the gang (sans Scooby, of course) is in their early-twenties. I'm pointing this out because they will be doing some light drinking in the next chapter (just a heads up) and there will be one or two alcohol references in this chapter.
If it's hard for you to imagine what the gang would look like in their twenties, just imagine how they looked in the old movies. The movies done in traditional animation, not flash animation.)
V~X-U-X~V
June 1, 2019 Allegan, Michigan
It was the late-morning hours and there were heavy rains. Along with the rainfall was a thick, fog-like mist. With these potentially dangerous meteorological dilemmas, most people choose to stay off the road, that is except for the Scooby Gang in the Mystery Machine.
Inside the van, Fred was at the wheel driving at the directions of the van's new Global Positioning System, this one was much more reliable and didn't make a bunch of snide remarks like the old one did. Meanwhile, the others were all doing their own things. Daphne was reading the latest issue of "TV Gab", Velma was on her laptop doing some research on the 4th Michigan Cavalry, since some of its soldiers used to live in the area, and Shaggy and Scooby were playing a duo-player game on Shaggy's brightly colored iPad.
Daphne looked up from her magazine and saw how murky it was outside. "Uh, Fred, I think we should stop until the rain starts to lighten up."
Fred chuckled in agreement, "I think you're right, Daphne. I can't see anything past fifty feet in this weather."
"According to my laptop, there's a museum on the local history near here," Velma suggested.
Shaggy and Scooby looked at their friends, then at each other, then back at them, "Like, as long as it's not a haunted museum, count us in!"
"How far is the museum from here?" Fred asked.
"I don't know," Velma replied, then added rather pointedly, "I've never been to Michigan."
Daphne giggled, "Good point, Vel."
Shaggy and Scooby looked over the back of the front seat, their game was on-hold because they lost too many times. "Like, can't you put the address into the GPS with your phone?" Shaggy questioned.
"Nice memory, Shag," Fred told him. "Daph, can you hand my phone over to Velma?"
She handed his phone to her and she put in the address. The route to the museum appeared on the positioning system's screen. According to the system, they were just under three miles from their destination.
They arrived at their destination in just over five minutes, they pulled into the parking lot and grabbed umbrellas. Shaggy decided to open his umbrella before going outside and it poked Scooby in the eye.
"Rouch!" He put a paw on his now watery eye.
"Whoops! Like, sorry Scoob," his best friend apologize and patted him on the head.
"Rhat's rokay," he assured and wiped away the rest of the tears.
They jumped out of the van and joined the others at the museum door. Despite their umbrellas, they were all getting soaked.
Fred knocked on the door and called out, "Hello? Anyone here?"
After several minutes of knocking on the door, a man, presumably the museum curator, opened it. "Oh, hello, what can I do for you kids?" he asked.
"May we come inside and wait out the storm?" Fred asked.
"Sure," he agreed and opened the door all the way for them, "please, come in."
"Can we get a tour of the museum?" Velma asked when they all got in.
"Sure," he said and grabbed a box of white rubber gloves. "Please put gloves on if you want to touch anything."
They all put gloves on their hands and Shaggy helped Scooby put them on his paws. They then started the tour, starting in a room full of objects used by some of the soldiers during the war.
Everyone, especially Velma, was in absolute awe of the number artifacts held in the living room-sized space. There were guns, bullets - unused, fired, recovered from fallen soldiers, and even minni balls, horseshoes - worn out and intact, saddles, cutlery, pots, boots, pins, medals, belt buckles, blades of all kinds, swords that were often worn by commanding officers to show their superior rank, and even full uniforms. The gang took pictures with their phones, while Scooby pretended to be a soldier by pretending to fire a pistol.
"Careful, Scooby," Velma told him, "everything here is irreplaceable."
He laughed and handed the old gun to her. She just couldn't help but to be so intrigued by the condition it was in, it almost looked brand new, like it had never been used in battle or even shot.
"Did you have this gun restored?" she asked the curator.
"Only the barrel," he replied, "it was in terrible shape when it was given to me."
"Do you know who owned it or where and when it was used in battle?" Fred asked, joining in on their conversation.
"It was owned by a soldier of the Army of the Ohio. The person who gave it to me said that it could've been used during the Battle of Shiloh," he explained.
"Jinkies!" Velma gasped, "That battle is infamous for being the first major battle to take place in the western theater of war!"
"Right you are," he said with a grin.
They spent the next couple of hours looking around the museum, taking pictures, learning about the artifacts, and even a little bit of town history. They learned that Benjamin D. Pritchard, the man who captured Jefferson Davis, lived in the area before and after the war and that his house is still standing and in very good shape for its old age.
Daphne looked out the window and saw that it had stopped raining, "Looks like the sky's clearing up."
Shaggy checked the time on his phone, "Zoinks! Like, it's past lunch time!"
Scooby went into an overdramatic panic, "No runch?!" He let out a fake hunger moan and sucked in his stomach, trying to convince the others that he hadn't eaten anything in a while.
Daphne knelt down and patted him, "Don't worry, Scooby, I'm sure there's a place nearby where we can get a bite."
Fred put a hand on his stomach, "I think could go for a bite, too."
Velma laughed and agreed with him, "I agree with you, I'm pretty hungry, too."
"There's a restaurant just a mile or so up the road," the curator said. Scooby immediately brightened up and licked his lips.
He and Fred shook hands, "Well, thanks for everything."
The gang walked out the door and he waved goodbye to them, "Come back anytime!"
Muskegon County, Michigan
Inside his workshop, Kevin Dykstra, along with his younger brother Al, and friends and fellow team members Brad Richards, a history teacher at a local high school, and researchers, Frederick Monroe and Jeff Zehr, were getting ready to have a video conference with Marty Lagina and his son Alex. They originally planned to have a face-to-face meeting, but a sudden storm changed those plans.
He clicked on the phone icon on his laptop screen and Marty and Alex appeared. "Hey, guys!" Marty gave a slight wave to them.
"Hey Marty, Alex, how have you been?" Kevin asked.
"Good, good," Alex replied. "How have you guys been?"
"Uh, good, but we'd be better if we were back in the lake searching for gold," he joked, then added, "especially since we have the permits."
"Yeah, looks like Mother Nature is against you," Marty gave a joke his own, receiving laughs from everyone, including his son.
He shrugged with a grin, "Yeah, well."
"So, Kevin, what's the reason for you wanting to have a meeting?" he asked, getting on topic.
Kevin looked through some of the papers on his table. "A gentleman recently mailed us this telegram that dates back to the 1880s that he said was sent to his great-grandfather from Charles Hackley," he explained.
The father and son treasure hunters raised eyebrows and Marty nodded while uttering, "Wow."
"What's even more interesting is that this man's great-grandfather lived in Utah in the area where Hackley is rumored to have had his gold mines," Jeff added.
"So-" he tried to ask something, but their internet connection was breaking up.
"Oh, no. Marty, Alex, can you hear us?" Kevin questioned.
He started messing around with the laptop when the signal began to glitch. He immediately took out his phone and called Marty's cell phone when the screen went completely black.
He put his phone on speaker and asked, "Marty, Alex, can you hear us?"
After several seconds of suspenseful silence, they finally got a response from them, "Yeah, we can hear you." That got a lot of relieved sighs and smiles from everyone in the room.
"With the laptop crashing, I think it would be best if we continued this meeting at your vineyard in Traverse City," he suggested.
"Alright then, give us a call when you want to come up," Alex replied, before he and his father hung up.
Allegan, Michigan
The gang drove down the road to the restaurant the curator told them about. Fred parked the van and they all got out, to no one's surprise Shaggy and Scooby were the first ones out.
The five of them walked in and asked for a table. The hostess gave them a polite smile and lead them to a table near the back next to a window with a view of the lake.
They all sat down and she handed them their menus. "Your server will be right with you," she said then walked away.
Daphne set her menu down and looked out the window. "Jeepers, what a beautiful view of the lake."
Everyone looked over at the lake view and saw what she was talking about. The midday sun beamed through the semi-cloudy sky and seemed to sparkle over the water.
"You're right, Daph. That's a real nice view of the lake," Fred agreed.
"Maybe we could go down to one of the many beaches later on," Velma suggested.
Both Shaggy and Scooby seemed to be in to that idea. "Like, good thing I remembered my swim trunks."
"Reah, good thing."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," an unfamiliar voice said.
They looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man in his sixties wearing a trench coat and holding a notepad. He looked like he was some kind of reporter and appeared to have not had any sleep in a long time, judging from the dark circles around his eyes and all the coffee spilled on the table.
"Why's that, sir?" Fred asked.
"Something very supernatural has been goin' on in the lake's waters," he told them.
"Supernatural?!" Shaggy and Scooby repeated in unison, then they hid underneath the table, receiving a few odd looks from the other customers and some employees.
"That's odd," Velma voiced her thoughts. "Lake Michigan isn't known for supposedly having unusual occurrences, it's most well known for water sports, beaches, and events."
The two chickens poked their heads out from under the table. "Well, now it can be known for being home to ghosts, monsters, zombies, and everything else scary!" Shaggy shrieked and Scooby whimpered.
"Oh, don't you worry none. There's no such thing as sea monsters, ghosts, zombies, aliens, or witches," a woman's voice with a slight southern accent said with a scoff.
She wearing an all black uniform similar to what the hostess was wearing. She appeared to be in her forties or fifties and her hair was brown with graying streaks.
"Ol' Ronnie is a paranoid goose. Ever since that idiot said something about gold in the lake. Sorry, I'm Peggy, I'll be your server," she introduced herself.
Shaggy and Scooby popped out of their hiding spot and began to look through their menus. "Like, we'll have one of everything."
"Fine, don't listen to me!" Ronnie growled, stood up from his table and left, not leaving a tip or even bothering to clean a little of his mess. "Don't say I didn't warn you." His warning made the gang feel uneasy, especially their residential scaredy cats.
"Oh, now don't you listen to him. You kids look like you've been hearing things like that for a long time," Peggy said.
"Like, how could you tell?" Shaggy asked shakily, while he and his best friend were shaking so much you think that there was an earthquake happening and covered their heads with their menus.
She took a card out of her pocket and set it on the table. "A friend of mine up in northern Michigan says that there's a vineyard in Traverse City where you can get a tour of the place and drink some real nice wine. I'm assuming that y'all are twenty-one and older."
Fred looked at the card and looked up the address on his phone. "Says here that it's right by the lake and that they offer tours of the property, where people can get an in depth knowledge of the wine-making process." He found some pictures of the place and showed them to the rest of the gang.
"Jeepers, what beautiful views and that place has a real unique atmosphere."
"That's a large property, it has to be easily thirty thousand square feet!"
"As long as they've got good food, count us in! Right, Scoob?"
"Right, Shaggy!"
Peggy had other tables to attend and decided to get back on topic. "Are you going to order?"
Shaggy held up a finger and whispered to her, "Like, I think they're going to need a minute or two."
Muskegon, Michigan
After finishing their meals, the gang got right back on the road. They entered the address to the vineyard into the GPS and were headed in that direction.
Heading to a place to relax a little was easier said than done. Thanks to the weather there was a lot of traffic and they had to take a few detours. They weren't even halfway there yet and seemed to be at a complete stand-still. Someone way ahead of them got into an accident and it blocked most of the road.
After roughly an hour of being sitting ducks in the road, they finally cleared a lane for cars to go through. Cars went only one at a time and had to go slower than a snail's pace.
Some cars were at a complete stop to look at the accident. Those who did stop saw the cops trying to calm down the driver of the wrecked car. The driver was shouting at the top of his lungs, but it didn't appear to be out of anger or pain, but possibly paranoia.
He was covered with blood and had to be restrained by the officers. It looked like he was trying to tell them something, but they didn't seem to believe him and appeared to be conducting a field sobriety test on him. Aside from his shouting, the man didn't appear to be intoxicated or under the influence.
Scooby, who was resting his head against the van wall, thought he heard the man shout, "It was the ghost! I saw a ghost!"
V~X-U-X~V
(A/N: So, what do you guys think? I really don't know why I ask this since nobody cares enough to reply. :(
I've never been to Michigan, so I don't know too much about it. I know that they do get a lot of bad weather and a lot of Union soldiers used to live there. I've also never been to a vineyard, so I don't know what visitors do there aside from drinking wine.
The worlds of the Scooby Gang and Kevin and his team will collide in the next chapter. I know there weren't any ghosts or monsters in this chapter, but they will appear very shortly.
In case you guys don't know, I recently wrote a "Hellboy" story. My story is called "Cadal" and it's pretty much the resurrection of Prince Nuada and Princess Nuala and Nuada trying to (sort of) redeem himself. I'm only one chapter into it, but I will get started on chapter two soon.)