Author's Note: I must say that of all the Scooby stories I've published, there hasn't been entries in which I was not at all impressed with the way it turned out more than D51 Scooby-Doo! Earth One series.

In particular, I certainly regret the way the storyline for Secret of the Weinrib Trial turned out, especially with Shaggy's character and his interactions with Daphne, and that's on top of it being a practical clone of the first volume of Batman: Earth One, and when you have a Scooby origin story being practically the same as the Batman origin story in the same universe, it practically defeats the purpose of a shared universe when more than one set of characters share the same origins or storylines with the only changes being the characters and settings themselves.

As such, after plenty of thoughts and considerations, particularly with my D7 City of Mysteries series turning out better than I've anticipated, especially its origin story Mark of the Werewolf, which was my first treatment to the steaming pile of garbage of Secret of the Weinrib Trial, I have decided to completely revamp the Earth One series I've written for Scooby-Doo with a completely different storyline inspired by a variety of sources while retaining connections to the DC Comics Earth One line.

As the title suggests, this story reworks the SDWAY series premiere What a Night for a Knight! into an origin story for Mystery Inc., which was inspired by wildchildflores' story Scooby-Doo Origins: Ravencroft Chronicles Episode 1: Knight of Dark.

I don't own Scooby-Doo. Hanna-Barbera Productions and Warner Bros. does.


Chapter 1: Prologue

June 1, 2002

If there is one word that can describe the drive through the coastal highway at this time of the night near the outskirts of Cabot Cove, Maine, well, quiet is the first that comes to mind.

Not that the car engine has gone quiet, mind you. Rather, the car in question is presently the only vehicle driving through this particular stretch of the coastal highway and through thick fog.

There were four people present on the car, comprising of a driver behind the wheel with a mother at the front passenger seat and two children in the back.

Norville Rogers, who was seated at the left rear passenger seat, was bored as he stared at the passing scenery, not that there was much to see besides the usual plants and the occasional house passing by and briefly luminated by the street lights.

The two-lane highway was rather winding, and Norville was counting himself lucky that he didn't eat too much during the dinner party they were heading home from, as he was certain he would've thrown up several miles back.

He glanced around and noted that his sister Margaret was sound asleep in her seat, and he wondered to himself how was she able to fall asleep while they were driving through a winding road.

As they drove past another street light, Norville caught a glimpse of his mother Wendy in the front passenger seat through the rear view mirror at the front, and for a brief moment, their eyes met.

Some minutes went by before his mother prompted, "Something wrong, Norville?"

Norville gave a little nod. "How long would it be before Dad comes back, Mom?"

"Sweetie, I wish I know for sure." Wendy replied. "Daddy's deployment usually takes up to six months, but it could get extended at any moment's notice if the country needs him and his battalion to stay there longer."

Shaggy sighed, and through his reflection in the mirror, Wendy could tell her son was missing his father for another reason.

The NCIS agent behind the wheel took no notice as he glanced at the back window through the rear view mirror, but Wendy could tell there was a bit of awkward tension between the agent and her son.

In particular, Wendy noticed how Norville seemed more apprehensive whenever the agent was nearby, and the boy had asked why was the agent keeping watch on them and driving them around while his father was deployed.

In fact, during the dinner party they had just left about half an hour ago, Norville was saying to a couple of cousins in the living room how the agent scared him when the agent turned up and heard the last part of Norville's unintentionally-disparaging remark about him, which led to an awkward silence between the four before the boy's mother stepped in.

Wendy demanded Norville to apologize, but before he could do so, the agent took his leave to take a call, and they didn't see each other again until it was time to leave the party.

"You're worried about your father not coming back, Norville?" The driver asked.

Wendy turned towards her son, in time to see him getting a little apprehensive, as if he had gotten caught in the act of pulling a prank, and for a while, he didn't say a word.

Noting the way Norville was not going to speak, Wendy said, "Norville, it's okay, Agent Harmon isn't angry at you for what you said at the party, so don't feel stressed about answering his-"

"Wendy, give the boy some time to think." Harmon cut in softly. "He's a young boy and is still adjusting to being under protective custody, as is his sister, not to mention having to cope with their father being overseas in what others will consider to be a war zone."

At Harmon's remark, Norville briefly raised an eyebrow as he turned to look towards Harmon through the rear view mirror.

"You're worried about your Daddy, aren't you, Norville?" Harmon asked.

A few minutes went by before Norville nodded slowly. "I just don't want something to happen to Daddy while he's overseas. Something terrible."

"Understandable." Harmon nodded. "Rest assured, son. Your father does miss you all a lot, and while it does get dangerous out there, your father has 20 years of experience in similar combat situations overseas, and sometimes, all it takes is for you to have-"

Just as Harmon was speaking, his eyes darted from the rear view mirror back towards the windshield and he stopped in mid sentence as his eyes widened in shock.

A couple inches away from the far end of the headlight's illumination zone, a knight in a black suit of armour, complete with red feathers on its helmet, had walked onto the two-lane highway.


In the meantime, on hilly, wooded terrain overseeing the coastal highway, a shadowed sniper was laying on the ground with his eye looking through the night vision scope attached to the top of a rifle.

The sniper had spent the past twenty minutes settling into the spot where he could get a clear shot of anything passing through that particular stretch of highway and setting up his equipment.

Having had done some reconnaissance earlier and with his DOPE note pad handy, the sniper made some observations and consulted the figures on his DOPE note pad before making the adjustments on his scope and rifle.

He wasn't at all bothered by the thick fog around him. If anything, he welcomed the stealth that comes with the thick fog.

His target subsequently pulled up down the highway, heading back into town, and the sniper calmly took aim.

With a rough estimation of speed, distance and height of his target, coupled with humidity, temperature and wind speed, he was ready to pull the trigger as he disengaged the safety.

"Bang, you're dead." The sniper sneered as his finger pulls the trigger.


"Oh my G*d!" Wendy exclaimed as Harmon swerved the car to avoid hitting the knight, who has now turned its helmet towards them.

To Norville's astonishment, there were a pair of demonic, red eyes glowing through the visor of the its helmet.


The sniper frowned when his target abruptly swerved off the lane, as if there was something in the middle of its lane in the highway, which therefore veered his recently-fired shot off target in a split second.

And before he could re-aim his rifle, he was startled when one of the bushes moved behind him, which was followed by a low growl.

Turning around, the sniper growled. "Oh, you've got to be f**king kidding me."


Miraculously, the car avoided hitting the knight, but in the process, something blew up right outside the car, and it didn't take long for the car to veer out of control.

"Mom, what's happening-?" Norville asked, but he trailed off as the car ran right through a telephone pole before its front made contact with a large rock on the ground, and the momentum led to the car flipping over and coming to a complete stop upside down with the front end of the vehicle totalled.

Upside down in his seat, Norville's vision was blurry as he tried to take in his surroundings.

Through the illuminated light from the nearby streetlight, he could make out the outline of the knight that was standing in the middle of the lane, and to his surprise, the knight did not cast a shadow at all.

The knight towered over the wreckage briefly before turning away and headed towards the coast, where it subsequently disappeared in the mist.

That was the last thing Norville remembered seeing that fateful night before he blacked out.


October 12, 2009

Seated at the front passenger seat of the car, Shaggy looked around as his mother sat behind the wheel while Maggie was seated at the back.

It was late at night on the coastal highway near the outskirts of Cabot Cove, Maine, and Shaggy was fighting the urge to doze off even though he was worn out by the party they had left.

There was something eerie about their surroundings that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but even though he was absolutely certain they were heading back home to Cabot Cove, he was also equally certain that something wasn't right.

In particular, even though the highway's posted speed limit was 50 miles, he could've sworn that they were driving faster than that. Much faster, in fact.

Noting how fast the nearby streetlights were passing by them, Shaggy turned towards his mother and said, "Mom, could you slow down a bit? Something's wrong."

His mother didn't respond, and right as Shaggy glanced outside, he noticed how much faster they were driving, even as they were approaching a particularly winding section of the highway.

"Mom?" Shaggy repeated as he turned towards his mother again. "Like, please slow down. It's getting winding up ahead, not to mention it's foggy outside, and I don't wanna get into a crash."

His mother still didn't respond, which prompted him to gulp before he reached over to tap her shoulder.

Just then, his mother turned towards him and her head transformed into that of the black knight with demonic, glowing red eyes and snarled, prompting him to retreat.

"Zoinks!" Shaggy exclaimed. "Mom?"

When the black knight simply snarled at him some more, Shaggy glanced around before he swiftly took out the headrest of his seat and used the metal rods attached to it to hit the helmet off the knight's head.

The hit led to the knight's head transforming back into that of his mother, and she was now facing him.

"Norville?" Wendy asked.

"Mom, could you slow down, we shouldn't be driving this fast in the thick fog like this, not to mention this part of the highway is winding-" Shaggy quickly said, only for his mother to gasp when she turned back towards the front.

A pair of headlights travelling the opposite direction, accompanied by honking, was fast approaching them, which prompted Wendy to sharply turn the steering wheel to the right.

The car narrowly avoided hitting the tractor trailer, but its speed was fast enough for it to crash right through the guard rail overseeing the coast and veer down.

The car violently shook as it rolled down the steep terrain, and as Shaggy tried to maintain his bearings, his eyes widened in horror as the ocean came into view and was getting closer and closer.

"ZOINKS!" Shaggy exclaimed just as the car hit the sea at the bottom of the steep slope.

With water rushing into the car, Shaggy was struggling to get out through the crushed door after he managed to unfasten his seatbelt.

He barely fit through the smashed window, but as he tried to reach for the surface, his foot got caught in an awkward angle of the crushed door.

The last thing he remembered was seeing the moon above the surface of the water getting smaller and smaller as he was dragged down with the wreckage.

(Shaggy's Point of View)

Just as I thought I was going to be condemned to Davy Jones' Locker in the sea, the all-too familiar sound of the alarm clock blared right through my ears.

The pain shot right up through my right arm, as if someone had fired a bullet right through it from my hand to my shoulder as I reached over to shut off the alarm clock.

Crap. It may have been years since that fateful day in Maine, but the pain I just had was just one of the routine pain I feel in my whole body everyday since that rollover.

Bother, with the pain in my arm bothering me like that, I was tempted to buy a mallet so I could use it to smash the flippin' alarm clock and catch a few more winks.

And double bother, of course it's a flippin' Monday today, guess I would have to pull myself together and not sleep in.

In fact, the last time I tried to sleep in, I ended up missing the school bus and arrived at school 30 minutes late.

Suffice to say, Dad sure had a huge fit that day when he got the late note from school, and...well, let's just say that's the most he's ever said to me as far as I remember.

Anyways, I groaned before I stretched and got out of bed and proceeded with my usual morning routine.

Man, am I long overdue to have my room tidied up. I swear that it's getting more difficult for me to find my stuff in the pile of clothes I frequently tossed around for convenience sake.

At this point, there's nothing much I could do about it, except for trying to remember to clean up my room on Sundays.

With the medical cannabis I have to take everyday, it's really difficult for me to remember the exact details of what I've planned for myself the previous day or week.

Once I've finished using the washroom and changed into my usual favourite set of clothes, mainly a plain green shirt and a pair of brown pants, I grabbed my school bag and made my way up the stairs to the living room.

Oh, I almost forgot that I should introduce myself. The name's Rogers. Norville Rogers, though most people outside of my family calls me "Shaggy", on account of my shaggy-style hairstyle, not that I minded.

Actually, now that I think of it, I don't recall if Dad ever explained his reason for naming me "Norville", though I don't even recall when was the last time Dad and I had a lengthy, father and son-type discussion.

Anyways, this is Coolsville, the county seat and largest city of Crystal Cove County in California, where I have been living with Scoob and my father Sam for the past five years.

Before that, I have spent most of my time between Brooklyn, New York, which was where I was born on April 27th, 1993, and Cabot Cove, Maine, where my Mom has relatives and where we often spent time at while Dad was deployed overseas as a Marine.

Now, you may have noticed that I only mentioned Scoob and my father Sam when I said that I have been living with them in Coolsville for the past five years, and sadly, there is a reason for that.

It had to do with that rollover I was in seven years ago, one where I could've sworn I had spotted a black knight right in the middle of the highway just before we rolled over after we tried to avoid hitting it.

Except that I could've also sworn that the black knight is a ghost, because from what I gathered, mostly through snippets of conversations Dad had with others that I've overheard, there was no suit of armour matching my description that has gone missing in the days or weeks leading to that fateful night.

Mom and the NCIS agent driving us were both killed on impact, and I remember the heartbreak I've felt when Dad told me days later that Maggie had died from her injuries.

I guess it was a miracle that I was able to walk again, but mentally, I'm still having nightmares about that fateful night, about that black knight that caused us to crash, made worst by the lingering pain in my right arm and my prescription to medical cannabis to mitigate the pain.

Yuck, I really cannot stand the smell of the stuff, let alone the taste, yet it seems like others like to think that I have no problem taking it.

Well, just wait until you get yourself in a serious accident and the doctors botched your surgery, then you'll see what I have to put up with everyday taking the prescription.

It also didn't help that since Mom and Maggie's deaths, Dad has seemed to have grown even more distant, focused heavily on his work instead.

Although he's still serving in the Marine Corps, Dad is in the reserves and isn't deployed as often as he was in the past.

In fact, in addition to his service in the Marine Corps, Dad is currently a police lieutenant serving in the Coolsville Police Department.

I hardly know what led to Dad's interest in becoming a cop, and he hardly talks about work, though I do know for a fact that he has a knack for investigating crimes.

Anyways, once I've finished using the washroom and changed into my usual favourite set of clothes, mainly a plain green shirt and a pair of brown pants, I grabbed my school bag and headed down the stairs to the living room.

On my way to the stairs, I wake up Scoob as I always do every morning.

Dad was already sipping on his coffee and his bowl of oatmeal finished up when I got to the dining room, and he didn't bat an eye as I prepared my oatmeal.

"Be sure to have the water fully-boiled before you pour it onto your oatmeal." Dad said without keeping his eye off the clock on the wall.

I nodded. "Of course."

As I dragged myself into the kitchen to prepare my oatmeal, Dad stopped me and said, "You know, when I was your age, Norville, I always have to end each sentence with a 'yes, sir' when I was asked to do something by your grandfather."

I groaned. Dad with his talk about discipline again, did I sound bitter when I said "Of course." to him in response to his quip about boiling the water before pouring it into my oatmeal?

Dad seemed to be in quite the mood, because he continued, "Perhaps the reason why this generation is so screwed is because discipline isn't as emphasized as it once was, not to mention a lack of teaching younger generations to respect their elders."

I said nothing, and Dad finally turned his gaze towards me.

"You better get your act together in your studies, son." Dad said. "As you grow older, I cannot continue to look out for you, so unless you want to spend the rest of your life barely scraping by, I highly suggest you start improving your grades."

I exhaled. Of course Dad would take issue with my low grades in school, though I said nothing conveying my thoughts about his remark.

Instead, I nodded. "Yes, sir."

Dad only did a small nod in return and returned to drinking his coffee, and I resumed preparing my breakfast, as well as getting Scooby's bowls of water and dog food ready.

As I took my seat, I whistled for Scooby to come downstairs.

Scooby came to join us at the dining table as I dig into my breakfast, and as he began slurping the water in his bowl, Dad reached over to rub his head.

"Slept well last night, Scoobert?" Dad asked.

Scooby only continued to slurp the water in his bowl, though he was certainly energetic, which prompted Dad to nod before he turned towards me.

"Are you taking Scoobert out on a walk after you finish your breakfast, Norville?" Dad asked.

"No, sir." I shook my head. "The bus will arrive in about ten minutes, besides I heard that it's gonna rain and I'm sure we wouldn't want to mop the floor again after Scooby returns from his walk in the rain."

Dad only grunted before he got up. "Just be sure to take him out for a walk before you go to bed tonight. I shouldn't need to remind you again that when I don't want you to spend the whole day cramped in the house, I'm also reminding you that Scoobert shouldn't spend a whole day cramped in the house."

"Yes, sir." I decided against expressing my exhaustion over hearing Dad's constant reminders day in and day out.

Dad only grunted as he headed out of the dining room. A few minutes later, as I do the dishes, I heard him head out the door with his briefcase in hand and close the front door behind him.

Eventually, it was time for me to head out to school. With my school bag on my back and keys on hand, I headed out of the house and locked the door behind me.

Not long after I arrived at the stop, the school bus pulled up right on schedule.

As usual, the bus was very much packed, so I had to head to the back to find a seat.

On my way to the back, I walked by a pair of jocks and tripped over, which prompted one of them to laugh.

"Havin' a nice trip, Shaggy?" The first jock laughed mockingly.

"Yeah, I sure did." I replied as I got up and resumed my way to the back, where I was able to find a vacant seat.

Much of the bus ride was largely uneventful, except for the ten minutes we spent stuck in a traffic jam on Constitution Parkway, owing to a traffic accident up ahead at the intersection with Virginia Avenue.

We got a better look at the source of the traffic jam as the bus was directed to cross Virginia Avenue by a cop directing traffic. The scene sure looked quite nasty, especially with the tractor trailer reducing two cars it has collided with into mere scrap iron.

Anyways, it was 7:15 when the school bus pulled into the main entrance of Coolsville Central High School, and everyone promptly picked up their bags and made their way off the bus.

And again, on my way to the front to disembark from the bus, I got tripped over by that same jock.

As the jock laughed mockingly, I only gritted my teeth.

That's one devil of a way to start the week. My day hasn't even started and already, I was getting this queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that it's gonna be the same old, same old, at school.

Looking back now, I couldn't be more wrong on that.


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