Scrappy pointed at the spiky nails protruding out of each of our tires.
"Like, oh no!" Shaggy gasped. "If only we had an inflator."
All of a sudden, the Boo Brothers appeared in front of them out of thin air.
"You've got one right here!" Freako announced.
"Alright, remember, big inhales, guys!" Meako said, as he put his mouth around the rear passenger tire. To the surprise of the humans, Meako's whole body began blowing up like a balloon. Once he had so much air in him that it looked like he was about to burst, the spirit exhaled all of the air into the tire, filling it up. He then stuck the nail firmly back in the hole it created in the tire to seal the air inside.
"Like, wow!" Shaggy exclaimed in surprise. "You Boo Brothers sure know how to come to the rescue!"
"Of course we do!" Freako haughtily responded, as he followed Meako's lead and inflated the tire with his own superhuman…or perhaps superghost…breath.
"Yeah!" Shreako agreed, prior to taking an exaggeratedly large breath that was like a strong autumn breeze. He took a moment before resuming speaking to let all the air out of himself, and put it in the tire. "They don't call us the Boo Brothers for nothin'!"
Shaggy was going to ask who was going to inflate the fourth tire, until he saw Meako was already on it.
"There you go, pal. All ready to drive!" Freako proudly declared.
"Like, you Boo Brothers are the best!" Shaggy responded.
"And with not a moment to spare!" Scrappy pointed towards Dracula and the Hunch Bunch, who had all nearly reached the Double Dyno Turbo Blaster.
"We gotta get out of here!" Shaggy screamed in a panic, as he leaped into the open door of his car. Googie quickly did the same on the passenger's side of the car, whilst Scrappy and Scooby took the privilege of having four legs to physically jump over the car doors into the back seat. The second Shaggy was sure everybody was in, he floored it without worrying about if he or his passengers were wearing their seatbelt.
"Rhat do re do row, Raggy?" Scooby inquired.
Googie took on the task of replying for Shaggy. "We've got to lose those creeps, so we can get enough of a head start that they won't see where we're going."
Shaggy heard the information Googie said, but wasn't able to fully mentally process what she said in his mind for a moment. He was far too busy putting the pedal to the metal in order to make it back up the same long, winding driveway that they'd come in on.
"That's not gonna be easy, Googie. Look!" Scrappy directed Googie and Scooby's attention to what was going on behind them. Shaggy took a quick glance in his rearview mirror as well, to see the horrifying sight that was Dracula holding a large ray gun of sorts. It appeared to be shooting large wads of pink goo at them.
"Ha ha! They'll never escape my sticky shotgun!" Dracula chuckled. Shaggy wondered how (and why) the King of vampires always picked the most bizarre weapons to ambush them with.
"It's rum!" Scooby pointed.
"Uncle Scooby's right! It is gum!" Scrappy grabbed a piece of the pink goo out of the air, taking a small lick of it from Scooby's assertion.
"Swerve to the left, Shaggy! He's going to hit you with a wad of gum!" Googie shouted.
Shaggy didn't even bother to look to see if her observation was correct; he simply did as he was told. It caused Scooby and Scrappy to unexpectedly tumble to the left in the backseat, both of them letting out disgruntled noises of surprise.
Shaggy could hear Dracula curse behind him when the gum narrowly missed the Double Dyno Turbo Blaster and stuck to the ground, exactly in the spot where his tire would have been had he not swerved.
"Shaggy! Swerve to the right!" Googie shouted.
Shaggy quickly did as he was told, not even taking a second to think.
"Smooth move, Shaggy!" Scrappy complimented. "That gum was awfully close to hitting your tire again!"
"Like, we're almost out of this driveway. Maybe then we can get some speed!" Shaggy replied, as he sped up a little bit as the car approached the edge of his uncle's driveway. "Hold on, gang. I'm gonna have to turn really fast so they don't catch us!"
"It's okay to take the turn a little slower, Shaggy! Look!" Googie urged her boyfriend to look in the vehicle's rearview mirror.
Shaggy felt a chill in his bones as he prepared to look back. He shivered at the thought of finding out whatever Dracula's next plan was to capture him and all his friends.
Once he took a few seconds to get his fear under control, Shaggy was pleasantly shocked when he looked backwards. It appeared Shaggy's swerving had caused the huge wads of gum to land in the middle of the road. To Dracula's misfortune, the oversized gum stuck to his tires, causing his vehicle's tires to be glued to the ground. Shaggy didn't take a lot of time to observe the situation as he needed to turn, but it appeared Dracula had ordered the Hunch Bunch out of the car to de-stick the car from the road.
"This'll give us the head start we need!" Scrappy exclaimed in triumph, as Shaggy whipped around the corner.
"Now, we just need a new plan." Googie sighed. "We certainly haven't come across anyone who knows how to help us yet."
Shaggy pondered the thought for a moment, letting Googie's words wash around in the back of his mind. That's when an idea hit him. Googie was absolutely right that they needed somebody who knew something about the supernatural to give them the expertise they needed to outwit Dracula. It felt like a strange, crazy idea, but desperate times called for desperate measures, he supposed.
"Hey, I've got an idea!" Scrappy replied. "I think maybe it's time to see an old friend."
"Scrappy, you took the words right out of my mouth. You're talking about Vince?" Shaggy asked the pup for clarification.
"Yep." Scrappy smiled and nodded. "Wow-ee! Shaggy and I sure do think alike, right Uncle Scooby?"
"Reah. Rehehehe." Scooby chuckled.
"What are you guys talking about?" Googie inquired, her face wearing a look of confusion. "Who's Vince?"
"Just an old friend of ours." Shaggy plainly responded as he glanced to the side for a moment, looking at all the beautiful autumn leaves on the trees next to the highway they were driving on. "He's a mystic that helped us, like, capture some of the scariest ghosts on Earth."
"Oh, you told me about him!" Googie recalled. "You mean that Mr. Van Price guy? Or Mr. Van Dyke…whatever his name is?"
"Like, pretty close." Shaggy chuckled. "Guys, I think we need to pay Vincent Van Ghoul a visit."
"So where exactly is this Vincent Van Ghoul person located?" Googie inquired.
This caused Shaggy to let out a big gulp. His girlfriend's remark caused him to realize the major flaw in his plan: because Vincent lived in the Himalayas, they would need to fly there. Daphne had taken the Mystery Flying Machine, which she'd gotten as a gift from her rich parents (ah, the perks of having a wealthy family). Their only option would be flying via airline, and the tickets would need to be bought in advance.
"Like, nowhere we can get to." Shaggy hung his head a bit. He felt bad for exciting his friends like that. He simply hadn't thought it through nearly as much as he should. "He lives in the Himalayas."
"The Himalayas? We can't get there, Shaggy!" Googie gasped.
"Like, I know." Shaggy sighed.
"You're right, Shaggy! We were doing so much traveling back then that I guess I forgot how far away it was." Scrappy blushed.
"Rhere ro we go row?" Scooby wondered.
Shaggy perused his mind, desperately trying to think of where he could bring his friends to safety. He knew he had thought of all the ordinary places he could hide, but all of those were around his hometown. Given how quickly Dracula and the Hunch Bunch had found them at Velma and Daphne's house, he needed to think of an odd place that was far out of the way from where he would typically go.
"Rhoul school?" Scooby asked.
"Ghoul school?" Shaggy wondered for a moment, unsure of what his canine companion meant for a moment. It was then that the sudden realization hit him. It seemed like such an obvious solution that he should have thought of it on his own. "Wait…you mean Grimwood's?"
"Reah!" Scooby nodded vigorously.
"What a great idea, Uncle Scooby!" Scrappy exclaimed.
"What's Grimwood's?" Googie cocked her head in confusion.
"Remember that school that Scooby, Scrappy and I taught at for a few months?" Shaggy asked.
"The one with the girls who were the daughters of the most powerful monsters in the world?" Googie inquired.
"That's the one!" Scrappy exclaimed.
"You really think they'd invite you back after you ran off on them like that?" Googie asked.
Shaggy felt a pang of hurt wash over his heart as his girlfriend spoke. Deep down, he knew running away at the first sign of fear was a pretty terrible choice. However, he immediately realized the best course of action: swallow that shit immediately.
"Like, yeah, of course they would. They all, like, excitedly waved goodbye as we left. They'll welcome us back with open arms!" Shaggy could feel a lump in his throat as the lie left his lips. Lately, he'd realized how much he ran away from things in life as a defense mechanism. While he knew that was normal to an extent; sometimes he felt like he ran away from the smallest things. Now that he was out of the alarming situation, he realized that the new monster students likely meant him no harm, which made him feel bad for the girl ghouls. He'd essentially abandoned them and left Miss Grimwood high and dry over something that was probably not even a threat.
"How far away is the school, Shaggy?" Googie asked.
Shaggy appreciated Googie's comment, as it pulled him out of his own anxious mind and back into reality.
"Like, 11 hours." Shaggy replied.
"No, it's not, Shaggy! It's actually only five!" Scrappy excitedly chimed in, as he glanced at an old map with tattered corners that was lying in the back seat. "It would be 11 hours if we were driving from home, but it looks like you're going exactly in the right direction!"
"Oh…like, that's good." Shaggy said, with a bit of mental detachment present in his voice. His head was swirling with thoughts as the stress consumed his entire body. He felt silly for it, but on top of the immense worries he had about Dracula catching him and his friends, he was also worried about the girl ghouls being upset with him when they arrived. Quitting your job by physically running away without saying anything wasn't exactly a flattering look for a teacher, so Shaggy felt like he'd really messed up.
Driving peacefully along the highway without any confrontation with Dracula allowed Shaggy to calm down a bit from his previous state of agitation. He'd tried to compartmentalize his guilty thoughts, knowing the priority right now was getting his friends to safety.
Shaggy had turned on his favorite music genre, rock (much to the disgruntlement of the rest of the gang). He didn't care, though…the music made him feel good, and quite frankly, he needed some stress relief.
"Born in the U.S.A.! Born in the U.S.A.!" Shaggy crooned along to Bruce Springsteen's voice on the radio.
"Ugh, Shaggy." Googie harrumphed. "Why do you like that song? The whole message of the song is basically just positioning people who are born in America as better than others. That's a horrible message!"
"Like, I don't think about it that deeply." Shaggy defended himself. "I just like his voice. Rock is, like, such a freeing genre of music."
"Freeing? Maybe if you're 'born in the U.S.A.!' as Mr. Springsteen so graciously points out." Googie sassed, doing her best Springsteen impression.
"You complained about that announcer guy calling you my 'liberated girlfriend,' but you do, like, tend to make things political." Shaggy argued back. "It, like, doesn't have to be that deep."
"Well, to be fair, that was a weird comment for that announcer to make!" Googie defended.
"Re're here!" Scooby pointed to Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls, which was looming ahead at the end of the long road. To be entirely honest, Shaggy was quite glad for the distraction from the disagreement with his girlfriend. He and Googie tended to agree on most things, but tastes in music was not one of them.
Shaggy could feel his foot press the accelerator a little harder as he approached the school. For the first time in two days, he felt safe. Well, at least, mostly safe. Although Shaggy was pretty sure they had enough of a head start that Dracula would not find them this time, there was a lingering doubt in his mind.
The sleepy sun was just beginning to set over the midnight horizon. The aesthetic of the night always caused Shaggy a bit of additional dis-ease, but it was especially discomforting to him tonight given the situation.
"Sorry if I came off as being a little short with you, Shaggy. I didn't mean to be." Googie apologized.
"Like, it's okay. I love you lots, Googie." Shaggy smiled, as he applied the brakes to stop the vehicle in front of Grimwood's.
"Love you too, Shaggy." Googie smiled back, as the two lovebirds shared a brief kiss.
"Wowee!" Scrappy exclaimed, hopping out of the vehicle with a single excited bound. "I can't believe we're back here after all this time!"
"Like, it's only been a few months." Shaggy chuckled. "You, like, must have loved it here."
"Oh boy, you bet I did!" Scrappy replied.
Shaggy did not feel that same sense of excitement as his best friend's nephew. As his eyes gazed back upon the school that looked like an old Victorian house, lots of old feelings returned. Memories of swimming with the girls washed over his mind as he glanced upon the moat near the entrance. His mind danced around the thought of teaching the girls ballet upon gazing towards one of the rooms on the top floor of the school. His mind raced back to doing a light jog with the girls outside the school, as he caught a glimpse of the Grimwood garden, which was simply an empty field now that it appeared everything had been harvested for the season. These were fond memories that made Shaggy smile upon remembering them. However, thoughts of how much the girls looked up to him and saw him as a mentor quickly turned into self-deprecation. Selfishly, he'd left them due to his own fear. Shaggy wasn't sure if Scooby had as deep of thoughts on the matter, but lately, the shaggy-haired man had been feeling horrible about things like this.
"This is a beautiful school." Googie said in awe, as she got out of the car and began walking towards the front door.
"Like, I'm surprised one of the girls isn't out here to greet us." Shaggy mentioned. "It's windy today. The girls love windy days."
"Looks like nobody's home!" Scrappy replied, as he peered in the windows.
"He's right." Googie nodded. "The lights are all off."
"Like, even the vultures are gone!" Shaggy pointed to the roof, where there was the empty perch where the birds of prey used to sit.
"Rhere is reveryone?" Scooby inquired, his ears perking up curiously.
"They must be on a field trip or something!" Scrappy speculated.
Shaggy let out a sigh. He didn't quite feel the same level of stress he had before, because he hadn't yet endangered his crew and felt relatively safe. However, a seed of worry was just starting to sprout in his mind. He would now need to find another place to bring his girlfriend and best friends in order to keep them safe.
All of a sudden, Shaggy suddenly felt a complete sense of disorientation. His first instinct was that he was somehow levitating off the ground, but how was this possible?
"Shaggy, what's happening?" Googie screamed.
Shaggy quickly realized that he wasn't levitating on his own…he was being dragged up. Although he was being physically lifted, he felt like he was emotionally sinking.
He and his friends had been caught in a net. Shaggy divulged into panic more when he shifted his gaze above his head and saw where the net was dragging them up to: Dracula's Bat-Copter.
Author's note:
Shaggy liking the song "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen is not something I made up, but rather, it's from a frequently unnoticed detail in Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers. At the very beginning of the film during the scene when the ghost is chasing Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy out of their house, a "Born in the U.S.A." poster can be seen hanging on Shaggy's bedroom wall for a split second. I've always thought it was an interesting thing to reference.
The comment where Shaggy references Googie complaining about the announcer referring to her as "liberated" is something that's said right at the beginning of Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf. When the announcer says Shaggy's name in the race lineup, he also mentions that Shaggy is being cheered on by his "adoring but liberated" girlfriend. I always thought that was a super weird comment to make, since rarely does one introduce a person as "liberated," much less in front of thousands of people in the audience at a race lol.