Chapter 33:

"Daphne!" her friends exclaimed when they saw her. Somehow they were the first people she saw upon walking in.

"Daphne, you're supposed--" Fred started, walking towards her.

Daphne interrupted him. "I know. And I think you will agree that my reasons are justified."

She told them exactly what she had heard, watching the alarm on their faces. Finally she finished.

"So, like, how long do we have?" Shaggy asked, frightened.

"Probably just a few minutes. I mean, the voices were coming from the opposite direction to the CCC, so I think I would have gotten here first. Plus, I rushed. The Veqs likely would have sneaked under cover... slowly... even so we don't have much time."

"Well... like what can we do?" Shaggy pondered as Velma rushed to warn the rest of the facility.

"I have a plan!" exclaimed Freddie. Of course. A latent instinct had recently sprung into action...

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"So how come nobody ever thought of locking this Orb up in the first place?" Shaggy asked as everyone else shifted things into position.

"Because the lock would be broken in two minutes," Velma answered, having returned from informing Mr. Mangetout. "Honestly, we're dealing with an advanced alien race. They can burn through metal. Easily."

"Then like why are we locking it up now?" Shaggy was thoroughly confused.

"Because we need the two minutes it would take for the Veqs to open it... and discover that the Orb isn't really in there."

"Then where is it?"

"Hidden..." Fred answered evasively. "If we have this safe just out in the middle of the open, it will look like it contains the Orb. Odds are the Veqs will fall for it and while they're busy with that we can drop this metal cage over them."

"Who would've thunk the CCC would just have a giant metal box lying around?" Shaggy asked. The cage really was more of an enclosed box than a series of bars. In fact, there didn't even appear to be any air holes. "But like if the cage is made of metal and the Veqs can cut through metal--"

"That would also take time. Especially since the walls are six inches thick. The point of the cage isn't to contain them; it's to act as a quarantine for the sedative gas we'll use to knock them out until we can take their weapons away and restrain them properly for interrogation."

Shaggy wasn't really sure how the heavy metal box was attached to the ceiling, but fortunately dropping it was not his job. Freddie would manage that, just as he had done the honors since teenhood. All Shaggy had to do was push a button which would release the knockout gas through vents in the floor. The plan was ready for when the Veqs would come...

There were footsteps...

Yellow eyes peeked in through the door...

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Shaggy had to hand it to Fred: His trap-setting skills had greatly improved over time.

As he and Freddie walked over the metallic cube which now sat in the center of the room, they were joined by Velma, who like Fred had been perched in the rafters but unlike Fred had simply been there to shoot any Veqs the box might have missed. This had not been necessary; for some reason there were fewer Veqs than last time and the box could easily center on them all.

Velma passed out their gas masks as Freddie opened a small door on the side of the cage, which had been locked from the inside. Shaggy clicked on a flashlight and looked around.

None of them were looking forward to moving these large creatures-- which Velma was still convinced were not human, one of few times she disbelieved a test she herself had performed. Still, Freddie called in some other employees to help out and they set to work.

Finally, all were unarmed and restrained within their own little rooms. Mr. Mangetout thought it best to keep them separated. That way, upon the inquisition that was to follow, they could catch lies by inconsistencies in their stories. Obviously they could have concocted a story earlier on, but the Veqs seemed too arrogant to account for the possibility of capture. With Mr. Mangetout's permission, Freddie left to accompany Daphne, who had gone home again after being urged for safety's sake. She would have loved to be in on the action, but... she had done enough already. Probably the Veqs were all gone gone or contained... but they weren't sure.

Well, now the nostalgic yay-we-caught-the-bad-guy-now-call-the-police phase was over. Now it was Shaggy and Velma's turn to interrogate the bad guys, not the police's. Following Mr. Mangetout's and Mr. Fizlayer's leads, they set off, wandering from room to room, discovering things...