"You did what?" Googie asked, a great frustration present in her voice.
"Like, I'm sure it's going to work." Shaggy defended himself. "Without Dracula pulling any tricks, we know for sure that we'll win. Think about how easy it was last time even with all the things Dracula did."
"I don't care." Googie snapped. "It wasn't right of you to make that decision for us. All of us being turned into werewolves if you lose isn't anything to be as taken lightly as you did."
Shaggy already felt like crap for tricking that first-year college girl into buying such a clunker, and now he felt even worse for getting his girlfriend and best friends into such a horrific situation without their consent. He'd just started to believe Googie that he wasn't at fault for dragging his friends into this dangerous situation, and now, in his attempt to save them, he'd done something that put him completely at fault. Even with the most frightening mysteries he'd solved with the gang, he'd never felt as anxious as he did now.
"Like, I'm sorry." Shaggy began to tear up, making him feel even more stupid.
"Rhen's the race?" Scooby asked. Scooby's tone seemed kind enough, and he didn't verbally express that he was angry at his best buddy, so Shaggy hoped that meant only Googie was mad at him.
"Like, tomorrow. So on the bright side, at least, like, we'll know how much of a fuck-up I am very soon." Shaggy replied, with a few sniffles interjecting themselves between his words.
"Shaggy, you're not a fuck-up." Googie's tone softened a little bit. "It's just…"
"It's just what?" Shaggy inquired after Googie had gone silent for a few seconds. "I already feel like I've lost my former life as a human, and now I feel like I'm losing my girlfriend because of my stupidity. So, like, just tell me whatever soul-crushing thing you've got to say, because I've got nothing left to lose at this point."
Shaggy could barely hold back the waterworks as he said this, and feared that anything Googie said would push him over the edge into a fit of tears.
"I know you didn't mean to hurt us by agreeing that Dracula can turn us into werewolves if you lose the race." Googie said.
She paused for a moment again, clearly wanting to choose her words very carefully. Shaggy found the gesture thoughtful, but the pauses were also agonizing due to Shaggy's mind imagining she was going to break up with him at any second. At that point, then he really would have lost almost everything he had.
"It just goes back to that pattern we were talking about earlier." Googie began. "It wasn't a well-thought through decision, and it seems very much driven by fear."
"But, like, there was no other way to escape! I had to agree to that, and I'm confident I can win." Shaggy promised. He didn't actually feel completely confident. The nagging chance that he wouldn't win and they'd all be turned into werewolves still lurked at the back of his mind.
"You didn't give us the chance to find another way to escape!" Googie snapped in response. "We weren't even here 24 hours before you came up with your grandiose idea to challenge Dracula to another race. I'm glad you're trying to think of ideas to help us get out of this mess, but sometimes, it feels like everything you do is driven by fear! You have to think through what you're doing, Shaggy!"
"Maybe Uncle Scooby and I should go find some food while you lovebirds argue." Scrappy added in. Shaggy assumed this meant he was uncomfortable with the fighting. He didn't exactly blame his best friend's nephew. Hell, even Shaggy himself was uncomfortable with the fighting.
"Reah! R'mon, Rappy." Scooby said.
Shaggy didn't want to make his two best friends wander around the creepy castle by themselves, so he offered a suggestion.
"Like, Vanna Pira said she's got a stash of human food. She was around Dracula's room about a half hour ago, if you want to find her." Shaggy suggested.
"That's a great idea, Shaggy! Thanks!" Scrappy said. "C'mon, Uncle Scooby."
Scooby and Scrappy hurried out and shut the door behind them, and the fight commenced.
"I know you're capable of thinking through stuff, Shaggy." Googie's tone softened from how heated it had been before Scooby and Scrappy left the room. "I thought your solution with the human food for Scooby and Scrappy was great! I wish you could make thoughtful decisions like that when you're scared."
"Like, I'm sorry. I struggle a lot with fear and anxiety, I guess." Shaggy hung his head, feeling ashamed. "When I'm scared, it's just such an awful feeling that, like, I want to get rid of it as fast as I can."
"That makes sense." Googie nodded. "I'm not trying to sound like I think you're a bad person or a stupid person. I know you've got self-esteem issues, and I shouldn't have yelled like that. It's just that agreeing that Dracula can turn us all into werewolves if you don't win is kind of a big deal, and it shouldn't have been a decision you made without us."
"I know…" Shaggy admitted, feeling a bit calmer now that the fight wasn't so intense. "I guess, like, I just thought it was our one chance out of this place. And even if for some reason I, like, did lose, it's not like you'll have to be werewolves forever. We know there's a way to turn you back, since it worked for me before. I'm sorry I, like, jumped on a solution without consulting you guys first."
"It's okay, Shaggy. Thank you for explaining your logic. It makes me feel a little better, and I'm sorry I lost my temper like that." Googie apologized.
"I'm glad. Like, I never wanted to hurt you. That's the last thing I'd ever want to do to you, Scooby and Scrappy." Shaggy replied.
"Hey, we've got quite a haul here!" Scrappy exclaimed as he came back into the room. "Vanna Pira had the Hunch Bunch make us a plate of hamburgers."
"And there's like, nothing -" Shaggy paused to gulp. "monstrous about them?"
"Rope. Ronster-free!" Scooby chuckled.
"Like, that looks scrumptious!" Shaggy licked his lips at the sight of the juicy plate of hamburgers. The Hunch Bunch had made two burgers for each of them, which Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy quickly inhaled. Googie took a bit longer to eat her two burgers, but steadily chowed down to quench her hunger.
"We better get some sleep, guys." Googie suggested as she took her last bite of burger. "We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow!"
"Like, you can say that again." Shaggy sighed. "And the race isn't even until noon. Dracula wants us to work a half-day!"
"That sounds just like that old miser!" Scrappy snipped.
Now that his belly was full, Shaggy felt even more tired than he had before. The combination of the long day, his intense anxiety and the large meal all seemed to hit him at once, so he was prompt to fall asleep a few moments after he laid down next to Googie on the bed.
Shaggy felt himself fighting his own regaining of consciousness. The weight of the coming day seemed almost too much for him, and he felt like no amount of rest would prepare him to undertake this harrowing deed of beating Dracula in the Monster Road Rally. What ultimately drove him to get out of bed was the knowledge that Dracula would likely find it suspicious if he showed up late to work.
He quickly realized it was a very good thing he got up. A quick glance at the clock showed him it was only a half hour away from when he was supposed to start. In hindsight, it probably would have been a good idea to set an alarm with how long he'd been sleeping lately, but Shaggy hoped to god that he'd be out of here after today and not have to follow through on that thought.
He looked over to the other side of the bed, and Googie was still fast asleep. He knew there'd be no danger of her sleeping past the race at noon, so he figured there was no harm in letting her sleep a little bit longer.
Shaggy dreaded having to go back to that awful job again today, but he held onto the solace that it was the last day he'd have to do this.
It'd been a busy morning for Shaggy. He'd roped in nine buyers already, and he hated himself for how efficient he was becoming at this. He didn't want to trick people into buying junk they didn't need, especially not when it was $10,000 worth of junk. He was currently working on a particularly difficult buyer.
"Well, I don't know…" the woman pondered. The woman seemed incredibly indecisive and curmudgeonly, which made this a difficult case for Shaggy. "My husband might not approve."
"Let me ask you this, madam. Like, would your husband approve if you turned down the deal of a lifetime?" Shaggy asked.
"Well…no…but, I'm not sure. I wouldn't want to pick out anything indecent." the woman replied in a holier-than-thou tone. "We have six other cars at home for every other day of the week, so you see, we need to pick out something exquisite to replace our Saturday Sedan."
"The Pontiac LeMans is the most exquisite car I know of! Why, I would say 95% of our clientele are social climbers like yourself!" Shaggy lied.
"They are?" the woman gasped.
"They are! And with a smoother-than-silk name like LeMans, let me just ask you one question, ma'am: how can you turn this car down?" Shaggy pitched.
"I suppose if the car is predominantly driven by social climbers, it would only be sensible to purchase this one." the woman added. "I just need to know one thing, young man. Have you ever seen any…riffraff driving this type of vehicle? Because I would just die of embarrassment if someone mistook me for riffraff."
"I can guarantee you, ma'am, no riffraff would dare drive this vehicle!" Shaggy promised. "In fact, there was this one time I saw someone in the middle class have a mental breakdown when he saw this car. The mere sight of the vehicle made him feel insufficient as a person!"
"That sounds like just the car for me, then!" the woman exclaimed. "I'm so glad that you're selling cars for our kind of people."
The woman's last comment sent a shiver down Shaggy's spine. Shaggy assumed that she was being prejudiced against anyone who wasn't in the upper class and living in a mansion. Shaggy disgusted himself, catering to this awful woman and her exclusionary perspectives.
"So, all you've got to do is tell me your address, and I'll send you a form. Once you get the form, fill it out and send it back to Pontiac, and they'll ship the car to your house!" Shaggy informed.
"Excellent! Thank you, young man." the woman responded. "My address is 1242 Rockefeller Street, Beverly Hills, CA 90210."
"Thank you, ma'am. I'll have that form shipped right to you! Have a great day." Shaggy replied.
"Oh, you too, young man. I hope your day is positively rich!" the woman said with a superficial-sounding chuckle.
Boy, was Shaggy ever glad to be done with that horrible call. He felt terrible about it, but for once, he didn't feel so bad conning that person out of their money. That awful prejudiced old woman didn't deserve to be rolling in money when she was spreading so much hatred and exclusion into the world.
"Team meeting!" Frankenstein's Monster called into Shaggy's office from the hallway.
"Team meeting? Like, didn't we just have one?" Shaggy asked.
Apparently Dracula was lurking around the halls with Frankenstein, given he was the one who responded to Shaggy's query.
"Yes, but that's part of the evil ve do here. Doesn't everyone love having an unannounced team meeting pop-up just vhen they're starting to be productive for the day?" Dracula laughed.
"It's delightfully inconvenient!" the shorter witch sister said with a cackle as she also walked past in the hall.
Shaggy was actually quite glad this team meeting had popped up. He hoped it would last right up until the time of the race, and then maybe he could be done with this miserable job for good. He quickly hopped out of his chair and pushed it into his desk for what he hoped would be the last time.
Shaggy felt awkward as he walked through the hall with the other monsters. He had no idea what to say to his coworkers. He hoped they would only be a distant memory after today.
The werewolf unwittingly followed the other monsters' lead and took his seat at the large stone table.
"Alright, I vill try to make this meeting as tedious and useless as possible!" Dracula chuckled, playfully baring his fangs. "First, I vill be reading the entirety of our stock gains and losses over this fiscal year."
Dracula pulled a piece of paper out of a pocket in the back of his cape. The piece of paper looked extremely long. He cleared his throat and began reading off the unnecessarily lengthy statistics.
"July 1: up 0.001%. July 2: down 0.001%. July 3: up 0.002%. July 4: down 0.003%. Ooh, July 5! This is an exciting one…up 0.004%!" Dracula's tone grew excited, before shifting to more monotone as he read the next figure. "But then July 6, ve vere down 0.005% again."
"This is so unnecessary!" the taller witch said.
"You can say that again! It's beginning to bug me that I can't work on my other projects!" the Dragonfly Monster hissed.
Despite how tedious this meeting was, Shaggy was quite frankly glad not to have to be calling any more people and tricking them into doing things they didn't want to do. Perhaps this painfully boring meeting would also give him the rest and relaxation he needed, in order to have the strength to win the race.
Shaggy slouched back in his chair as Dracula went through the rest of the stock figures for the fiscal year. After 30 grueling minutes, Dracula finally shifted gears.
"For the final part of our meeting, I'd like each of you to spend 30 minutes rereading every vord of your full contracts." Dracula informed. "But before that, I have an announcement! Per the suggestion of our new verevolf, ve vill be doing a surprise Monster Road Rally!"
It caught Shaggy a little off guard that Dracula hadn't even bothered to tell the other monsters about the race yet. Shaggy would have thought that would put his monsters at even more of a disadvantage than he was at, since they would have less than an hour's notice to prepare for this race.
The room erupted in an excited hubbub.
"When is this surprise race?" the mummy inquired.
"Vell, that's the surprise! It's in an hour." Dracula informed. "Because of certain…ah…muck-ups…ve vill be redoing the race to determine vhether Shah-gee remains a verevolf forever!"
The room burst into wild cheering from most monsters. A few of them, however, seemed a bit disgruntled.
"You're not going to give us any notice?" Dr. Jackyll and Mr. Snyde commented.
"Yeah, we didn't even get to brew up a good luck potion before the race!" the taller witch challenged.
"This seems like something we should have been able to plan for!" Repulsa complained.
"Vell, perhaps this new rule vill change your minds. This time, if Shah-gee loses…he vill not only remain a verevolf forever, all of his friends vill be turned into verevolves too!"
Sadly, this seemed to quench any criticism that the three complainers had. Dr. Jackyll and Mr. Snyde, the tall witch and Repulsa all joined in on the cheering, and the monsters seemed satisfied again.
"This is going to be fun!" Frankenstein's Monster leaned over to Repulsa.
"Yeah, we've never had two races in a year before!" the Boogeyman added.
"Much less two in one week!" Bonejangles pointed out.
"Just to create a culture of maximum inconvenience, you vill all go back to vork for a half-hour before starting the race at noon." Dracula informed.
"But that means we'll barely get anything done!" the mummy lamented.
"Ah yes, exactly! Isn't it vonderfully inconvenient?" Dracula chuckled.
Quite frankly, Shaggy found it frustrating as well. Not because he'd be working for a ridiculously short period of time before the race, but because it meant he'd have to spend more time calling people and tricking them. He dreaded the thought of having to go back to his office one more time. He just had to hold onto those words: one more time, and maybe he could wish them into fruition.
Shaggy had gone far past the point of anxiety by the time noon hit. Dracula had informed them at the end of the meeting that there'd be a strict "no leaving your office" policy up until noon. This both comforted and scared Shaggy. He was happy to have been given a mental excuse to delay thinking about the race for a little longer, but on the other hand, the idea of being confined to his office for another 30 minutes felt like hell. If he was honest, he had pretended to "take notes" on the scamming strategies that seemed to convince his customers during the time he was supposed to be working. He knew spending time on this was absolutely pointless, especially given he would hopefully not even be working here after the race was over. However, he sure as hell didn't want to make any more calls, so he figured that would be a good way to kill time so that nobody would suspect him of not doing his job.
Shaggy had just written down his final note when he heard a terrifying screech resound throughout the castle.
"That's the noon alarm!" Dracula exclaimed from the hallway. "At last, it is time to begin preparations for our Monster Road Rally re-do!"
The hallway erupted in all sorts of celebratory cackling and snarling. Shaggy tried to pay it no mind, but if he was honest with himself, the frightening noises did scare him. He wondered whether or not he should go and find Googie, Scooby and Scrappy before the race. A part of him wanted to let them find the race themselves. Even though Googie had forgiven him, he still felt bad. Not just for screwing up, but because part of him knew that she was right. He had taken the quick fix out of the situation, and he should have consulted his friends before roping them into a frightening situation like this, even if it was reversible.
Shaggy got up out of the uncomfortable office chair, and felt a twinge of pain in his lower back. The chair was hard and the back was made of a mix of metal and wood. The way in which it was built didn't really allow for slouching of any kind. Shaggy had never worn a back brace, but he assumed even they were more comfortable than the torture device that Dracula considered an office chair.
He started heading towards the stairs so he could go up and get Scooby, Scrappy and Googie. However, his green-faced supervisor quickly stopped him.
"Vhat are you doing, Shah-gee? The race is this vay!" Dracula inquired.
"Like, I was just going up to get my friends." Shaggy replied.
"Do not vorry about your friends! The Hunch Bunch vill bring them down to drive vith you in the race." Dracula informed.
"Like, okay, I guess." Shaggy said cautiously. He hoped that the count was telling the truth, otherwise he was likely to have a very frustrated girlfriend.
"So Shah-gee, you veren't happy being in my Monster Realm?" Dracula asked.
Shaggy didn't even know how to begin to answer Dracula's very awkward question. "Well, like, no. I just want a fair race."
"You know, Shah-gee, you've taken to the job very quickly. I vas looking at your sales, and you've nearly sold 25 vehicles already! That is impressive, given you've only been here a few days!" Dracula complimented.
At first, Shaggy felt a little bit of warmth in his heart from the compliment, which surprised him. He must be feeling really low to be excited about getting complimented by Dracula. He then realized that this was very likely another emotional trick on Dracula's part to get him to feel guilty about leaving, which he couldn't fall for. There was no way in hell was going to remain complacent and make his friends stay here as prisoners. Not only did his friends not deserve this, but he didn't deserve this either. No matter how much of a screw-up he was, no one deserved to be Dracula's prisoner.
This feeling hit Shaggy a bit odd at first. He couldn't quite place what this emotion was, but he quickly realized it was a feeling he rarely felt: self-worth. He let the feeling slosh around his mind a bit, and tried to imprint the essence of what it felt like in his mind, so that he could hopefully one day feel it again.
As the count led him out of a back door to the castle he'd never been through before, Shaggy wondered why Dracula had stopped talking. He quickly realized that it was probably because he'd never responded to the vampire's remarks.
"Behold, our new Monster Road Rally racetrack!" Dracula unveiled, as he held the back door open for Shaggy.
To Shaggy's surprise, all of the surroundings were unfamiliar to him. The racetrack looked far windier than it had last time, and appeared to go through several patches of woods. Nothing about the track looked like it had last time.
"Like, you changed the track! How'd you do that so fast?" Shaggy gasped. It had only been a few days since the last Monster Road Rally, so he was flabbergasted as to how quickly everything had been switched around, given there were no plans for another race until yesterday.
"Ah, yes. I put the Hunch Bunch up to rearranging the track last night. Now they'll be so exhausted there's no vay they can bumble things up this time!" Dracula chuckled. "And there's your car, Shah-gee."
Shaggy saw the yellow werewolf car parked out on the starting line on the race track, alongside all the other monster cars. His car looked just as he remembered it: quite tiny and inconvenient for fitting four people. Nonetheless, he was able to win last time, so he hoped he'd be able to again.
"So, are you, like, gonna go over the design of the track with everyone again?" Shaggy asked.
"No." Dracula firmly stated. "That vill be part of the challenge of the track! No one vill know vhat lies ahead!"
"Like, I suppose that's fair enough." Shaggy shrugged. Although it put him at a disadvantage, everyone else would be at the same disadvantage he was. If he performed as well as he did last time, he should be able to win.
A part of this whole situation still felt surreal to Shaggy. He couldn't believe he was about to go through the trauma that was the Monster Road Rally again, but he hoped it would be over soon enough.
"So how are you liking the job, Shah-gee?" Dracula inquired. This seemed like an odd question coming from the King of Vampires, but Shaggy figured that it was another trick.
"It's good. Like you've said, I've gotten a lot of sales!" Shaggy wasn't going to play Dracula's mind games, so he tried to be as generic as possible.
"Yes, yes, I'm glad you are enjoying the business of evildoing." Dracula's face wore a Cheshire Cat like smile as he said this. "Just vait until ve unveil our next evil project! I call it: social media! It's all designed vith maximum insecurity measures, such as comment sections that allow people to write the most vitriolic things vith complete anonymity. Here's the zinger: the whole thing is a game based around who can get the most people to press the "like" button! Ve've literally created a game giving people free validation!"
Shaggy shuddered at the thought of how horrible and evil Dracula's next project sounded. He hoped this weapon of mass destruction would never see the light of day.
Thankfully for Shaggy, his mind was distracted by seeing his girlfriend and two best friends led out to the werewolf car by the Hunch Bunch. He was attempting to think of something to say to get away from Dracula, but thankfully, the King of Vampires beat him to it.
"The race is about to start, so I vill let you get over to your dogs and lady friend. May the best monster vin…and that von't be you!" Dracula cackled.
"Like, thanks." Shaggy said in a sarcastic voice. Although it felt quite strange, he no longer feared Dracula as much as he once did. He honestly found Dracula to be more of a narcissistic pain in the arse than a menacing threat. Dracula just wanted to position himself as being the dominator of others, but in reality, he was just a bully who seemed too wrapped up in preserving his self-image to do any significant harm to others.
Nonetheless, he was thankful for the excuse to scamper away from Dracula and head over to his friends, who were standing at the edge of the racetrack. Shaggy saw Googie eagerly glance at him as he headed towards her.
"Shaggy!" Googie shouted, a burst of excitement and nervousness present in her voice. She waited for him to get within a few feet of her to continue talking. "Sounds like the race is starting any minute. Are you ready?"
The first noise that came out of Shaggy's mouth was a gulp. "Like, don't ask me that."
"C'mon, Shaggy! You could beat these creeps anyday!" Scrappy cheered.
"Ready to get pulverized, small fry?" the taller witch sister harassed as she crossed Shaggy's path to get to the Cauldron Coupé.
Shaggy remembered her taunt from a couple of days ago. He didn't care for it then, and he certainly didn't care for it now either. "Like, who are you calling small fry?"
"You!" the short witch cackled, as a burst of light exploded out of her wand and headed right towards him. Shaggy had to leap out of the way to dodge it.
"Ignore them, Shaggy. They're just bullies that are trying to get to you." Googie attempted to solace her boyfriend.
"Like, I know." Shaggy quickly realized he'd let his temper get the best of him. "It's just hard when I'm already so anxious."
"It'll be over soon enough." Googie assured.
"It looks like the other monsters are all getting into their cars!" Scrappy pointed to the horde of monsters from Dracula's realm getting into their vehicles, which were all parked side-by-side on the racetrack.
"Ready, Raggy?" Scooby asked.
"Like, yeah. I suppose we better get in our vehicle too." Shaggy sighed. He felt like he was living in a surreal world as he walked around the car and got into the driver's seat. When he won the first time, he thought he'd never have to ride in this vehicle again. Oh, how wrong he was. Shaggy liked the Double Dyno Turbo Blaster far better, both because of the size and the many different features. The Werewolf Wagon was quite cramped, and while it had some features, Shaggy hadn't had nearly enough time in the car to figure out how to use any of them yet.
Shaggy got inside the Werewolf Wagon and found that the keys were already in the ignition. He quickly started the vehicle as everyone got inside, and prepared to begin the race. Shaggy's heart sank a little bit when he saw Dracula approach his vehicle. Shaggy rolled down his window to talk to the King of Vampires, sticking his arm out the window.
"Ve are about to start the race, Shah-gee!" Dracula informed. He was holding a large white megaphone in his hands.
Shaggy attempted to do this as subtly as possible, so that Dracula and his friends wouldn't notice. This was part of his secret plan that nobody knew about, not even Googie, Scrappy and Scooby. In order to grab what he wanted out of Dracula's pocket, he needed to ensure he maintained eye contact with Dracula at all times, so that he wouldn't notice. Thankfully, Dracula's pocket wasn't all that far away from where his hand was, so he cautiously reached in Dracula's pants pocket. He was careful to make sure his fingers barely brushed the inside of the vampire's pockets so that he wouldn't feel Shaggy's gentle touch, and made sure his hand rapidly retreated once it got what it came for.
"Yeah, like, I'm ready." Shaggy replied, quickly slipping the item in his pocket as Dracula walked away to begin the race.
"What was that you just put in your pocket, Shaggy?" Scrappy asked, causing the werewolf to feel a jolt of panic for a moment.
"Oh, like, just this cool rock I found." Shaggy lied. "I'm keeping it with me for good luck!"
Thankfully, Scrappy and the others didn't probe any further, and they were quickly interrupted by the booming voice of Dracula.
"Ve are about to start the redo of our Annual Monster Road Rally!" Dracula announced. "And to
celebrate, ve got these guys back!"
Dracula pointed to the same group of apathetic townspeople that were in the stands for the previous race.
"Yay." they sighed.
"First up, ve have the Dragon Dragster!" Dracula announced. Shaggy looked over at the Dragonfly Monster, who was waving his right arm to the audience with an evil grimace on his face.
"Next is the Freaky Franken Vagon!" Dracula introduced, looking at Frankenstein and Repulsa driving up to the starting line. Shaggy wondered why Repulsa didn't get her own car, until he realized that he was in a castle of monsters and that they likely didn't exactly condemn misogyny.
"And here comes the mummy, in his Mummy Mobile!" Dracula said through the megaphone. The mummy waved to the audience from his car.
"Next up, ve have Bonejangles in the Bone Bomber!" Dracula informed. Bonejangles had a sly grin on his face as he waved to the audience.
"Our next racecar is the Slime Speedster!" Dracula introduced. The Boogeyman's yucky vehicle peeled out from where it was previously parked a few feet away, and barely stopped in time to be lined up with the other monsters. His car was dripping with gross swamp goop.
"Ve've got Dr. Jackyll and Mr. Snyde in his Split Personality Special!" Dracula announced another monster. Dr. Jackyll waved politely, until he suddenly transformed in Mr. Snyde, who began growling and snarling.
"Second-to-last is the Cauldron Coupé!" Dracula pointed to the Witch Sisters in their vehicle. The taller witch sister was busy stirring some sort of slime green colored potion in the cauldron affixed to the back of their vehicle. As a result, the shorter sister did the waving to the audience, although not in the traditional way. She waved her wand a few times, and caused a few fireworks to burst into the cloudy afternoon sky.
"Last and least, ve've got Shah-gee in the Verevolf Vagon!" Dracula announced, as all the other monsters booed him. Shaggy normally would have been offended by these tricks, but he honestly felt mostly indifferent to them. These lowly monsters seemed to have no other methods to frighten people besides petty insults and elementary school level bullying.
Dracula handed the megaphone to his partner, Vanna Pira, who seemed like a far more enthusiastic announcer than Dracula did.
"Our prize this time for the winner will be a three-night trip to Camp Rock!" Vanna Pira shared.
"And if you vin, Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers vill be there this year to greet you!" Dracula added.
"Like, isn't that just a movie?" Shaggy looked perplexed.
"In addition, we have a very special guest commentator for you!" Vanna Pira announced. "American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson!"
"Time to start those mach-hee-hee-nes!" Michael said.
"And now, monster racing fans, it's time to start the road rally!" Vanna Pira began to count. "3, 2, 1…go!"
Shaggy wasted no time putting the pedal to the metal. Despite being a cramped, crappy-seeming car, he'd forgotten what a beast the Werewolf Wagon was. It was as quick as a frightened rabbit, and as agile as a cheetah. It could get an extremely strong start without much effort at all, and blew ahead of all of the other monsters almost immediately. Shaggy wondered where Dracula had gotten this vehicle and why it seemed faster than all the other vehicles.
"Row, re're ray out rin front!" Scooby exclaimed.
"You can say that again, Scoob!" Shaggy said, feeling a bit of pride from his achievement. This pride was quickly dampered by a comment from Googie.
"Don't be so sure about that." Googie said cautiously, pointing backwards.
Shaggy of course couldn't look backwards without taking his eyes off the road, but a quick glance in his rearview mirror showed that Bonejangles and Frankenstein's Monster were close behind.
"Looks like we've got company, Shaggy! And not the friendly kind." Scrappy forewarned, just as Shaggy heard a loud bang hit his car.
"Like, what was that?" Shaggy panicked.
"They're shooting at us!" Googie cried. Shaggy quickly saw from the rearview mirror that the Bone Bomber was shooting miniature bones at them. They were small, but very sharp.
"Rhey're ramaging our car!" Scooby pointed out. Shaggy could faintly see a dent in the car from where the bone hit in his side mirror.
"Like, what's the big idea?" Shaggy yelled to Bonejangles. "I thought Dracula agreed, no tricks this time!"
"Yes!" Bonejangles hissed. "Dracula agreed to no tricks, but he never said anything about us!"
A barrage of bones followed the skeleton's comment, but little did Shaggy know, that would soon be the least of his worries. He quickly felt a painful jolt which felt almost like touching a light socket or accidentally putting your finger in the toaster.
"Like, ow!" Shaggy gulped. "What was that?"
"Look behind you, and you'll find out!" a raspy voice called. Shaggy quickly identified it as Frankenstein's Monster. He and Repulsa were shooting lightning bolts out of a device on the hood of their car, and they were quite literally electrocuting Shaggy.
"If you thought that was painful, wait until you feel this!" Repulsa cackled.
"Let's not wait around to find out what she means!" Googie gasped.
"Like, I'm with you! Hold on, I'm shifting this thing into top gear!" Shaggy gulped, as he shifted to a gear marked "power drive." He was quickly able to speed up and get far enough away from the next lightning bolt.
Shaggy could see Scooby and Scrappy holding on for dear life in the back seat, so he began to slow the vehicle down once he believed he was a safe distance away from the Freaky Franken Wagon.
"Phew, like I think we're safe now." Shaggy exhaled a breath of fresh air, and shifted back into the regular "drive" gear. The power drive gear was indeed very convenient, but it caused his gas level to drop far quicker than normal. He figured there was no place to stop for gas along the route, so he had to conserve his fuel and use this feature wisely.
"Like, think again, Shaggy!" Scrappy warned. "It looks like another car is gaining on us!"
Shaggy dreaded looking in the mirror, but knew he had to in order to keep him and his friends safe. He soon realized they were being pursued by a terrible twosome.
"So, think you're gonna win this race again, eh?" the shorter witch cackled, as the tall witch stirred the cauldron affixed to the back of their vehicle.
"Like, I'm sure gonna try!" Shaggy said, as he shifted back into power drive and gunned it away from the witches. He hated using this feature so soon again, but he wasn't sure how else to get away from the other monsters who seemed bent on ensuring he'd lose this time.
"I think we lost them, Shaggy." Googie informed. "You can slow down now."
"Phew. That feature's great, but like, we've already used up 10% of our gas, and the race has just started!" Shaggy gulped.
"Looks like we're headed towards the woods section now." Scrappy pointed towards a large canopy of trees around the racetrack in front of them. Shaggy couldn't see an end to it, so he assumed that he'd be traveling through the woods for a decent amount of time.
The road in the woods wasn't paved; it appeared to just be a walking trail. This made it significantly more difficult to drive quickly, so Shaggy worried about the other monsters catching up to him.
"Row'd rhose ruys ret ahead?" Scooby pointed directly ahead of him. To Shaggy's shock, the Split Personality Special and the Dragon Dragster were already in front of him.
"Like, how'd you guys get so far ahead?" Shaggy called to the other monsters, but immediately regretted doing so.
"Eazzzzzy." the Dragonfly Monster buzzed. "We took a shortcut!"
Shaggy was about to call them out for cheating, but he remembered the response he got last time for that remark.
"You won't have to worry for long about being far ahead." Dr. Jackyll said in a calm manner from his vehicle, before turning into the dreadful Mr. Snyde. "I'll make sure of that!"
Mr. Snyde appeared to be mixing some sort of potion in his hand. Shaggy expected him to toss it at the Werewolf Wagon, but instead, he threw it to the ground.
"Like I guess we dodged a bullet there!" Shaggy laughed, getting off some of his nervous energy.
"I wouldn't be zzzo zzzure about that!" the Dragonfly Monster chuckled.
"What is that awful ooze?" Googie wondered, as they passed the bubbling substance that Mr. Snyde had thrown on the ground.
Before Shaggy could respond, the ooze began transforming. As it continued to change, the ooze began to sculpt itself into the form of a person. More and more features of the creature began manifesting themselves by the second. First, Shaggy could see blue pants, then a red shirt, and then the faint outline of a face. The face's features quickly began to clear out of the mist: first there was a creepy-looking mouth, then a dog-like nose, followed by two red eyes. The face quickly grew mangy fur all around, and Shaggy gasped in horror when he realized what the ooze had turned into: a creepy doppelgänger of himself.
The ooze creature did not speak, it only roared, and it ran at the vehicle like a rabid animal.
"Like, zoinks, we've gotta get away from me!" Shaggy gulped. He was about to shift into power drive again, until he felt Googie's hand grab his paw.
"I don't think we need to do that yet." Googie said. "Remember the monster Mr. Snyde concocted last time?"
"Like, I barely remember the last race in general. I blocked it out so I don't get, like, PTSD!" Shaggy chuckled nervously.
"Hey, she's right!" Scrappy realized, his little puppy eyes lighting up like he'd just had an epiphany. "The monster wasn't real!"
"Try driving through the monster, Shaggy!" Googie suggested, her hand caressing her boyfriend's furry paws to calm him.
"Like, what? You want me to hit myself?" Shaggy gasped.
"Just do it! I guarantee you; it's not real." Googie urged as the monster began running towards them from the left side.
"Like, if you say so!" Shaggy gulped, as he veered to the right to hit his evil doppelgänger. He felt bad about hitting a clone of himself, but Googie's reminder that the previous monster wasn't real was incredibly helpful. He was also reminded of Revolta's mirror monster, who nearly had trapped him in the mirror world for an eternity.
Shaggy tried not to think about it too hard as he expected a loud thud from hitting the monster, but he knew he couldn't close his eyes like he wanted to. To his surprise, there was no yelp from the creature. Just as Googie had hypothesized, the monster simply dissipated into ooze when he drove through it. Shaggy loved his girlfriend dearly for being the voice of reason when he found himself caught in a fearful frenzy.
"Smooth thinking, Shaggy!" Scrappy complimented.
Shaggy was intending to respond, but he was distracted by the troubling realization that the car was stuck. The sudden swerve appeared to have gotten the front right tire of the vehicle caught in some sort of swamp ooze.
"I think we're stuck." Shaggy groaned. "Thankfully, like, it doesn't feel too stuck; I think it just needs a little momentum!"
"Need someone to get out and push?" Scrappy asked.
"I don't think that's such a good idea." Googie pointed to the swamp ooze. At first, it was so camouflaged that Shaggy couldn't see it, but he was horrified once he realized what she was talking about: the swamp ooze they were stuck in was directly connected to the Boogeyman and his Slime Speedster.
"Good luck winning the race now!" the Boogeyman gargled a laugh, as he sped off.
"Like, zoinks!" Shaggy gulped.
"It's just a minor inconvenience, Shag." Googie assured, as she opened the passenger door and took a glance at the swamp ooze affixed to their wheel. She quickly backtracked when she realized that the passenger's side was completely surrounded by goopy green ooze. "I think we've got a bit of a problem. I can't get out without stepping in that yucky stuff."
"Why don't I try?" Scrappy offered. He leaped up from his seat on the rear passenger's side and got up on the door of the car. Scooby's nephew walked the open windows like a tightrope, before carefully jumping onto the small portion of the wheel that wasn't covered in slime. The little pup began picking off the ooze, wearing a grossed-out look on his face as he did it. "Yuck, this ooze really is sticky!"
"Have you got most of it off, Scrappy?" Shaggy impatiently asked. He hated to rush Scrappy, but he knew the other monsters would likely be catching up any minute.
"I got a good chunk of it off, but there's still a bit left on the bottom!" Scrappy informed.
"Like, jump back in the car, Scrappy!" Shaggy instructed. "I wanna try to see if we got enough of it off to get moving."
Once Scrappy had safely climbed back in the car and buckled his seatbelt, Shaggy attempted to gun it. The car moved a tad bit, but it still was struggling to get traction on the slime.
"Try accelerating slowly, Shaggy." Googie suggested.
"Rood idea!" Scooby chimed in.
Shaggy wasn't so sure he agreed with his canine companion, but he tested it out anyway. He was incredibly glad he listened, because it seemed to be slowly dislodging them.
"You're making progress, Shaggy!" Googie cheered. "You just need a little more traction!"
Shaggy proceeded to floor it, which somehow, combined with the slow acceleration, was able to dislodge the Werewolf Wagon from its rancid restraints of the swamp gook.
"You did it!" Scrappy cheered, as they raced away from the swamp at high speed.
"Like, yeah, but we've got some catching up to do if we want to get ahead of those other monsters!" Shaggy said.
He momentarily distanced himself from his horrifying surroundings by admiring the yellow and orange leaves on the trees surrounding the vehicle. Damn, those leaves sure were pretty. Feeling very well like he may not survive this terrifying situation, he wished he'd taken more time in his old life to admire the simple pleasures of life.
He was quickly taken out of his daydream by a raspy voice that did not belong to any of his three friends.
"You've got more catching up to do than you think, werewolf!" Shaggy expected one of his friends to inform him which of the terrifying monsters from Dracula's realm was antagonizing them now, but before they could do that, the car was pulled back by some strange force. Shaggy quickly realized it was the Mummy Mobile. The Mummy was laughing as he held down a button that caused some mummy wrapping to latch onto the car. Shaggy had never known any mere bandage to be this strong, so he assumed that the mummy's bandages must have some sort of superhuman strength.
"Rhe rummy raught us!" Scooby gasped.
"Sorry to put you a little off track!" the mummy cackled, as he pressed another button that caused the bandages to whip them into midair.
To Shaggy's horror, the mummy meant "off track" quite literally, as the bandages spun them around in the air and threw them to the side of the racetrack. Shaggy was worried they were going to get stuck in a tree, but thankfully, the vehicle landed right side up on a small gravel walking trail.
"Is everyone okay?" Googie inquired.
"I am." Scrappy acknowledged.
"I'm alright." Shaggy replied. He didn't sustain any injuries from the car's unfortunate landing; he was more just mentally shaken up. "You okay, Scoob?"
"Reah." Scooby replied, as his tail began wagging with relief.
"Is the Werewolf Wagon still driveable?" Googie inquired.
Shaggy pressed the accelerator with his foot, and the car began slightly moving down the walking trail.
"Like, yep. Good as new…I think." Shaggy replied.
"Great! Then let's get back on track before those other monsters get too far ahead!" Scrappy said.
Shaggy began driving the vehicle up the small hill they needed to climb to get back on the racetrack. He made sure to take it slowly, because the hill was quite steep, and he didn't want to send them on a one-way trip to the bottom. They'd gotten lucky that the Mummy Mobile hadn't harmed the Werewolf Wagon in any noticeable way, so he sure as hell didn't want to put his friends at risk again.
Shaggy looked in the rearview mirror before accelerating too hard, to ensure that the tires wouldn't get stuck on anything. All of a sudden, he saw something that absolutely shocked him. The sun's gleaming rays made it a bit hard to see, but he quickly realized that there was a large clearing at the bottom of the hill. He had to squint to make sure he was seeing this right, but he was almost positive he saw Dracula's Bat-Copter was in the clearing. He continued glancing in the rearview mirror for a while until he was certain that it was the Bat-Copter that he saw. This was exactly the moment he'd been waiting for. He'd unfortunately had to hide this plan from his friends, but he knew if he didn't do something now, he might never have another chance.
"Like, I'm sorry about this, guys." Shaggy apologized as he prepared to take drastic action.
Shaggy rapidly swerved to the right, and continued to do so until the car had completely spun around. Once the car had done a complete 180, he let gravity do the work for him as they headed down the hill.
"Shaggy, what are you doing?!" Googie screamed as they flew down the hill at high speed.
Shaggy realized there was no good way to answer this question, so his reply came out in a bit of an awkward way, sounding like a cross between a madman and an action movie hero.
"Saving our rumps." the werewolf said, as the car careened into the clearing. Shaggy then applied the brakes once they'd reached the clearing.
"I repeat, what are you doing?!" Googie cried out.
"Yeah, Shaggy, what are you trying to do?" Scrappy replied, sounding just as shocked as Googie.
"Like, I promise I'll, like, explain everything later, but I just, like, need you to listen to exactly what I say." Shaggy could feel his "like" count rising as a panic washed over his body. "Like, get in the Bat-Copter."
"Rhat? Rhy?" Scooby cried out, sounding completely bewildered.
"That might be our only way to escape! I stole the keys from Dracula earlier, and we're, like, taking this bird out of here!" Shaggy said, feeling a bit like a crazy person as he manically explained his plan to his friend.
Shaggy raced towards the Bat-Copter and took the keys out of his pocket. He flung open the door to the helicopter so that his friends could rush inside, and immediately put the keys in the helicopter's ignition.
"Do you even know how to drive a helicopter, Shaggy?" Googie said, clearly very panicked.
"Like, no, but I better learn fast!" Shaggy gulped, as he pressed what he believed was something to get the Bat-Copter to take off. His beliefs were soon confirmed when the helicopter began leaving the ground.
"That was a smooth getaway, Shaggy!" Scrappy exclaimed. The thrill-seeking pup seemed to be excited no matter how dangerous the situations he got into were, so this response did not surprise the werewolf at all. "So where are we headed next?"
"Give him a moment to figure it out, Scrappy." Googie interjected kindly.
Shaggy's face wore an extremely serious look as he responded to his girlfriend. "We're going to see Vincent Van Ghoul."
