Plan Omega.

Scooby solemnly approached Daphne then began to vigorously lick the soles of her feet. Daphne went the same colour as her clothes as she bucked and struggled. Fred clamped his hand over her mouth muffle her shrieks and held her tightly round the waist, Shaggy and Velma held her legs as still as best they could to allow Scooby to work. 60 seconds later it was all over. Velma walked up to Daphne, put her hands on her hips and fixed a stern gaze on her.

"That's for putting make-up on the boys when they dozed off at the open-air concert last month, for putting pink hair dye in Scooby's bath and for putting super-glue on my bicycle saddle, handles and in the lip-balm you know I always apply just before cycling anywhere. Daph you have got to stop it with these practical jokes."

"Yeah Daph, like it's not funny anymore" said Shaggy.

Once freed Daphne stormed off to her room bemoaning them for their sense of humour failure and general ingratitude.

It was a quiet Sunday morning a few weeks later, Shaggy and Fred were away visiting family and were due back later that day while Daphne had gone for an early morning dip in the local pool before it filled up with children while Scooby was babysitting at a neighbour's house. Velma was having a long shower, taking advantage of the quiet and the all the hot-water in the house. Finally she decided it was breakfast time so turned off the shower and stepped out. She fumbled around for her glasses; they weren't where she thought she'd left them and gave a annoyed snort. While out-and-about she was obsessive about her glasses in the house she was a bit more relaxed, she knew her way around the place and after all there was both a spare pair and her previous set in her room so she wasn't unduly worried. She began to worry when she realised that her clothes were also missing, even worse so were the big fluffy towels she was going to dry herself with. In fact all the towels were missing from the bathroom. All except one, on the top shelf, just within reach of her fingertips was a small threadbare hand towel just over a foot wide and a couple of feet long. Holding it against herself she found that it would cover her dignity if she crouched down slightly but nothing else. This wasn't a total disaster as there was no-one in the house to see her so set off for her room. She went to barge straight in but was stopped dead in her tracks, her door was locked. She turned around to see the bathroom door now closed, she hurried over and tried that, it was also locked.

She returned to her room door, there was a note in barely legible scrawl that said her keys were in Shaggy's room. That door was also locked, no surprise as Shaggy was out, she had a key but it was in her room, there was however a note on his door saying that her clothes could be found in a box at the front of their garden.

In desperation she went through the house trying all the other doors, they were also locked. Beyond ripping up the carpet or pulling down the curtains anything that could have offered her some cover was also missing. Velma squinted through the window from behind the curtain; she could make out an orange box half buried in a piece of hedging. It was still early in the morning so there was no one about and the towel did offer some cover so she felt she could get away with it as it would only take her a few seconds to dash there and retrieve the case. They also had some high shrubbery at the front of the house which would provide cover from prying eyes. Making sure that the front door was wedged open she crouched down and made a dash for the box. Faster than an Olympic sprinter she reached to box, Velma wasn't that surprised that the box was locked, it wasn't a problem as there was a toolbox under the stairs and a bit of percussive maintenance with a hammer should fix the lock. Picking up the box the headed back to the house, her heart sank when she found the door was shut fast. There was a note saying that her door keys were next to the mail box at the house at the end of their street. It didn't say which end. In desperation Velma tried the entrance to the back garden, there were places she could hide there, but that too was locked. Velma curled up in ball in the most secluded area she could find, behind a pair of composting bins at the side of the house, for once she couldn't think of anything to do.

"Relma?" she turned and saw Scooby-ish shape looking at her.

"Scooby? Is that you, I need help." Velma's hand groped around till she took hold of his paw as he moved his face right up next to her.

"Rhat rappened?" Scooby listened in rising surprise then anger as Velma described the events that had led up to her fumbling around outside in nothing but a small towel. He could tell that Velma felt vulnerable and humiliated, whoever was forcing her to be almost nude in public, and without her glasses, had crossed a line. He sniffed the note on the box and had a good idea who was behind this.

"Relma, rood rift."

"What, a food lift? I don't understand."

Scooby explained that years ago Shaggy had secretly installed a food lift outside his window when Fred had tried to get everyone on a health-food diet.

"Ohh I remember, I made some fake books to hide chocolate in. That explains why your window has a lock on the outside as well, you could sneak in with food."

"Rexactly."

It was old and creaky but still serviceable Velma steeled herself and dropped her towel so she could hoist Scooby up. Scooby unlocked the window jumped inside then reappeared seconds later out carrying something in his mouth

Scooby had grabbed hold of a largest towel he could find for her to wear. As soon as he was safely down she wrapped herself up in it and gave Scooby one of the biggest hugs he had ever had.

"It always pays to know where your towel is. Thank you Scooby, can you find my keys?"

"Rokay, rime ron it" he quickly left sniffing the ground as he went.

Minutes Velma nearly had a heart attack as a car pulled up the drive, she calmed down when she realised it was Shaggy.

"I thought I saw Scooby running down the road, it looked like he was looking for something. What the heck happened?"

"Just let me in, I'll tell you inside," pleaded Velma.

Shaggy hurried and opened the door.

Daphne leap out "Ha reveng… oh hello Shaggy, I'm err just going out to the gym, err yes, gym, only just got back from the pool now off to the gym, that's where I'm going, need to keep fit so I can keep chasing those monsters so emm bye!" and with that Daphne dashed off cursing under her breath.

Before she knew where she was Shaggy had got Velma inside the house and closed the door.

"I need to get the keys out of your room so I can get my clothes out of that damn box, can you let me in?"

"How can I say no?" said Shaggy picking her up in his arms and he carried her up the stairs, he briefly set Velma down to fish out his keys and unlocked the door to his room. Velma dropped the towel on the floor as he carried her inside.

It wasn't until evening that Daphne returned, she tried to sneak in but was caught in a net that Fred had rigged up for that very purpose. It had been decided that Shaggy would speak to Daphne, the risk that Velma would use her as a human piñata was too great. Daphne hung in the net as he spoke.

"We know it's you Daph, who else uses a purple pen and lavender scented note paper in this house?" said Shaggy "That was just too far, Velma could have been arrested over that, she's gonna have nightmares about this for sure." Despite his calm voice Daphne could tell he was angry.

"I'm not the only person in this house you know."

"You were the only person in the house at the time!"

"I was out."

"Oh it was Scooby then?" he said.

"Might have been" she said guiltily.