Chapter 4: The Coolsonian at Night
To their surprise, a 'Fred Plan' actually worked. First they took the elevator, to do this, Shaggy and Scooby went to call it up and waited until it was an empty car, then they loaded aboard and began their descent. The Scooby Gang stood in front and hid Thorn and her group from view whenever the doors opened.
When hotel residents noted the full elevator they let the doors closed without getting on. When they finally reached the next to the bottom floor, Scooby was let out first to check things out, when he found it clear to the stairs, he came back to the stopped elevator and gave them the all clear. Everyone, except Shaggy and Scooby, scurried to the exit stairs quickly and hurried down them to the exit door. The two on the elevator took it the rest of the way down.
The group on the stairs had to halt because of the fire alert exit door. The bar would alert the security if it was opened for any reason except for a fire. Daphne used an old trick and put a hairpin in the mechanism which made it think it was still closed then cracked the door open to watch for Scooby and Shaggy before stepping outside.
Shaggy and Scooby had gone out the front doors normally so that the hotel staff knew they had left and not be concerned. Shaggy sent Scooby to do a quick recon to check if anyone was following them.
Some ten minutes later, the dog was back and told him it was safe. Still on the alert, they went around to the door where the others were waiting for the all clear.
"Everything's cool!" Shaggy said softly at the barely cracked door.
Daphne sighed then opened the door the rest of the way. Everyone quickly filed past her then she carefully eased the door closed very slowly until it the lock slicked in place. No alarm went off.
The plan had worked flawlessly and no one ever learned that Thorn and the others were even in the hotel. They would do the same trick on the return trip.
Staying on the alert, the group took side roads to the museum to keep out of sight of anyone looking for them. A group there size would certainly have garnered unwanted attention. It was a nice, cool night and they strolled briskly to their destination talking in soft voices.
"I gotta admit, Fred, old buddy. Your plan worked without a hitch!" Shaggy said in admiration.
"I thought all my plans usually worked?" Fred said more than a little affronted.
"Uhuh… not all, Freddy… but, this one worked like a charm." Daphne told him.
"How long will it take us to get to the Coolsonian?" Sebastian asked, as he loaded his pistol. A customized "Desert Eagle", one of his favourites.
"No time at all! It's just around that corner." Velma answered.
"I still can't figure out how you managed to have permits and a license to carry one of those things." Luna said, frowning as she watched Sebastian putting the safety lock on then putting in a hidden holster under his jacket. He just shrugged rather than answer.
Before she could possibly press the issue, they walked past some store fronts then turned the corner which brought them to the front of the Coolsonian. The museum occupied a full city block. The main building was old but one could see all new construction on either side of the main entrance. One section of it still had canvas over it to keep curious eyes out.
"Wow! What are they doing? It's sure changed from when we were last here. It's beginning to look a lot like the British Museum." Zack said in amazement.
"The board of directors decided to expand the original building and to do that they bought the entire block, demolishing all the other buildings. Most of the remodelling and new construction is completed; just some interior work needs to be done before its grand reopening in a month or two." Velma explained.
"It sure looks impressive." Sebastian said. "So, how are we supposed to get in?"
"Good question… how do you intend for us to get into a museum that's closed?" Luna asked.
"With this!" Daphne said, smiling, showing them a key card she'd taken from her handbag. "After defeating the Evil Masked Figure who brought some of the costumes from our enemies to life and having them terrorize Coolsville for almost a week, the curator of the museum and the board staff decided we should have full access to the museum at any time, just in case something like that, happened again." She explained.
Suitably impressed, their guests followed the gang up the marble stairs to the entrance door. Daphne passed the key card through a discreet reader located under a lion's head. The door softly clicked and they quickly pushed their way in, the door silently closing behind them.
The atmosphere inside was a bit creepy. Shaggy, Scooby and Zack began to shiver as they looked around. Shadows created by objects covered with canvas, construction scaffolds and other things, created a very creepy and menacing environment. But, as soon as Velma found the main switchboard and flicked the lights on, the feeling disappeared.
"Okay, like, where are the villains costumes kept?" Zack asked.
"They're stored in the main vault… Come on, this way!" Daphne said.
"Maybe, Scoob and I should stay here, you know? Just in case someone appears…" Shaggy said nervously, knowing he would be forced to look at those creepy costumes again.
"Reah! Someone…" Scooby agreed.
"Stop being a couple of chickens and come on, guys! We've got a mystery to solve." Daphne chided them.
Persuaded by the others, Shaggy and Scooby decided to go with the rest of the group. Led by Fred, they went to an elevator located near the museum offices. They all loaded aboard and took the short one floor trip.
The doors opened to a huge underground area with cement walls. In one area there were piles and piles of cardboard boxes and broken parts. Another area had old furniture stored on top of each other. Still another section had left over construction supplies and debris. Everywhere was layers of dust and cobwebs. Thorn sneezed repeatedly for a moment, dragging out a handkerchief from her pocket and blowing loudly.
"Gesundheit!" Dusk said in sympathy.
"Thanks, Dusk." Thorn said, her voice stuffy sounding. "My allergies make me crazy."
"What a mess! This place really needs a good cleaning." Daphne said in disgust.
"Where's the main vault?" Sebastian asked, looking around.
"It's just around that corner, on your left." Fred answered.
"Maybe we should have asked for a Scooby Snack before coming with them, Scooby." Shaggy muttered unhappily, as he and Scooby-Doo slowly walked through the dark and spooky basement.
"Reah... Rooby Snack." The dog smacked his lips.
"Hey, guys. I got a box of Scooby Snacks with me. You want one?" Zack surprised them, waving a box he taken out of his backpack. "These have chocolate chips in them."
"Do we? Me and Scooby live for these little things." Shaggy said in delight as he took one of the cookies from the box.
"Reah, Rooby Snacks!" Scooby exclaimed as he ate a few.
They continued to walk through the dusty basement then turned the indicated corner and came face to face with a huge metal door with a seven digit-code security keypad. There was a card reader on this as well and Daphne ran her card through it.
Very slowly and ponderously, the heavy door pulled open making a soft humming noise as it did so. Sebastian stepped in front of the now open vault and took out his pistol.
Turning to the others behind him, he said, "Allow me! I've always wanted to do this!" Then he stepped into the vault, held his gun up with two hands and yelled, "Freeze!"
"What was that for?" Fred frowned in confusion.
"Well, I've always wanted to say that as I walked into a secured area and never got the chance to do it." Sebastian said innocently as he lowered his pistol then put it away.
"But, you knew there was no one inside, except those freaky looking costumes." Shagging objected.
"Yeah, I know but it was fun, anyway!" Sebastian smiling cheekily. Everyone looked at him then each other then burst out laughing.
The laughter had broken the sombre mood and after they'd calmed down, they refocused their attention on the reason for being here. Daphne activated the lights inside the vault.
The vault was bigger than anyone could ever have imagined, for it was as big as a shopping mall's parking lot. The walls and the ceiling were steel while the floor was concrete. As they entered, the first thing they saw were hundreds of huge objects covered with white sheets. By the size of the objects, all of them guessed those were the suits of the gang's villains. This proved to be correct, when Scooby lifted one of the sheets and became frightened with what he saw under it, making him jump into Shaggy's arms.
"Ronster! Ronster!"
"That's no monster, Scooby." Velma said, shaking her head as she got closer to the suit in display. "That's just the suit of the Evil Masked Figure."
The suit, just like all the others, was draped on a mannequin for ease of storage and display. Next to the costumes were small plaques that gave the description of the outfit, the villain's name, the date and place it had been caught, and the real identity of the one who wore the costume. Just under the plaque was a button that played the recording of the sound the villain made when he or she was wearing it.
Velma pressed the button to demonstrate and the life like sound came out scaring Scooby, Shaggy, and Zach and sending them in each others arms, shivering with fright.
"Come on, guys… It's just a dummy wearing the outfit; it's not the real one." Velma said in disgust.
"Yeah… But it still creeps me out!" Shaggy exclaimed, still shivering.
"Reah, reepy!" Scooby agreed, while shaking his head.
"He sure was creepy… Definitely, it was one of your scarier villains ever." Zack said, as he calmed himself down.
"I never fully understood why the girl who was wearing this costume, tried to kill you." Dusk mused, puzzled.
"Well, it was mainly revenge… Jasper Howell tried to kill us, because we were the ones who stopped her father's massive scheme for counterfeiting CD's and DVD's." Fred explained. "His plan was quite brilliant, actually. He put a recording studio up in a mountain cave where they did the recordings and then used a very clever scheme to get them to a truck that would be waiting for them… they used a hang-glider. But when people became suspicious, he created the legend of the Pterodactyl's Ghost, who supposedly lived up in the caves, to scare people away."
"Needless to say, you guys stopped him and his scheme." Luna stated positively.
"Yes, but that's just half the story… You see, Jasper wanted revenge for her father, who ended up in jail. She changed her name, got work as a reporter right here in Coolsville and waited for the perfect opportunity to get revenge on us." Daphne said.
"Which happened when the Coolsonian first opened. She took the Pterodactyl's Ghost costume and using a substance called randamonium, and a special machine, was able to bring it to life. Later she also did the same thing with a few other costumes, which were all recovered." Velma finished.
"It must have been really tough fighting real monsters." Zack said.
"It really was, but we did manage to stop them." Fred said. "If it weren't for Scooby and Shaggy there, we would probably have never solved that mystery or any other mysteries. A big part of our success comes from the fact that they are always goofing around and in the end, they manage to capture the bad guys, without even wanting to."
Shaggy, who heard that, just said, "It's not like we had any other option… I mean, we're always the live bait, right Scoob?"
"Reah, right!" Scooby exclaimed.
"Well, anyway, let's get to work. We've got a costume to find." Daphne told them.
"Okay, let's split up and search for it! The first ones to find the Creeper's costume, warn the others, got it?" Sebastian said, preparing to take off.
"Hey, you stole my line, dude!" Fred said in amusement.
"I didn't know you had copyrights on it, Fredster." Sebastian said with his hands on his hips, laughing. "But seriously, are we going to just stand here, pointing out who's saying what, or are we going to solve this mystery?"
"You're right! Let's beat feet, guys." Fred conceded and took a direction.
The rest shrugged and split up to begin their search. The costumes filled the vault in neat rows, so it would take them a while to search them all. Fred, Daphne and Velma went one direction, Scooby, Shaggy and Dusk went together, Luna and Zack stayed together and paralleled Fred and the girls while Sebastian and Thorn decided to parallel Scooby's group.
Daphne lifted her first sheet of the search and came face to face with a familiar face. "Well, would you look at this... I found the Ghost Clown." She shouted.
"Here's a weirdy… a seven-foot tall humanoid mantis!" Thorn called out.
"That would be the Mantis Creature from Vulture's Claw." Velma shouted to her.
"I remember that one… A creepy monster, who supposedly used to be a human and was after fresh victims." Shaggy's voice was heard to say.
"But in the end it was just Professor Greer, who was trying to extract oil from the property he planned to buy and use it to rebuild the Botanical Gardens of Vulture's Claw." Daphne's voice added. "It was one of the few cases we solved where the police didn't need to intervene because the professor and the real-estate agent came up with an agreement, which benefited both parties. As for us, we solved the mystery and brought the monster costume with us."
"A great adventure indeed… but I bet this guy was an even bigger challenge than the Mantis Creature, folks." Sebastian said, as he viewed the costume under the sheet he'd lifted. "The famous Gator Ghoul! In my opinion it was one of your more fantastic cases ever."
"Yeah, well… the only part that was fantastic about it, was the fact that we got to see Scooby's cousin, Scooby-Dum again, and of course, those jumbo sized shrimp-puffs we made, using old Ma Finnokey's recipe." Shaggy said, as he started to drool, just from remembering that delicacy.
"Reah, relicious!"
"Not to mention, the fact that Scooby ate one of Shaggy's sneakers that night" Velma laughed.
"Well, what about these two?" Fred's voice called out. "The Titanic Twist and the Notre-Dame's Gargoyle!"
"We read about those two in the papers while we were on tour in Brazil" Luna said. "The Titanic Twist was supposed to be a disfigured wrestler who was seeking revenge and the Gargoyle was the one who kidnapped Daphne's cousin, the French model, right?"
"Correct, but in the end, we found out that none of them were real." Daphne said.
They kept looking around, lifting sheets, trying to find the Creeper's costume. Finally, when they were about to give up, Zack yelled, "Guys! I found him!"
In a matter of seconds, all of them made their way to Zack's location and started examining his find. Velma told them it was really the Creeper's outfit and not some cheesy copy, made by someone else.
"It's the real one alright." She said. "The costume wasn't even touched. The security tags installed on all the costumes is still attached. Nor does it look like anyone has touched the costume itself."
"So, we're back to square one, right?" Thorn asked.
"Not exactly, Thorn. For you see, we know that no one robbed the costume, thus, we can assume the Creeper we see in the photo that Sebastian and Zack's cousin sent them, is probably someone wearing an exact duplicate of the original costume." Velma said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, but, what if the Creeper from the photo is really real?" Shaggy asked, fearfully.
"Shaggy, you know very well that there's no such thing as…" Fred began to say.
"Don't say it, Fred! I know most of the monsters we've faced over the years were just guys in a costume, but you know we've faced real monsters before…" Shaggy interrupted him.
"Reah, real ronsters!" Scooby echoed.
"Okay, but the chances of that Creeper being real, are very low, guys." Fred conceded.
Walking past them all, Velma walked out of the vault, a thoughtful look on her face that usually meant she was working on some angle. The rest followed her to see what she was up to.
Velma kept walking until she came to a door marked, 'Keep Out! Authorized Personnel Only!" She ignored the sign and opened the door to reveal the room beyond was the security room for the museum. A bank of monitors kept watch over all the sections of the museum. Velma went to them looking for something..
"What are you looking for, Velma?" Daphne asked, no clear on what Velma expected to find.
"Well, I have a suspicion the Creeper's costume might have been used after all and returned. If it has, then the security tapes should have recorded someone entering and leaving. All we have to do is go back to a time before the incident when the costume was seen outside the museum." She explained, distractedly as her fingers flew over the keyboard.
After ten minutes of searching, Velma discovered the last time the basement vault had been accessed was over two months ago. The record showed it had been Patrick, the museum's curator. The cameras plainly showed him entering and exiting empty handed. No one had been in this area until they entered tonight.
"So do you suspect him?" Sebastian asked, eyeing the magnified image of the curator's face on the screen.
"Uhuh… no way… not Patrick, dude! Like he's the one who helped us when the Evil Masked Figure robbed the Coolsonian and he saved Velma from getting caught by the Pterodactyl's Ghost when that freaky bird came to life." Shaggy said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, Patrick's an okay guy. There's no way he would have done something like this." Fred seriously.
"Maybe we should really consider the monster in the photo is real. After all, everything seems to be pointing toward that!" Luna said reasonably.
"You're may be right, sister. Everything else has been eliminated." Dusk had to agree.
"So, what now?" Thorn asked.
"When things like this happen, it's time for plan B." Fred said, making Shaggy, Scooby and Zack gulp with fear.
"You don't mean…" Zack asked hesitantly, unable to finish his sentence.
"Yep, Zack… We're going on a monster hunting!" Fred proclaimed.
"Alright! Next stop, Pinewood Hills!" Sebastian crowed excitedly. "I think it's time for you to pack your luggage everyone because a long trip awaits us."
"Maybe we should, like, think this over and…" Shaggy began to object nervously.
"Knock it off, Shaggy! We said we would help Sebastian and Zack's cousin and that's exactly what we're going to do." Daphne said firmly.
"But maybe, me, Shaggy and Scooby could stay here in Coolsville, just in case something happens and that way we could help out." Zack suggested, before he was interrupted by Sebastian who grabbed him by the collar.
"You're coming with us and that's final! This is a family matter and you're not shirking your duty." He said firmly then released his brother's collar.
"Okay, okay, alright… You don't have to be so pushy about it, man! I really hate it when you get like that." Zack grumbled.
"And the same thing applies to you two, Shaggy and Scooby. You're coming, and that's final." Velma ordered.
"Well, Scoob, old friend, old buddy, old pal, looks like we're going once again into the lion's den, and there's nothing we can do about it!" Shaggy said in sad resignation.
"Reah, Rion's ren!" The Great Dane agreed miserably.
They walked back out of the security room and as they went past the vault, Velma paused to close it. If she had stopped to glance inside once more she might have seen the eyes of one of the costumes glowing red for just a second. But she hadn't and the door closed once more.
The Scooby Gang walked the group back to hotel and insured Thorn and the girls were slipped back in their room without being seen, and then, decided where they would meet, after they'd packed. Zack and Sebastian told them that they would be there along with the girls, and for them not worry about it.