Chapter 3
Inside a palatial mansion belonging to the parents of Daphne Blake, the richest member of the team of sleuths known as Mystery Inc., Shaggy Rogers relaxes after winning the Coolsville 500 automobile race; at the moment the cowardly college student is sitting on one side of a large sofa in the front room of the Blake estate with Velma, while Fred and Daphne sit on the other side; the four college age investigators along with their Great Dane Scooby Doo are enjoying a rather frightening horror movie, specifically one of the type of horror movies where a young woman sits in her house and is alarmed when a monster breaks into her home to attempt to devour her, naturally because of the type of movie the gang is watching Velma is clinging to Shaggy's arm and shoulder while Daphne is doing the exact same thing with Fred.
Meanwhile the Great Dane of the group sits on the carpet in front of the television set as he watches his friends having fun and watching the horror movie on screen, although because the gang usually lived a horror movie every day of the year, seeing a fictional horror movie using was somewhat mundane by the group's standards; although unknown to them right now, they would soon be involved in an adventure that would be like a hundred horror movies all rolled into one.
"Like this sure is great huh gang?" Shaggy asked as the bespectacled member of the group had her arm around the cowardly college student.
"I'll say Shaggy, watching horror movies on a huge screen with terrific friends" Fred remarked as the red haired member of the group had her arm locked around the blond member of the group's arm.
"It sure was nice of your parents to let us use their living room to watch movies in Daphne" Velma said.
"No problem gang, they're on vacation anyway; I guess when you're wealthy you can take an around the world trip like they're doing, plus with us attending college in town my folks always said that if me or any of us needed anything we could use their house, which was really nice of them" Daphne replied.
"Your parents are pretty cool Daphne, actually all our parents are pretty cool; heck, what other parents would let us attend the local university, instead of Stanford or some other school" Fred commented.
"Like yeah; my mom and dad wanted me to go to one of the best culinary or art schools in the country, but I told them that since there was a local college and that I wanted to hang out with my friends, basically I wanted to be with you guys and attend school with all of you" Shaggy remarked.
"It was the same way with my folks, they wanted me to attend an Ivy League school or Stanford, but when I explained to them that I didn't want to leave you guys behind and that friendship was really important to me, they decided that they didn't mind if I attended Coolsville University" Velma agreed.
"Like that was pretty nice of them Velma, after all we're all young, and I think our parents understand that friends are more valuable than a piece of paper like a college diploma; I actually am learning a lot at Coolsville U to be honest" Shaggy replied.
"That's great and I agree Shaggy, by the way: how are you doing in your culinary and art classes?" Velma asked.
"Glad you asked Velma, I'm doing really well in all my classes, plus my professors are all really cool; although when I tried to make one of my special concoctions for culinary arts professor he threatened to call the fire department and the college's Haz Mat Team" Shaggy responded.
"Shaggy, you didn't actually try and make one of those things that you make for you and Scooby Doo did you?" Velma asked.
"Well…" Shaggy said moving his head around in a somewhat curious manner, although the bespectacled college student was able to identify what her boyfriend was doing and was very shocked.
"Shaggy! I can't believe you would actually make something like that in a college culinary arts class" Velma declared, somewhat surprised at what he had said.
"Like I can't believe it myself, although I managed to redeem myself by making a batch of Scooby Snacks for the class" Shaggy replied.
"Why would you make Scooby Snacks for a college class?" Velma wondered.
"Well, technically they were Scooby Snacks; however I used some different ingredients, like for example I used the regular ingredients like vanilla, eggs, basically your usual cookie ingredients and I didn't use herbal medicine or dog kibble like I do when I make them for me and Scooby sometimes" Shaggy explained.
"I didn't know you made those with herbal medicine Shaggy" Velma replied, with a quizzical look on her face.
"Sure, sometimes I have a headache or other ailments and I use herbal medicine or remedies to get rid of whatever I have" Shaggy said.
"I hope those remedies aren't what I think they are Shaggy" Velma replied.
"Like don't worry Velma, I know which ones you're talking about and don't worry I don't use those kinds of remedies or medicine" Shaggy commented as he moved his hand from Velma's arm to her shoulder.
"That's good Shaggy; although I didn't know you used dog kibble in them too" Velma replied.
"Like yeah, I make special batches for Scooby Doo because he likes them with the kibble in the batter, I guess it's just a dog thing right Scoob?" Shaggy asked, his eyes moving towards the Great Dane relaxing on the carpet for a few moments.
"Reah, ri rove Rooby Racks" Scooby replied, licking his lips as he spoke.
"Like that's for sure; by the way, how are you doing with your classes Velma?" Shaggy asked as his gaze shifted back to Velma once again.
"Shaggy, that was very nice of you to ask; things are going really well actually, I'm getting terrific grades, plus all my professors really like having me in their classes, although some of the other students are kind of annoyed by the way I'm able to answer questions and pass tests so easily; I can't tell you how many times I've gotten weird looks from other students when I turn in a test or project three or four days before everybody else and frankly I'm tired of it" Velma explained.
"Well like maybe if the other students got to know you better, maybe they would like to have you in class, or maybe they would be friends with you, or they wouldn't get annoyed with you; like maybe that's why everyone acts the way they do in your classes" Shaggy replied.
"What do you mean Shaggy?" Velma asked.
"I think I can understand what Shaggy's saying; I think since most students in college just want to party and work on their degrees, they feel threatened by you Velma, they think that by seeing someone like you succeed it makes them look bad" Fred replied.
"Jeepers, that's very good Fred, how did you figure that out?" Daphne inquired, somewhat impressed that something like that could come from her boyfriend.
"Well Daph, I decided to take psychology classes at the university as well as playing on the football team and my other classes" Fred explained.
"Freddie, I didn't know you liked psychology" Daphne replied.
"Well it has a lot to do with mysteries actually; I've started to really study what makes the crooks we capture tick, why they dress up as ghosts and monsters, why they want to commit crimes like burglary, jewel theft, counterfeiting, etc." Fred commented.
"Jinkies Fred, that's very impressive, but why would you want to learn all that?" Velma asked.
"Well Velma, I think that learning more about criminals and how they think will help us when we solve mysteries again" Fred explained.
"That's true Fred, and it's a very good idea to learn about those kinds of things" Velma replied.
"By the way Fred, like how's it going with football anyway?" Shaggy inquired.
"Glad you asked Shaggy, it's going awesome; I love playing for Coolsville U, plus since we're a major independent Division 1-A school we get to play some of the big schools in the region and visit some of the biggest schools in the country and in the Midwest as far as college football is concerned" Fred explained.
"Like that's really cool Fred; are you guys going to play Michigan or Ohio State?" Shaggy questioned.
"Actually Shaggy we played Michigan in Ann Arbor in our first game, we almost won too if our defense hadn't given up the lead in the 4th quarter" Fred replied.
"Like yeah I watched that game with Velma, you guys were up 24-10 after 3 quarters, but Michigan came back and won 27-24, it wasn't too pretty" Shaggy said.
"Yeah, it wasn't too great for us; by the way Shaggy how's track and gymnastics going?" Fred asked.
"Like it's going well; our outdoor track season starts in the spring, but gymnastics is going on right now, we just had a meet a couple days ago where we took on 7 other schools, we placed second altogether and I took first in the floor exercise competition" Shaggy replied.
"Congratulations Shaggy, that's really cool; looks like Fred's going to get some competition when it comes to sports" Velma stated.
"Hey I don't mind it at all, and I hope Shaggy does a great job with track and gymnastics" Fred remarked.
"And like I don't mind it either, hopefully Fred does a good job with football and baseball" Shaggy replied.
"Hey, you know you guys aren't the only athletes in the group; I should be starting women's ice hockey pretty soon too" Velma commented.
"Yeah, like I forgot about that; it should be pretty interesting to watch you in such a tough sport" Shaggy replied.
"True Shaggy, but I really enjoy it and it's really fun" Velma remarked.
"Like I bet, and I can't wait to see you in a game" Shaggy replied.
"I can't wait to see you in a game too, heck we'll all be there at your first game, just like we've all been there for every one else's sporting events" Fred commented.
"Right, because we're Mystery Inc. and we're a team, no matter if we're solving mysteries, or watching each other compete in sports, or something else" Daphne replied.
"Right!" all five members of Mystery Inc. said in unison; although soon Count Dracula's pair of horrifying cronies called the Hunch Bunch would attempt to test the team of sleuths friendship, by subjecting them to the most unspeakable horrors known to mortal man or woman.
For the moment however Shaggy, Fred, Velma, Daphne and Scooby watched the large projection screen and the frightening events displayed on said screen; after a particularly fear-provoking part of the movie both Daphne and Velma placed their hands over their eyes to try and shield themselves from the terrors on screen, although considering that the team of sleuths had probably faced more horrifying things then what was on screen, it made the movie monster somewhat mundane by comparison.
However something about the movie made Daphne and Velma extremely nervous and jumpy, which the blond unofficial leader of the group and the cowardly light brown haired member of the group noticed, so they attempted to take it upon themselves to try and relax their fellow sleuths.
"Don't worry girls, it's just a movie" Fred commented as he placed a calming hand on the red head's shoulder.
"Like yeah everybody knows that movie monsters aren't real," Shaggy replied as he likewise placed a soothing hand on Velma's shoulder.
"I know, I know it's just that, well I'm kind of uneasy" Daphne commented.
"Actually so am I; for some reason I'm getting a weird feeling, almost like it's my women's intuition kicking in" Velma added.
"What kind of weird feeling?" Shaggy asked.
"Well, I know it sounds silly but I have a feeling we're going to have some kind of mystery in the next couple of days" Velma replied.
"That's fantastic" Fred said with some enthusiasm.
"Maybe not Fred, I think this mystery might be much different from or usual cases; and that if we don't solve it something could happen to one of us or more than one of us for that matter" Velma explained.
"Like what?" Shaggy replied with a gulp.
"I'm not quite sure yet, but whatever it is I think we should be very careful" Velma commented.
"I don't know Velma, we've handled some pretty tough cases before and solved them all" Fred replied.
"Fred's right, things usually work out so I wouldn't worry about it" Daphne remarked.
"I guess you guys are right, maybe there is nothing to worry about, besides what could happen to us?" Velma commented.
However Velma was about to be proven wrong because at that exact moment the Bat Copter with Crunch and Brunch inside parked on the roof of the large mansion belonging to one of Coolsville's richest families; the two monsters then pulled out a ladder from the copter and walked down it for a few minutes before landing on solid ground.
After the Hunch Bunch got a firm grip on the Ohio soil they walked over to one of the windows of the home of the red haired member of Mystery Inc's estate and peered inside the room, looking at the newest werewolf and the rest of the group of sleuths.
"Look there Crunch" Brunch said.
"Where?" Crunch asked with a mumble.
"On that sofa, there's the masters werewolf" Brunch remarked.
"Oh, I get it but who are the others on that sofa?" Crunch asked in a mumbled voice.
"Hmm beats me old chap, I guess those must be the friends that the master was talking about" Brunch explained.
"His friends?" Crunch replied.
"I suppose so, now come on Crunch let's get back up to the roof and turn Shaggy into a Werewolf" Brunch explained.
While the Hunch Bunch plotted and schemed, Scooby Doo who had moved from the carpet and happened to be standing by the window at that moment saw and overheard the monsters and decided to warn his master about the impending danger.
"Raggy!" Scooby cried out.
The Great Dane then quickly ran over to the couch and jumped onto his master's lap, surprising him and the rest of the gang a bit in the process.
"Scooby, what's going on?" Daphne asked, sounding somewhat annoyed by this.
"Like yeah Scoob what's the matter?" Shaggy replied.
"Ronsters rat the rindow!" Scooby exclaimed.
"Monsters at the window?" Shaggy asked.
"That's ridiculous Scooby, there's no such thing" Velma added.
"Rut I rid ree ronsters!" Scooby remarked.
"OK Scooby, I'll tell you what; Velma, you and I will go over to the window and we'll see if you're right, okay?" Shaggy explained.
"Rokay" Scooby replied.
With that Shaggy, Scooby and Velma got up from the sofa and walked over to the window to see if Scooby was indeed seeing monsters or just seeing things; after waiting a few minutes to see if Scooby Doo's monsters would indeed show up again, the three sleuths failed to see anything close to monsters, so they decided to give up and walk back to the sofa.
"See Scooby, it was only your imagination playing tricks on you" Velma remarked as she softly petted the Great Dane.
"Like yeah old buddy, there are no monsters outside the window" Shaggy commented.
"But there will soon be a new monster inside" Brunch said, out of the line of sight of any of the members of Mystery Inc.
Several hours later with Scooby Doo still a bit jumpy and nervous the gang headed off to bed; each member of Mystery Inc. went into their respective bedrooms that they used whenever they visited Blake Manor with the exception of Daphne who went into her own bedroom.
Meanwhile above Blake Manor on the roof of the house specifically, Brunch and Crunch began to set their monstrous plan in motion to convert the cowardly college student Shaggy Rogers into Count Dracula's newest monster race driver.
"Here we are, this should be the exact spot for the transformation, cut the hole here Crunch" Brunch explained.
One of Crunch's nails changed into a small nail file as he began to cut a medium sized hole in the roof above Shaggy's bedroom; while this was going on Scooby Doo who happened to be sleeping outside Shaggy's door looked out of the corner of his eye and saw the Hunch Bunch cutting through the roof.
"Ripes, Raggy!" Scooby yelped as he ran into the room and jumped on Shaggy's bed.
Just as Scooby Doo leapt onto his cowardly friend's bed, the moon shone through the now hole in the roof and barely missed hitting the sleeping Shaggy.
"Huh, what? Take it easy Scoob I'm up, I'm up" Shaggy remarked.
While all of this was going on Fred, who was in a bedroom down the hall had heard all the commotion and walked the sort distance to Shaggy's room to see what was going on.
"Hey Shaggy, what's with all the noise?" Fred asked rubbing his eyes and yawning a little.
"Like I don't know Fred, what's wrong Scoob?" Shaggy asked.
"Ronsters roming rhrough the roof to ret rou" Scooby remarked.
"Monsters coming through the roof to get me?" Shaggy replied.
"Reah" Scooby commented.
"Come on Scooby, there's no monsters coming to get Shaggy, it's just your imagination again" Fred remarked.
"Yeah Scooby, come on let's go back to sleep" Shaggy commented.
"Roh, rokay" Scooby replied as he went back to his place on the carpet in Shaggy's bedroom and returned to dreamland; meanwhile Shaggy went back to his bed and tried to get some sleep, which he needed considering the gang had school the next day, while Shaggy and Scooby headed to sleep Fred also returned to his bedroom to try and get some much needed rest as well; amazingly enough though Daphne and Velma did not hear all the noise and managed to remain asleep through all the commotion in Blake Manor.
Outside of the mansion, the Hunch Bunch had parked the Bat Copter and were informing Dracula of their lack of success in their mission, or were waiting to inform him as the two of them fumed at their failure.
"Blast it! That infernal dog ruined everything!" Brunch remarked.
"He's silly" Crunch replied in an incomprehensible voice.
"Yes I tend to agree; and something tells me the master was right about something" Brunch remarked.
"What's that?" Crunch asked, in his mush mouthed voice.
"I think Shaggy's friends might be of some use to us after all; and what an interesting group of people as well: a pretty red haired girl, a pretty brown haired girl, and a blond haired young man as well as that dog, maybe these people and that dog could be Dracula's slaves, or better yet maybe we can use the Grimness Book to transform them into monsters as well" Brunch explained.
"Yeah, that's a good idea" Crunch replied, spitting saliva over the copter as he spoke.
"I quite agree Brunch; any ideas on what Shaggy's friends could be turned into?" Brunch inquired.
"I don't know" Crunch replied.
"I figured you wouldn't; although that blond haired young man might make a good werewolf, and those two girls might make great witches, or maybe they could be sea monsters" Brunch remarked as he began thinking; however the silence in the copter was broken instantly by a loud shrill noise.
"What's that?" Crunch asked.
"I hate to say it old chap, but I believe that the master is about to contact us" Brunch replied.
Sure enough the two monsters were correct, as a few moments later a small television screen in the copter lit up and within a few seconds it displayed a picture of Count Dracula and Vanna Pira, who were about to check in with the two monsters on how their mission was progressing.
"Calling the Hunch Bunch, calling the Hunch Bunch" Dracula said.
"Uh hello there master, how are things in Transylvania?" Brunch asked, somewhat hesitantly.
"Good, I'm just waiting for my Sha-Gee Werewolf!" Dracula bellowed.
"Um, we had a slight problem master" Brunch replied.
"What? What kind of a problem could you possibly have had, when I could have turned Sha-Gee into a werewolf in one night!" Dracula asked, looking quite displeased as usual.
"Well, you see, we just, well…" Brunch said with a bit of a stammer in his voice.
"Never mind! Knowing the two of you buffoons, I don't think I want to hear your excuse" Dracula replied as he crossed his arms.
"Although we did find something out about Shaggy's friends" Crunch remarked, trying to get the vampire back on he and Crunch's side.
"Really? What did you find out?" Dracula asked, having temporarily forgotten about the pair of creatures failure.
"Well, we saw through the window that in addition to that dog the Grimness book mentioned, there were a red haired girl, a blond haired young man and a brown haired girl with him; Crunch and I assumed that the brown haired girl must be the one the Grimness book said that he was in love with, because it looked like he was treating her like you treat Vanna Pira master" Brunch replied.
"Ah good, good; at least that means Sha-Gee won't try and steal Vanna Pira from me, what else?" Dracula inquired.
"I heard that!" said a female voice coming from somewhere inside the room that Dracula was in.
"Never mind Vanna Pira, I'm very busy at the moment, now go do your nails or whatever you women do" Dracula said, turning away from the screen for a few moments; soon he returned to the screen and began speaking to the Hunch Bunch again.
"Trouble in the castle master?" Brunch inquired.
"Just never mind, now what about Sha-Gee's friends?" Dracula inquired.
"Well, the red haired girl and the blond haired young man also seemed to be in love, judging by the way they were treating one another; after we went back here to the copter, we figured that you might have some use to them, possibly as slaves, or monsters" Brunch remarked.
"Hmm… Brunch, for once your simple minded brain has come in handy, that's actually not a bad idea" Dracula replied, with a devious smile on his face.
"It is?" Brunch asked, although he soon realized that Dracula was indeed telling the truth, he was quite pleased.
"Oh it is master, it is; I'm glad you liked it" the more articulate of the pair of hunchbacked creatures continued.
"Yes I do like it; now, the only question is if I were to transform any of Sha-Gee's friends, what would they be?" Dracula thought aloud.
"Master, we thought the blond haired young man would make an excellent werewolf, while the females would make excellent sea monsters, or other creatures" Brunch replied.
"Hmm… good thinking on the werewolf part, maybe I can have two werewolf racers, it would make the competition more interesting; or maybe I can have that blond mortal in the same car as that dog and Sha-Gee…" Dracula said as he placed his long fingernails on his chin, which surprisingly didn't hurt that much, although considering he was a monster it wasn't that a big deal.
"Master?" Brunch asked.
"Yes, what is it?" Dracula responded.
"Do you have any idea as to what you're going to do with Shaggy's friends?" Brunch inquired.
"I believe I do; for now, I'll change Sha-Gee into a werewolf, then just before the race I'll turn that blond mortal into a werewolf too, then if Sha-Gee and that blond mortal lose the race, I'll keep them as monsters, and I'll turn the other three into monsters of my realm as well" Dracula explained.
"Ah I get it, then all five of them will be under your command right?" Brunch asked.
"Correct; now I must think of monsters to turn those other three into and prepare for the race at the same time" Dracula said as he smiled evilly.
"Excellent plan master, I trust you will have ideas to keep Shaggy from winning as well?" Brunch asked.
"Yes, although I can't implement them unless you two get me my werewolf! Now do not fail!" Dracula replied.
"Um, just so we know master, what would happen if we did fail?" Brunch asked gulping a little as he spoke; naturally he or Crunch didn't want to get on Dracula's bad side, whatever that may be.
"Well let's see: I'll simply put two through the most unspeakable torture possible! And that includes boiling both of you in oil!" Dracula declared; seconds after his angry rant at the pair of hunchbacked monsters the screen flickered and then went blank, leaving the two monsters to ponder about the powerful vampire's possible wrath, should the two of them continue to fail.
"I say, I wonder which kind of oil he'll boil us in: machine oil, or motor oil?" Brunch quipped; the two strange creatures then spent the rest of the night trying to figure out how they were going to avoid Dracula boiling them in oil or putting them through unimaginable torture, however the only way they were going to do that was to transform Shaggy Rogers into a werewolf, which wasn't going to be easy considering they only had two nights life in which to accomplish their task.