Author's Note: Hey-Yo, everybody! Back with another chapter by Joltie, who is also the one who came up with this plot twist that's going to bring all of you to the edge of your seats! I feel very incline to tell you all what this plot twist is, but you'll find out when you read this chapter!

SHOUTOUTS-

Guest: Thanks! Uh-oh, what's going to happen now? Enjoy the chapter!

Joshua Ketchum: Oh wow! Tell them I said congratulations! :)

Steel: Thanks! Oh, I ALWAYS GET THOSE TWO MIXED UP! Dang it! *Clears Throat* Sorry you had to see that... Yeah, these guys luck are pretty bad, right? Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Blaze: Yeah, I've noticed sometimes Shaggy and Scooby do things out-of-their-usual-characters. Figure it would funny to see that again.

Lightwing: Hahahah, oh boy. Enjoy the chapter...

Darkwing: Well, there were pretty cut off from Continents, so they don't understand some of pop culture there.

R98: Wow. Um, I'm sorry, but I don't think I will be able to do those crossovers. For one thing, I don't know some those fandoms, and I only do ones that I really know so I don't disappoint people. There's also the fact I have two other stories to do after this one. I'm really sorry. I do hope you enjoy this chapter, though.


Chapter 9

"Not this again!" Bonnie cried out, glaring at the old form of the Puppet Master blocking her way. "This happened last time we were here." She groaned before turning to her brother. "Do you have an invention you could use? I don't want Ash to hurt himself cause of her ugly mug." The Puppet Master roared at the eight year-old's words, causing the adults to shiver.

"Bonnie, are you sure saying stuff like that is okay?!" Velma screeched; stepping backwards as the robot changed forms in her pure rage against the girl.

"Yeah, whatever." The little girl yawned, wafting a hand in front of her face. Oh great, the situation was getting out of control and fast. "Oh and by the way, duck." Everyone followed Bonnie's instructions as the Puppet Master lunged at where they were once standing, crashing head first into a mirror which caused the robot to become dazed.

"And now we run!" Clemont said quickly as he grabbed his sister's hand and they began running, yet again. The children knew the head start Bonnie had given them wouldn't last too long, the one where she had received a kick in the head only lasted a few minutes which she easily regained with those long, three pairs of, legs that she owned.

"How did you know that would work?" Taku asked as they ran, Clemont surprisingly leading the way as he followed the recorded path to the sewer cover that he had mapped out the last time they had been chased.

"It seems she's just like Jessie…" Serena shivered slightly as she said the name, knowing that she might have just signed her death wish. "They hate being called ugly, old or by the word hag. Mug also seems to fit the list now." The millionaire had heard of Team Rocket from his nephew, and wasn't surprised by the fact that the female in the trio was extremely vain. He also noticed the Pikachu on his nephew's shoulder shuddering at the mention of her name.

They kept on running, following the children as they went through the many twists and turns. By now, Bonnie had removed the communicator from her slow brother's wrist and was leading the mixed group of children, adults and Pokémon that were running through the corridors, something that teachers would have berated them about. However, teachers were the last of their worries as the distorted cries of the Puppet Master caught up with them, telling the group scarily that she had recovered from that crash into the mirror. If one had decided to look around, one would have noticed the shards of reflective glass in her curls and the slight tears in the puffed sleeves of her blouse.

"She's gaining on us!" Daphne cried out, having turned her gaze behind her for a split second. Bonnie looked down at the wrist communicator, noticing that the sewer cover wasn't that far away.

"Hey, Ash?" She spoke up to her older friend, who turned his head and nodded. "The cover is just around the corner. Can you run over there and get the rug up? You are the fastest right now." Hope rose up inside as he gave her a determined smile.

"No problem." He increased his speed and ran on ahead, disappearing from sight until the others caught up. By then, the rug had been pushed to the side, showing the cover for all to see. Whilst four children could lift that thing up, two fully grown men wouldn't have a problem to get it lifted and up so that everyone can jump down. Serena jumped first with Ash following right behind her and Pikachu following after him. Clemont stepped into his fall with Daphne falling after him, Velma and Bonnie giving her a slight push after she began stuttering vain comments about her hair. Quickly, so that the men could get down before the robot arrived, Bonnie and Velma jumped, with Bonnie clutching onto her pouch protectively, allowing Fred and Taku to leap after them, closing the cover behind them.

The Puppet Master turned around the corner, hoping to see her future hypnosis victims, only to find… nothing. They had vanished into thin air. She screamed angrily, kicking a nearby table with an expensive vase on it that fell to the floor and smashed. Her hands went to her locks, pulling at them angrily with a force that should have ripped them out as she also stomped her six legs like a toddler. With those people around, her plans were being ruined and, if this continued, then her plan would fail. Once again she screamed, kicking at nothing, which sent a slight force of air across the ground in a curve, causing a small dropped photo to fly up with it. That caught her eye and she quickly grabbed it, staring at what was on it.

The millionaire man was on there, hugging Baseball head whilst both of them had huge smiles on their faces. The boy had his free hand up into a peace sign; the other was holding the older man's own. Of course, Ketchum would have dropped this whilst jumping down, even as a millionaire he was a bit careless. She turned over the photo and noticed some writing. The most treasured thing in my life, she grinned even more.

Although she knew that Ketchum loved his nephew more than his money, she didn't know he loved the boy that much. And she knew how much money that business man owned, that along with all the stolen money from the banks would make her exceedingly rich. A plan began forming in her mind to get that money. She would get it and she easily knew how.


Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby were holed up inside the security office. As the time passed, they tried to hold back the incoming force of hypnotised human zombies by playing sounds through the speaker system to direct them away from the office, very similar to the Five Nights at Freddy's 3 game except this time there were multiple opponents and they had doors and air vents. Shut doors and closed air vents but doors and air vents none the less. However, the lack of air in the room was having some horrible side effects on the two.

They would hear noises that scared them like crawling in the vents and banging on the doors when there was nobody even in the vents or outside the room, those noises Shaggy had been playing was working a treat with the zombie humans. Also, they felt as if something was in the room with them, sometimes they believed there was as a animatronic from the FNAF games in front of them jump-scaring them, causing them to scream in fear and terror, only having to play the noises on the speaker system to keep the hypnotised people at bay.

With each passing moment, the hallucinations grew worse with more of them popping up everywhere. More animatronics began jump-scaring them and more noises rose up, ranging in length and volume. Also, they began seeing things, seeing people outside the windows, seeing horrible images of the kids being attacked by those hypnotised people and being dragged away whilst they sat in the room, unable to do anything. However, they continued, trying as hard of they could.

Deep inside, they knew that the kids, along with their friends and Mr. Ketchum, were in the sewers, they had watched them escape down the hole underneath the cover. They were fine right now, even if they had to deal with Daphne's complaining about getting her outfit and hair wet. Shaggy and Scooby gave each other nods, determination blazing in their eyes. They'd last through this for the kids; they'd keep those poor hypnotised people back for them so they can find what they are looking for. That was the friendship that both sides had for each other and they knew that the kids would do this for them if the roles were reversed. Now, all they had to do was hope that this didn't last until 6 AM.


"EWWWW!" All heads turned towards Daphne, who was looking down at her outfit and hair that was wet from her dip into the clean water supply tunnel of the sewers. "My hair!" She glared at Velma and Bonnie, both of whom were also soaked like everyone else. "You ruined it with this disgusting water!"

"Don't tell her but it's actually clean." Bonnie whispered to the glasses wearing woman beside her, who stifled a laugh behind her hand.

"Don't be like that Daph." Fred said, giving her a large toothy grin. "Your hair is always perfect."

"It is?" She questioned, blushing slightly before she regained her composure. "Of course it is! A little water never hurt anyone."

"That's not what you were saying a minute ago." Ash deadpanned, before feeling something pulling at his arm, he looked down to see Bonnie holding out a hand for a high five, one of which he happily accepted. Serena giggled whilst Clemont rolled his eyes, checking the wrist communicator, which had been handed back over to his loving care. Taku gave his nephew a slight glare, which was returned with Eevee eyes, his ultimate weakness whilst Fred was just blinking in confusion. What was going on here?

"Okay then, gang." He decided to speak up. "Maybe we should spilt up and look for clues."

"That wouldn't be a good idea." Taku disagreed, shaking his head. "There are too many hypnotised people out there, some of which aren't being distracted by Shaggy and Scooby. If they have made their way into the sewers, then splitting up is going to make it easier for them to attack us. Also, the rest of the sewer behind us is closed with filters and vents from a wall which covers the entire tunnel. The only way to go is towards the exit."

"I agree with Mr. Ketchum." Clemont said, everyone turning towards him as he tinkered with the wrist communicator. "When we fell down here last time, the only way out was left and I noticed something I think we should check out."

"Those steps that lead to nowhere, right?" Serena inquired, remembering the silver footsteps that were randomly placed on a wall, fairly recently mind you, that seemingly had no real purpose but to be there.

"Exactly." The inventor nodded, crossing his arms in thought. "I bet there is a hidden room or something there that someone doesn't want anyone else to see."

"Alright then." Velma stepped forward, adjusting her glasses whilst grinning. "Why don't you children show us where those steps are and we can see if we can investigate the area."

It didn't take long to reach the area, it wasn't too far from the cover hole and, immediately, the adults found it as suspicious. Four silver metal 'u' shaped band were protruding out of the wall, having recently being screwed into it. However, what was above the steps was the most suspicious part. The wall in a clear rectangular shape didn't match the bricks around it, as hard as whoever made it tried to make it seem that way. It was obviously hiding something big, something that wasn't supposed to be found. Without speaking, Velma walked forward, grabbing at the wall only to feel fabric in between her fingers, she pulled at it, only to meet resistance. So that wasn't the way to get it down. She decided to pull it to the side, like a curtain which surprisingly worked to reveal something shocking.

Behind the cloth was a room, a room full of electrical equipment, monitors and computers, all resting on a large table with a swivel chair tucked into it tidily. The wires for the electronics disappeared into the darkness up the wall with one of them leading to a lamp on the table's top. Clemont, along with Velma, climbed up the ladders, turning on the computers and light to see what on Earth was going on there. The others waited until the two scientific loving people found what they needed to and decided to report their findings.

"Apparently those screens are linked to the security footage." Velma said, having scanned the information to her phone whilst Clemont had done the same with a holographic device. "Whoever is using it has a total view of every part of the music hall, including the stage."

"Why?" Daphne asked; folding her arms whilst looking extremely confused about what was being said. "Why would someone do that? Couldn't they just use the security room for that?"

"No, this person doesn't want to be seen as getting to the security room means passing multiple cameras." Clemont replied, flicking through the floor plan of the hall. "This is a place where they can't be seen by anyone. Also, the security footage isn't just for viewing the place."

"So, what else is it for?" Bonnie inquired sceptically. "Watching random people creepily like those gamer men behind those screens everyday living in their mum's basement?" A few snickers arose from Bonnie's statement but Velma shook her head.

"No, not exactly. It's for this." She held up the remote, looking at it like it held all of the answers in the universe.

"A remote control?" Ash and Pikachu tipped their heads at the same time, freaking some of the older members of the group out.

"Yes, but it's not used to control the camera's, so there is only one thing left that it could be responsible for controlling and that is…"

"So this remote control is being used to control the Puppet Master." Fred concluded from Velma's explanation of what their discovery meant.

"Oh the shocking irony!" Bonnie snickered, causing Pikachu and Dedenne to burst out into fits of laughter, almost falling off their trainer's shoulder/out of their friend's bag.

"If that's the case, then the Puppet Master is simply just a robot with someone remotely telling it what to do." Serena began to worry with her line of thought. "Maybe a ghost really does haunt it, or if there is another remote then the animatronic can get us and there'll be nowhere to run!" Many of the people in the room shivered from her words, all in fact except Bonnie.

"Seriously, Serena?" She questioned with an unamused expression, folding her arms in front of her chest.

"Me and my big mouth!" Serena groaned behind her hands, which were covering not just her mouth but her entire face that had turned a bright red. Due to everyone being distracted by the creepy thoughts Serena had just put into their heads, they didn't hear the clacking sound of limbs hitting the ground from walking. In fact, they didn't even see or hear anything until it was too late.

Out from the darkness, two arms burst forwards, grabbing at the back of Ash's jacket, before pulling him backwards. He let out a surprised yelp before he disappeared, Pikachu falling off of his shoulder in the process. The yelp quickly turned into a scream that got everyone's attention.

"PIKA PI!" Pikachu screeched, running into the darkness after his trainer, only to fly into Fred moments later, unconscious and covered in bruises. Quickly, Daphne and Velma shone their torches towards the darkness showing a scene that they wished they would never see.

The Puppet Master was holding the ten year-old in her arms, silently laughing at his pity struggles as he tried to get loose from her arms' iron grip. Her left arm was circled around his shoulders, her right arm wrapped around his waist. She looked up at the mixture of expressions that her sudden appearance had caused, the main emotions being anger, fear and bewilderment.

"TaKu KeTcHuM, tHiS pErFoRmAnCe Is FoR yOu." She grinned evilly looking down to her captive as she spoke. "CoMe To ThE mUsIc HaLl ToMoRrOw NiGhT, oR eLsE yOu WiLl NeVeR sEe YoUr PrEcIoUs NePhEw AgAiN!"

Before anyone could say or do anything, she turned as fast as her six legs could carry her and made a quick exit for the darkness to disappear in, the last cries of a desperate child screaming "HELP ME!" echoed through the tunnels.

Taku sunk to his knees, having just witnessed, no, become a bystander to the theft of the most precious and priceless item of his life. Not even any sum of money could ever be more valuable than Ash, not ever and now, he was gone and the millionaire had done nothing to stop it from happening. He punched at the ground, not caring that his knuckled were rubbed raw, trickles of blood seeping out of them onto the concrete. For once in his life, he had failed. He had failed at protecting the one thing he cared about the most.

Serena looked at everyone else's shocked expressions, however Fred's face was covered by Pikachu who had recently awoke and began clutching at his hair brawling with his feet digging into the blonde trapper's chin. Bonnie had decided that her brother would be a nice cushion to hug for comfort, which she got when he wrapped his arms around her. She felt her world begin to crumble, just like when the Spectre took her crush away from Stan's Deadpan Camp. Tears began to roll down her cheek, just like they had last time. When she looked into the darkness, all she saw was the mocking face of the robot looking back at her, laughing with evil intent.

Freddie, Daphne and Velma all gave each other suspicious looks, after Pikachu had been removed from his face and had been given to Serena for hugs of comfort; the threat was aimed at Taku meaning the kidnapping wasn't a coincidence. The Puppet Master knew the relation between the two males and, in a way, possibly also knew how close they were. Not many people in the world knew or believed that millionaires, and to that extent billionaires, could actually care about anything other than their money, probably due to TV satire and shows which shows that to the viewers. That must have meant that the Puppet Master, or whomever was controlling her, knew everything about their millionaire and had to be close to him. Oh no, this was like Peggy White all over again, at least back then she had never thought of using her boss' nephew against him, this person had. However, the event brought up a question for them which was going to be horrible to explain.

Who on Earth had the guts to tell Shaggy and Scooby about what had happened?