"Lisa what are you doing?" Lincoln asked in confusion as he looked into his younger sister's room. She had set up a brain scanner and had Scooby Doo hooked up to it. "We're supposed to be dog sitting, not running experiments."
"This is not an experiment. I am merely trying to ascertain how Scooby is capable of speech. It may be a trait specific to his family history but imagine the prospect of bestowing the gift of communication on our own family dog" Lisa explained. She then removed the helmet from Scooby's head, "thank you for the brain-scan Scooby, now please enjoy a snack, I'm still going to need a stool sample." Lincoln cringed.
Suddenly they heard a blast coming from the driveway. The three of them rushed downstairs and saw Lily playing next to the chalk circle Lucy had drawn in her most recent attempt to release Vincent Van Ghoul from the crystal ball. "Lily! What did you do?" Lincoln asked.
"Lily color Lucy's picture" she replied showing where she was scribbling along the chalk lines.
"Dear sister, Lucy will be very upset when she returns from that coffin exhibit at the community center" Lisa said as she looked at the smoking chalk drawings. While they were talking, Scooby was sniffing the crystal ball which was still set in the center of the circle. He tapped it trying to make sure Vincent was ok, but the ball did not light up. "Hmm," he contemplated to himself.
Meanwhile Lucy was marveling at the international coffin display. She had gone with her friends from the Royal Woods' elementary morticians' club Haiku, Boris, Dante, Persephone, and Morpheus. It was worth getting up early, they had been touring all morning. They were heading towards the next display and discussing which ones had been their favorites so far.
"Visigoths clearly didn't know a thing about craftsmanship," Dante complained.
"Agreed, I prefer the Filipino hanging design," Haiku added.
"Boris liked the one from New Orleans," Boris said.
Next, they arrived at the Australian display where they found a stone casket. "I'm not impressed," Lucy said, staring at the plain uninteresting coffin.
Persephone started to read the description plaque aloud. "This coffin was constructed from stone chipped from a place called vampire rock in the Australian Outback, which is known for suspected vampire activity." The others were captivated by the new information.
"We must see inside!" Morpheus exclaimed.
"Wait, does it say anything about curses?" Lucy interjected. Persephone shook her head no with a smile. They all got into position and slid the lid so they could all see inside. But to their surprise where they expected to see clean velvet lining, they saw a body. A gray muscular figure with its arms crossed, black wings covering the lower half of its body, it had massive ears and blue markings on its face. It's piercing yellow eyes blinked open, alarming them and they slammed the lid shut quickly.
"I-i-is that a vampire?" Dante said, backing away anxiously.
"It doesn't look like any sort of vampire I've ever seen," Haiku replied.
"But what if it is? This could be our big chance to meet a real vampire!" Lucy said excitedly. Boris was already peaking back inside the box and the large gray vampire rose from his resting place and grumbled as he looked at them.
""You're a real vampire?" Boris asked with excitement. As the vampire showed his massive fangs. The club gawked in amazement.
"Mighty denizen of the night we have so many questions!" Lucy said. Casket filled with smoke as the vampire rose into the air. "What is it you require?"
The vampire began laughing, "what I require you would never provide, Lucy Loud!" he said with angrily.
Lucy was taken aback with confusion. "He knows your name?" Morpheus asked.
"She is the sister of the ones called Lori, Luan, Lincoln, Lola, and Lana Loud. Among the allies of Scooby Doo and Van Ghoul's champions. My sworn enemies!" his voice was now booming.
Lucy and the others all backed away to where Dante was now cowering behind a potted palm. "Horror of horrors, you're one of the thirteen" Lucy realized far too late. The vampire moved closer and snarled, and what was once a dream for the members of the Mortician's Club quickly became a nightmare. But as the vampire moved under the skylight the sun started shining on him. He drew back in horror and dove back into his casket which sealed shut behind him.
"That's it, I am no longer a vampire fan!" Dante said as the group rushed out of the convention center.
"Never mind that, we've got to get back to my place and get the Chest of Demons, and help Lincoln put that vampire back inside! The others nodded and they headed back to Lucy's house.
Back at the Loud house, Daphne and Leni had just returned from getting smoothies at the mall. They found Lincoln redrawing Lucy's chalk circle and cleaning off Lily's chalk, Scooby was entertaining Lily along with the rest of the Loud family pets, and Lisa was trying to ascertain what had happened to the crystal ball.
"Hmm, perhaps Mr. Van Ghoul does in fact sleep in there" the young genius contemplated.
"Maybe Lucy will know how to fix it," Daphne suggested.
"Speaking of Lucy," Lincoln said standing up when he noticed Lucy and her friends running towards the house.
They stopped in the driveway too out of breath to talk. Leni greeted, "perfect timing Lucy, we were just about to go warm up the leftover lasagna for lunch."
Then they noted the fear among Lucy's friends, a group Lincoln knew from experience were almost impossible to frighten. "Lucy what's wrong?" Lincoln asked worryingly.
"We found a vampire in a coffin at the exhibit," Lucy announced as she panted. Scooby ducked behind Leni at the mention of Vampires. Charles, the Loud family dog, came to Lucy and she calmed as she petted him. "He knew who I was, he came out of the Chest of Demons."
"Jeepers, how did you get away?" Daphne asked.
"He couldn't follow us under the skylight, the sunlight burnt him, and he retreated back into his casket. Good to know that that trait applies to Australian vampires" Haiku explained.
"Wait? Did you say Australian vampire?" Daphne continued and began flipping through pictures on her phone. The morticians club then recounted the lore on the plaque next to the stone casket. "Is this who you saw?" Daphne showed them a picture of the Yowie Yahoo. The kids nodded emphatically, with Dante still frightened by the vampire. "We've got to get back there, Scooby, help Lisa carry the Chest of Demons to the van."
"Um, Mom took Vanzilla when she, Luna, Lynn, and Fred went to Aunt Ruth's this morning," Leni replied. They had gone to set up and run her yard sale.
"Well good thing we have more than one van," Daphne said, twirling the keys to the Mystery Machine. Soon the van was racing towards the convention center. Daphne was behind the wheel with Lincoln and Leni in the front seat, Lisa, Lily, Lucy, and Haiku were in the back seats, while Boris, Dante, Persephone, and Morpheus rode in the back with Scooby and the Chest of Demons.
"I can't believe we finally meet a real vampire, and we have to banish it," Morpheus mumbled.
"Well, I'd rather not have my siblings be torn to shreds," Lucy rebutted, "besides, the Yowie Yahoo looked nothing like the ones on Vampires of Melancholia."
When they go there, they burst into the convention center to see that the space was empty. Everyone gave a confused gasp. Lincoln flagged down an employee and asked what happened to the Australian stone casket. The worker's response was not what any of them wanted to hear. "They stuck it on the back of a flatbed and are taking it to be part of the set dressing for the fantasy fair off Highway 150." She handed him a flier.
The others gathered around to look at the paper over his shoulder. "Hey cool, they're doing an amateur magician's contest," he said excitedly.
"Focus brother," Lisa interjected. "We've got to get there before the sun goes down, it's the only thing keeping the vampire from escaping."
"Road trip!" Boris said excitedly.
Daphne got a phone call on the way back to the Mystery Machine, it was Carlota Casagrande, she reluctantly let Leni drive while she talked. "Remember Leni, Fred will be upset if he sees two scratches on the van" she said before going back to her call.
"Wait, who made the first scratch?" Leni questioned. In the back, Scooby gave a deceptively innocent smile.
Lucy meanwhile was trying to reach Vincent, but the crystal ball was still not cooperating. "I hope Mr. Van Ghoul is ok, wherever he is."
"Yeah, about that Lucy" Lincoln said, then proceeded to recount Lily's changing her magic circle with her chalk. Lucy did not scold her baby sister, who stared apologetically, and instead just continued studying the crystal ball.
They arrived an hour later, and everyone was on the edge of their seats as Leni attempted parking the van. She slowly backed the van in, as Lisa kept saying 'you're good' over and over again. However, she missed the last one and crashed into a souvenir cart. "You're not good" Lisa said sarcastically.
Everyone got out and noticed the massive dent in the back of the mystery machine. "Ruff out?" Scooby asked.
"Um, sure maybe it can buff out" Lincoln replied. Meanwhile the souvenir salesman was freaking out over his stock which spilled out of his overturned old time wagon. Scooby turned to see he was dressed in the, all back, garb of a plague doctor complete with beak mask. Scooby jumped backwards in fear landing in Daphne's arms. "Sorry mister." Lincoln said to the vendor.
"Sorry is not good enough!" the vendor said, his voice muffled by the mask. "Look at these necklaces, they're ruined!" He held up a bunch of strings with single large white stones on them.
"Wait what's wrong with them?" Leni said, admiring the shiny stones. The vendor thrust them into her hand and said they were her problem now, then stormed off.
"Why did that feel familiar?" Daphne asked Scooby as the dog got out of her arms.
"Well, we get free jewelry so that's cool," Leni replied.
"Never mind that Leni we have to go find the casket" Lucy interjected. And they began weaving through the booths of jesters, horses, and princesses. Twice they had to pull Scooby away from mutton booths, then once they had to pull the Morticians' club away from admiring an antique guillotine. Finally, a horseback knight pointed them where they needed to, saying they set up a makeshift crypt inside the cave 'over yonder'. The cave was dark, and they froze before entering. "That cave is as dark as night; the vampire would be unhindered by the sunlight inside. We have to take precautions!" Haiku explained.
"Agreed" Daphne said, "Scooby, you help Boris, Dante and Morpheus dig a trench and find a hose to water run through it. A vampire cannot cross running water, so we jump over it to escape."
Lucy was impressed, Daphne's vampire fact was correct. She then encouraged her friends, "think of it as digging a grave for an anaconda." Daphne clicked on her flashlight as Leni, Lucy, Haiku, Persephone followed her into the cave. Leaving Lincoln, Lisa, and Lily to spring the Chest of Demons if they managed to flush out the Yowie Yahoo. Once inside they found the casket smashed into rubble. "Gasp! We're too late" she exclaimed.
"Let's get back outside, he can't follow us out there as long as the sun is up" Daphne replied. They turned to go, and Daphne's flashlight bounced off Leni, blinding all of them. Everyone winced. "Leni, how did you do that?"
"I don't know and I can't see enough to figure it out" Leni said. It was so bright for a moment then it faded away. Deeper in the cave they heard a roar, and a blast of a fire began rocketing at them. The girls bolted like greyhounds and rushed back out the cave as the fireball fizzled out, they landed in Scooby's freshly dug trench.
"Rorry" Scooby apologized.
"The Yowie Yahoo is not messing around; I don't know how we are supposed to get him to come out before the sun goes down" Lucy asked.
"Maybe we can lure him out with some of this jewelry?" Leni suggested holding up the handful of medallions which immediately lit up as bright as before when the flashlight hit it. Everyone reacted.
"Whoa! Leni, that's bright!" Lincoln exclaimed.
"Fascinating, those appear to be sunstones, their mineral composition, when hit by a light source, reflects light as bright as a sunbeam," Lisa observed.
"That's perfect, we can use it to keep the vampire at bay," Daphne suggested. "Everyone, take one." Leni proceeded to pass out the medallions to the others. "Alrighty, now if Yowie Yahoo gets too close, we can use these to drive him back. Now all we have to do is get him in position and Lincoln can send him back into the chest."
"We have to do it before the full moon comes out, he could be strong enough to withstand even the call of the chest of demons' ' Lucy warned. Three of her siblings looked at each other nervously then noticed Lily wasn't there. Before they could panic however, they heard her laugh and saw her and Scooby getting a plate of food from the food truck.
Scooby brought it back; Lily was on his back snacking on some bread. "Rarlic knot" Scooby offered.
"Brilliant Scooby!" Lincoln said, taking a knot.
"Umm, we may wish to expedite this snack break, according to the national weather service a massive rainstorm is coming tonight, and the cumulonimbus clouds will be rolling in soon, the sun might not be gone but it will be very well hidden within an hour!" Lisa exclaimed.
Lincoln began looking around and he spotted the festival's Rapunzel tower advertised as the tallest in Indiana. He looked at the medallion draped around his neck, and then an idea began forming. "Maybe we can trick the Yowie Yahoo with a little magic," he said sporting his man with a plan, grin. He took Lisa, Boris and Dante and told the others to make sure nothing changed with the vampire's position. As they left, Lisa noticed the souvenir vendor in the beaked mask was spying on them. But they had no time to confront him.
The rest of them stood staring at the entrance to the cave, wondering what exactly the Yowie Yahoo could be doing inside. "Scooby you might need to go in there and see if you see anything." Daphne suggested.
"Rhy me?" Scooby questioned.
"Because you just consumed two orders of garlic knots, he won't come near you," Haiku added.
Scooby shuddered as he approached the mouth of the cave. Lucy felt bad for him, and went to go with him, carrying a flashlight. They moved into the cave quietly until they heard the crackling of a fire. They saw a light coming from farther in the cave. "We need a closer look Scooby, the Yowie Yahoo is doing something, we've got to find out what" she told him. Scooby held his teeth to stop them from chattering. They peered around the corner to see the Yowie Yahoo carving runes by fire into the stone. Ancient incantations that glowed green as he finished. The vampire gave a roaring laugh, whatever he was doing he appeared to be done. "I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't look good" Lucy whispered. "I should have paid closer attention to Boris' undead language PowerPoint presentation."
The two of them began hustling back through the tunnel towards the entrance but crashed into the souvenir peddler who was moving stealthily into the cave. Scooby jumped in fear, grabbed Lucy and ran past him out before the peddler could say one word. Lucy backed to see the peddler motioning to face the vampire. They made it back outside and then heard an enormous crash.
"Are you alright? What happened?" Leni exclaimed as she, Daphne, Lily, Haiku, Morpheus and Persephone rushed over to them.
"We're ok, but I think the souvenir vendor might have gotten blown up," Lucy admitted, panting for breath and leaning on Scooby for support. The sun was now behind clouds, and they saw smoke billowing out of the cave.
"Come on, we've got to find Lincoln and the others," Daphne said and they headed back to the fair. They moved through the unassuming fairgoers searching for white hair and an orange shirt and calling for him, Lisa and the others. "Where could they be?"
"Lincoln!" Lily cried, pointing. Everyone turned to see Lincoln was standing on the stage of the magic contest.
"What is he doing?" Daphne asked.
They tried moving closer as they heard Lincoln address the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, you have been a wonderful audience so far, and now as these clouds are rolling in, I think it's about time for my piece de resistance. For it is time to make the sun reappear. Is there a volunteer in the audience?"
A loud roar interrupted him, and the audience turned to see the Yowie Yahoo at full size rising out of the smoke. He roared and looked at Lincoln.
Lincoln tensed with anxiety. "Uh…perfect, the Yowie Yahoo shall be our volunteer. The vampire began moving closer to Lincoln. His sisters and friends were filled with helpless fear. "And now it is time to part one of our trick, George-Paul-Ringo Alakazun, it may not be morning but here comes the sun!" As Lincoln spoke the Yowie Yahoo swung his claw to try and slash him, but he dove out of the way. From above, light bright as a star shined down and the crowd could see the Yowie Yahoo burning, his eyes shrinking back in fear of the light. Lincoln saw the light had subdued the vampire. "And now ladies and gentlemen it is time to make the Yowie Yahoo disappear!" He moved his magician's cape and Lisa appeared behind him with the Chest of Demons.
Lincoln took position behind the chest and Lisa grabbed a megaphone and declared the magic words. "Hocus pocus spirit rest, return oh return, to the demon chest!" The chest began to glow, and Lincoln opened it. The energy began to draw in the Yowie Yahoo, but the massive vampire tried to resist. But soon more bright light beams began coming from the audience, as Daphne, Scooby, Lucy and the others began shining their sunstones at the Yowie Yahoo. The vampire continued to weaken and it was pulled into the Chest of Demons with Lincoln slamming the lid shut.
Lincoln and Lisa took a bow as the crowd erupted. The others all joined them on stage. "Are you ok Linky? That was so brave, that was the biggest monster I've ever seen! You could've been crushed," Leni said, hugging her brother tightly. Lincoln returned the hug understanding his sister's fear, he had felt the same way when she had been sucked into a mirror.
Looking over to the Rapunzel tower, they saw Boris and Dante coming down from where they had set up a massive spotlight with the four sunstones to make the illusion of the sun. The rest of the mortician's club went to them to praise their work!
The friends were interrupted by a fair worker talking over the loudspeaker. "Hear ye, hear ye! we hereby proclaim that Lincoln Loud and his assistant Lisa have won our magician's contest!" Everyone cheered, and Scooby gave them both doggie kisses. "And to present their award is our special guest," from behind the curtain the souvenir peddler who gave them the sunstones emerged. The Louds and the Morticians club gasped in surprise while Daphne gave Scooby a wink. The souvenir peddler snapped his finger and the dark ropes and headgear disappeared revealing a distinguished middle-aged man, with salt and pepper hair, a pencil mustache, tuxedo, and warlock's cape. "Mr. Vincent Van Ghoul!" the announcer finished.
"I knew it," Daphne whispered to Scooby Doo, "the amulets from a stranger, it just felt too familiar."
Vincent came over to the others who were still in amazement. "Mr. Van Ghoul! You're here, and out of the crystal ball!" Lincoln exclaimed.
"Thanks to young Lily," Vincent replied. Everyone turned to look at Lily who was beaming with pride. "She added the missing dot that Lucy had accidentally smudged off on her kneecap, completing the magic circle."
Lucy slapped her forehead, in disbelief of such a basic mistake on her part. "Wait? Then why didn't we see you pop out of the ball?" she asked.
"I fell out of my own personal crystal which was in Great Lakes City," Vincent explained with a chuckle. "You should've seen the look on Carl Casagrande's face when I launched out onto their dining room table. By then the crystal had detected you were on the trail of the Yowie Yahoo and would need the sunstones to help defeat it. Therefore, after Rosa insisted that I stay for lunch I teleported here to assist you."
"But Mr. Van Ghoul, while I appreciate your mysterious grand entrance, why couldn't we know you were out of the crystal ball and here helping us in disguise?" Lucy asked and the others echoed her question. Daphne and Scooby suspected they knew what he would say.
Vincent smiled, "I sincerely apologize for leaving you in the dark, but my presence here might have scared off the vampire, and we wouldn't have wanted that would we?" Nobody was sure how to respond. "No," he answered his own rhetorical question. "But I fear the Yowie Yahoo succeeded in casting the ancient runes in that cave."
"We saw them, didn't we, Scooby?" Lucy said, Scooby nodded.
"That spell is a time sensitive spell that will return Maldor the Malevolent to a corporeal state at diminished power on the final full moon before the winter solstice" he explained. Everyone gasped.
"Then do we destroy the runes?" Lincoln asked.
"That will not do any good, the final rune which determines where Maldor will return is only half of the rune, the other half has been carved wherever Maldor and his minions have planned for him to come back. We must strive to return the other ghosts to the chest before he does" Vincent replied.
"You can depend on us Vincent!" Daphne said.
"I knew I could, now first there's a matter of a trophy" the warlock snapped his finger and a first prize trophy appeared between Lincoln and Lisa. The brother and sister stared excitedly at their award. "And now I have to go shopping for a new crystal ball with which to contact all of you in the future since my personal ball is still with the Casagrandes." Lucy offered to show Vincent where they were selling them, and Vincent found himself swarmed by the Mortician's club hounding him with questions as they walked.
"Well, it's great that Mr. Van Ghoul is free, and we've now recaptured half of the ghosts. But where on earth could the missing half of the rune be? Where could Maldor be planning to make his grand return?" Lincoln asked.
"I suspect wherever his mortal minion is hiding" Lisa suggested.
"Well wherever he appears we'll be ready for him!" Daphne said. Scooby and Lily offered supportive cheers.
"O M Gosh you guys," Leni said looking at her phone. "I was just texting everyone to let them know what happened, and cousin Fred is freaking out!"
"About what?" Lincoln asked.
"About me driving the Mystery Machine" everyone laughed at Leni's response.