Chapter 2: The Reunion
TWO YEARS LATER...
It was a bright, sunny morning on the campus of Coolsville University (I mean, what ELSE would you expect during Spring Break?), but in his office, Professor Albert Beauregard Rogers was not having a good day.
He was crying in front of his desk, while Shaggy, as well as Scooby and Scrappy, watched as they each took a seat. For those of you wondering what happened to Albert's robot butler, Robie, he never exactly DID manage to work out the bugs, so he had to scrap him. On Prof. Albert's desk, a tape recorder played a message on repeat.
It went like: "Some type of demon is chasing me! It just got Mandy! Please, Daddy—" the rest of it included a loud "CRASH!" a scream of fear, a wild roar...and then the line went dead.
Scrappy's neutral expression became one of concern and fear. During the past 2 years, he'd really bonded with Shaggy's cousin Isabel over a shared love of art and mixed martial-arts. She was one of the few people who didn't think his "Puppy Power" catchphrase was ridiculous...she actually thought it was kind of cute. That always made him blush furiously.
"The police won't do anything!" Albert sobbed. "They said it's a haunted theme park, that it's normal for people to get panicked calls!"
"When's Izzy supposed to get back?" asked Shaggy.
"At the end of Spring Break, a week from tomorrow." replied Albert.
"Maybe we should, like, wait until—" Shaggy started, until Albert cut him off.
"NO! Something strange is going on!" insisted Uncle Albert. "These 'Spooky Island' reps won't even let me speak to my own daughter!" he grabbed Shaggy by his forearm as he broke down in tears. "Please, Norville! You must go to Spooky Island! You have to find Isabel! YOU HAVE TO SOLVE THIS MYSTERY!"
"I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SOLVE A MYSTERY!" exclaimed Shaggy.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! YOU WERE A PROFESSION DETECTIVE SINCE YOU WERE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!" replied Albert.
"YEAH, BUT I HAVEN'T BEEN A DETECTIVE FOR TWO YEARS!" retorted his nephew.
Albert sighed. Then, he placed some money on the desk and slid it towards Shaggy.
"These are my savings. Do whatever you need to find my baby princess," he begged. "And I have something for Scooby, if he'll go."
Scooby shook his head in resistance. "No way; Nuh-uh!" he replied.
Shaggy glanced at Scooby and Scrappy. He was utterly terrified of going to Spooky Island, there was no denying that...but this wasn't just some farmer scared of a UFO, or a town afraid of a pterodactyl ghost...this was his cousin...his family!
"And, if we do accept this job...free of charge...what's your incentive for Scooby?" he asked, turning back to face Uncle Albert.
"I remember that he likes...THESE!" Uncle Albert declared as he pulled out a packet of Scooby Snax.
"Roh-boy! Roh-boy!" Scooby exclaimed, as he started leaping up and down, then he rolled over on the carpet, knocking things over. Scrappy simply rolled his eyes in embarrassment. Those little snacks had been the cause and solution of many a problem in the past two years...especially due to Albert's nanobots being in them.
"Scooby…the whole bag is yours if you and your companions go to Spooky Island & find my daughter." Albert explained. "She means so much to me."
"Reah! Rokay!" grinned Scooby.
"But, Uncle Albert; Fred & Velma figured everything out! I was just the guy who carried the bags," Shaggy protested.
"Then get your friends to come along," Albert replied as he went upstairs.
As soon as he was out, Scrappy chimed in with his input. "Easier said than done, Shaggy. We haven't seen hide nor hair of them for the past 2 years...and believe me, I want to help save Izzy."
"Chill out, Scraps; if there's one thing about members of Mystery Incorporated, it's that no matter WHERE we are, we ALWAYS manage to draw a lot of attention to one another!" responded Shaggy.
And while it was easy FINDING the gang, it wouldn't be as easy getting them to work as a team.
AND SO, A WHILE LATER...
Shaggy; Scooby and Scrappy walked across a Japanese garden towards a Tai-Chi Academy. This is where they'd last heard Daphne was at, according to their research.
The redhead in question was in the middle of a martial-arts demonstration, clad in an eggplant-colored robe, and fighting off a multitude of her fellow martial arts students with ease.
At last, Daphne stood frozen, crouched, her fist out in front in a Flying Lotus stance. Around her, the students laid on the ground, their mangled bodies in pain.
"Excellent, Daphne-san," said the instructor. "You are learning to harness your Ki!"
Daphne bowed in response. "Thank you, sensei," she replied before she overheard some clapping from behind her. Turning around, she saw Shaggy, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy applauding for her from the entrance.
The redheaded woman's green eyes lit up with joy at seeing her old friends again.
"Like, hey, Daph," Shaggy smiled, his face bright-red. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
Daphne couldn't keep the smile from crossing her face. "Shaggy! Scooby! Scrappy!" she exclaimed as she ran over to the trio.
"That's our names, don't wear 'em out!" Scrappy smiled. "It's great to see you again!" Daphne smiled as she picked up the small dog and gave him a hug. "I can honestly say the same."
"So, this is where you've been these past two years?" asked Shaggy.
"That's right," nodded Daphne. "I've been transforming my body into a dangerous weapon!"
"Good, because we're on a mission to Spooky Island!" Scrappy exclaimed. "We need all KINDS of dangerous weapons!"
Daphne raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you guys are trying to solve a mystery?" she asked. "What's so important about this one?"
"It's about my cousin Izzy." Shaggy replied firmly.
"She went there for Spring Break," Scooby said. "But she hasn't come back since! Something attacked her when she tried to call for help!"
"It sounded like some sort of ferocious beast!" Scrappy added.
"Like, we can't leave her there if she's in danger," stated Shaggy. "Daphne, we could really use your help with this."
"So will you help?" added Scooby.
Daphne smiled. "For you guys, anything." she replied.
"Awesome!" Scrappy exclaimed. "So...anybody else?"
"If we're gonna solve this mystery, we need a whole lotta brainpower," responded Shaggy. "And who's the smartest person we know?"
Scooby rubbed his chin in thought for a few seconds, before his eyes lit up. "Relma!"
"That's right, Scoob: Velma!" Shaggy responded.
Daphne groaned. She wasn't looking forward to THAT meeting...not after the messy breakup the team had.
Shaggy noticed the look on her face. "Velma was always the brains who figured out who the culprit was," he explained. "And after so long, she's gotta be even smarter by now! We need her help."
"...fine," Daphne relented. "As long as she's not insufferable."
Scrappy, Shaggy and Scooby glanced at one another. They hoped Velma wasn't as sassy as when they last met. The last thing they wanted was a bitter reunion.
And so, hoping for the best, the four members of the group piled into the Mystery Machine and drove off. Their next stop? Velma Dinkley...
MEANWHILE...
At a psychologist's office; a group sat in a circle of chairs.
"Velma Dinkley...why don't you tell us why you enrolled in group therapy?" the psychologist asked.
Velma sighed as she played with the edge of her orange sweater. Where could she even begin? "My fellow students in the Ph.D. mathematics program told me I was..." she started.
"Bitter?" asked the psychiatrist.
The other people in the room each responded:
"Sarcastic?"
"Sassy?"
"A know-it-all?"
"Sassy?"
"Full of herself?"
"Angry?"
"Sad?"
"Sassy?"
[Just our way of poking fun at the recent trend of making Velma a Daria expy which started in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated...which I and B.E.A.T.N. are also doing an alternate adaptation of. Expect that to be out sometime during May or June.]
Velma sighed. "Yes...; after my previous career, I had to work on being way less...all of that...as well as expanding my mind and my emotional range..." she responded.
The psychiatrist nodded. "And what was your career from before all of this?" she inquired.
"Detective. I worked in a group where I felt I didn't get the credit I deserved." Velma replied.
"What was the group?" asked one patient.
"...Mystery Incorporated," Velma mumbled into the neck of her turtleneck sweater.
Everyone instantly grew excited when they heard this. And Velma sighed, knowing that she had just opened a can of worms.
"The guys with that big dog?" asked one patient.
"Scooby-Doo?" exclaimed the psychiatrist.
"Yeah! And Fred Jones!" another patient replied.
Velma nodded, feeling clearly uncomfortable.
"Yeah, they had that rich chick, Daphne?" said a third patient.
"Oh my God, she was hot! She was sooo hot!" grinned the second patient.
"Which one were you?" asked the first patient.
"Velma," Velma responded. "She just said my name a second ago."
"I don't remember a 'Thelma'..." responded the first patient.
Velma inhaled through her nostrils and tried to keep her temper in check. "Velma. Not Thelma, Velma with a V. I was the brains who figured out who the culprit was every time," she responded. "Fred built the traps, Daphne was the damsel in distress, while Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy were the bait for the trap!"
"Scrappy?" asked another patient, looking as though he'd smelled a fart. "Oh, you mean that annoying little dog!"
"Oh, I couldn't stand him!" another patient chimed in. "Talk about a pain!"
"He wasn't that bad..." Velma muttered. "He was just...very excitable. And he was only a puppy."
"Oh, right," snorted a third patient. "If you believe that, I got a bridge in San Francisco to sell ya. Bet it was some kind of glandular disorder he had, I bet. What was that dopey catchphrase he had?"
"Oh, I remember," gagged another. "'Puppy Power'! 'Lemme at 'em! I'll splat 'em!' 'Scrappy-Dappy-Doo!' More like Crappy Poo if you ask me."
Velma was barely holding back from yelling at these people. Scrappy always for a bad rap thanks to the media.
It was one thing she and the tiny dog could bond over, next to the media always giving credit to Fred as the leader, when they were just as important in saving the day. They never talked about how Scrappy was insanely strong for a puppy, given he could carry Scooby and Shaggy like they were bags of feathers. Instead, they would rather blame him for the supposed "decline" of the gang.
Afterwards, Velma didn't stick around to chat more; she just headed to her Dodge...until she heard a horn honk.
She turned around...and saw the Mystery Machine in the parking lot-rusted, beaten, and faded.
"Jinkies..." Velma commented, awestruck. She slowly walked over to the old van, wondering who was behind the wheel right now.
"Hey, Velma," Shaggy waved as he poked his head out the front side window.
Velma removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. "Shaggy? I haven't seen you in years!" she exclaimed.
"Well, it's only been two years," responded Shaggy. "but I guess I can understand how it'd feel that way. Climb in, and I'll explain everything."
Velma shrugged. She didn't have anything better to do. And at least Shaggy was better company than the people in the support group.
As she climbed into the back of the van, she saw that Shaggy wasn't alone.
"Rello!" Scooby waved a paw, as he, Scrappy and Daphne were in the back.
Velma gave an awkward little wave in response. "So...what's the situation?" she asked.
... ... ...
ABOUT FIVE MINUTES LATER...
"...so now we gotta go to Spooky Island and figure out what's going on." Scrappy finished.
"Also to find out what happened to Izzy. And to do that, we knew we needed the old gang back together!" chimed in Shaggy, while they had stopped at a Burger King for lunch. "Daphne has her new martial-arts training and her skills with makeup, and you're, like, the smartest person we know!"
"Okay," Velma responded. "But if we do interviews, then I get to do them."
"Consider it done!" Shaggy nodded. "Now, we just need one more person for this mission."
Velma and Daphne looked at each other in utter annoyance and dismay. "Oh, no..." they groused.
"Yep..." Scrappy sighed. "Fred Jones."
Velma was the first to speak up. "Why do we need that egotistical loudmouthed credit-hogging, handso—er, why do we need him?" she inquired.
"Good question," Scrappy replied. "Why DO we need him, Shaggy?"
"Sure, Fred might be kinda boastful, but he always thought up the traps to catch the monsters, and like it or not, most people associate him as the leader," explained Shaggy. "So having him there may help us get further in our investigation."
The van was completely quiet, until Velma eventually spoke up. "That...actually makes sense. When did you get so smart?" she asked.
"My cousin's in danger," responded Shaggy, his tone firm. "I'm not gonna run and hide when it comes to family."
"Ya gotta admire the dedication!" Scrappy complimented.
"Ruh-huh!" nodded Scooby.
The last place the group headed to was the 28th Annual Coolsville Sci-Fi Convention: a nesting ground of awkward fanboys, middle-aged men dressed like superheroes, and B-movie starlets in skimpy femalien costumes.
And at the convention center, a placard read:
COOLSVILLE ASTRO-CON PRESENTS:
FORMER MYSTERY-BASHER FRED JONES
discussing his new book, "ESP/Schmee-SP"
Fred was at a podium, displaying a slideshow of many of Mystery Incorporated's past cases. Too bad nobody was listening.
"...and then there was the time, of course, when I solved the mystery of Captain Cutler, exposing him as..."
Click.
"...a man in a mask. The ghost of Mamba Wamba was quite a challenge until I discovered..."
Click.
"...that he was a man in a tribal mask."
Click.
"But I guess you'd say I'm most remembered for revealing to the world that the abominable snowman ghost..."
Click.
"...was actually a man inside of a mask."
One kid raised his hand. "Do you think there's such a thing as a real ghost?" he asked.
"My new book, ESP/Schmee-SP addresses that issue, my friend," explained Fred. "After years of investigating supernatural claims, I have arrived at 1 utter & unassailable conclusion: there are no such entities as ghosts, ghouls, goblins, or monsters. At the end of every paranormal claim, there are only fools seeking fame, paranoid imaginations, or charlatans looking to make a quick buck. There is absolutely—absolutely—no such thing as magic in this world."
Someone raised their hand.
Fred pointed towards them. "Yes, you in the back?" he asked.
"What about the incidents you were a part of that involved zombie pirates, cat people, alien invaders, a witch's ghost, a phantom virus, and the fact that you used to travel with two talking dogs?" responded the person.
Fred blinked for a few seconds, before he replied. "...we never really figured out what made Scooby and Scrappy talk, so we just accepted it as a part of life," he responded. "Any other questions?"
"Yeah, I got a question, Jones," said a familiar voice. "How come you're such a weenie?"
Fred looked out into the audience and saw who it was; sure, he'd gotten a little cleaned-up, and grown up a lot, but he could NEVER forget Red Herring. And now he had two kids!
Everyone else burst into uproarious laughter.
Fred cleared his throat and tried to save face. "That's not much of a question, but I've come to expect that of my biggest critic since the beginning of my career. Any real questions?" he asked, shaking his hands out.
A lanky-looking hand was raised. "Yes, you in the middle?" Fred asked, pointing.
"Like, if you had the chance, would you ever get back in the mystery-solving game?" asked Shaggy.
"Well, if the stakes were high, and there'd be a chance to show the world I've still got it, I'm willing to investigate a case," stated Fred. "Do you have one?"
"As a matter of fact, we DO!" Scooby said as he got onto Shaggy's shoulders.
Fred's eyes widened. "Shag? Scoob? What're you guys doing here?" he asked.
"It's a long story," Shaggy replied. "And it involves family members in danger."
Everyone in the crowd was intrigued and turned their gaze towards Fred.
"I...I gotta wrap this up," said Fred as he walked off stage. "This concludes my panel!"
Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy, who was wearing an adorable trench coat and fedora hat, made their way over to Fred as he moved off to the side.
A little later, in Fred's hotel room, the trio decided to meet up with Fred and display the evidence.
"Well, it's clear some sort of man in a mask apprehended your cousin," he concluded. "the important question is...what KIND of mask?"
Scrappy rolled his eyes. "No, the important question is WHY did he take her? What could be his reasons?" he retorted.
"So you'll go with us?" asked Shaggy.
"Can't, Shag; my book tour," explained Fred. "Tomorrow I'm off to Evanston, I—"
"But what about the pictures?" asked Scrappy.
"It's either a coincidence, or they all got jobs at Disneyland." replied Fred.
Shaggy sighed, before he spoke up. "Look, Fred; normally, I'm the one to run and hide when things get scary...but is a book tour more important than people in danger?" he asked.
Fred seemed to consider Shaggy's words, genuinely mulling them over.
Scrappy decided to play off of Fred's ego. "Not to mention, how much publicity this could get if Mystery Inc. solved such a mystery..." he added.
Fred's eyes widened. "Out of rinky-dink fan conventions, and back on Leno!" he grinned. "That'll show that Red Herring!"
"The more things change, I guess," Scrappy shrugged.
"So, when do we leave?" asked Fred. Scooby opened the blinds to the room to show the Mystery Machine sitting in the parking lot.
"Ah, this is gonna be great," Fred smiled. "Just us guys, back in action, and solvin' a mystery!"
"...yeah, about that?" Scrappy began.
AND SO, A FEW MINUTES LATER...
Fred grumpily walked towards the Mystery Machine, where Velma and Daphne were standing outside the back doors.
"Hi, Freddy," Daphne greeted, rolling her eyes in irritation.
"Hello, Daph," responded Fred, his tone icy. "So...what's new with you?"
"It's a mission involving Shaggy's cousin," stated Velma. "So hopefully Mr. Jones isn't too important to help a friend out when they're in need."
"Hey, listen here—" started Fred, but before he and Velma could engage in a verbal battle, Scooby got between the two of them.
"Please, no fighting!" he begged.
"Yeah!" Scrappy agreed. "Every minute you guys could spend on bickerin', that's another minute Izzy spends in danger!"
"Scooby and Scrappy are right," chimed in Daphne. "We have a mystery to solve."
"Well...alright," Fred relented.
Velma adjusted her glasses. "You make a good point, at least," she agreed.
"Great!" smiled Shaggy. "Alright, everybody climb on in!"
That being said, the group climbed into the Mystery Machine and drove to the airport. Of course, the ride there was tense, to say the least.