Chapter 3
Beamed into Cyberspace
Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, both Shaggy and Scooby were stuffing their faces with the various cafeteria food.
"I'm really sorry about my friends, everyone," Pinkie apologized.
"Shaggy, don't you think you're overdoing it a little?" asked Sunset.
As soon as she said that two of the students left their table to get away from Scooby and Shaggy.
"I wonder why they left?" asked Shaggy.
"I dunno," Scooby said with his mouth full.
"Maybe it's because you're embarrassing yourself by stuffing your face with all that food and you look disgusting while doing it!" Fluttershy snarled.
"Shaggy, seriously! Tone it back a bit," said Sunset. "We start classes tomorrow, for crying out loud! Do you want the other students to think you're weird?"
"Like, you know it can't be helped, Sunset," said Shaggy as shook a can of whipped cream.
"Well, you better start toning it down. If I were you, I'd limit it to three burgers, two hot dogs, and a pizza. I know how much you like stuffing your face with food, but some of these people are going to be our classmates starting tomorrow. So, you better dial it back unless you want to get an earful from me!"
"She's right, Shaggy," said Pinkie. "I mean, come on. As much as I love having whipped cream as a midnight snack, even I have my limits on how much I eat."
As the girls were talking, Shaggy was busy eating a hot dog with whipped cream on it. Scooby, on the other hand, was shaking his can of whipped cream to the point where it looked like it was about to explode. As soon as he pressed the button, he was sent backwards into the table behind him with whipped cream all over his face. Shaggy also had whipped cream on his face, making him look like Santa Claus. Both Scooby and Pinkie decided to help get the whipped cream off Shaggy's face by eating it.
Back with the Fred and the rest of the girls, the group was walking down a hallway until they saw a light up ahead. Phantasma immediately recognized it as a flashlight and decided to hide. As soon as she hid, the rest of the gang ran towards the light and were blinded by it. It was revealed to the flashlight of Officer Wembley.
"I thought I heard some noise down here," he grumbled as he flicked on the light switch. "What are you kids doing? This basement is for staff only."
"We're hunting for the Phantom Virus," Velma explained.
"Yeah, I heard about this so-called virus. I think it's some kind of college prank."
Before anyone could explain to him that it was real, Officer Wembley stated that he was going to escort them back to Professor Kaufman's lab. Twilight hung her head in shame. It was the first time she had ever gotten in trouble at college. It made her feel like scum.
Back in the cafeteria, both Scooby and Shaggy had just eaten all the food there and yet, they were still hungry. Just then, the Phantom Virus appeared above the table Scooby and Shaggy were lying on, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
"Uh, Norvie? Behind you!" Sunset whimpered.
Shaggy looked up and saw the Phantom Virus.
"Oh, hello, Mr. Phantom," he said.
He then realized what he had just said, as well as what he was looking at. It was the Phantom Virus. Thankfully, the boys were able to get out of the way of the electromagnetic blast the virus shot from his hands just in time.
"Run, boys! You'll burn all those calories from all that food!" Pinkie shouted as she and the rest of the girls ran with them.
The quintet soon came to the Psychology Department office and ducked inside. The Phantom Virus followed them inside but was surprised to see a doctor and four nurses instead.
"Thank you for volunteering for our experiment, Mr. Virus," Shaggy said in his doctor disguise. "Nurse Fluttershy, take the patient over to the table."
"Sure thing," said Fluttershy as she walked over to the virus. "Right this way, sir."
She guided him over to the red examination chair and gently told him to sit down, which he did. Shaggy then pressed a button on a machine, causing a bunch of ECG pads to pop out. Both Dr. Shaggy and Nurse Scooby then placed the pads on the virus's face, much to his confusion.
"This is going to be good," Sunset whispered to Pinkie, who couldn't help but snicker.
"Now, can you tell us how many layers are in an ideal club sandwich?" asked Shaggy as Sunset leaned against the ECG machine.
Before he could even answer, Shaggy answered the question for him.
"Time's up! The correct answer is… never enough!"
Sunset pressed a button on the machine, causing the virus to get shocked from the ECG pads. Due to being made of pure electromagnetic energy, the shock only gave him minor burns on his face. Despite that, however, it was still painful for the girls to watch, even though Sunset was the one who pressed the button.
"Let's try one more."
"Oooh, oooh, oooh! Can I do this one?" Pinkie asked excitedly.
"Like, be my guest, Nurse Pinkie."
"Oh, dear," Fluttershy said softly.
"Question: When's the best time to enjoy a milkshake with your French fries?" asked Pinkie.
Before he could answer, Pinkie answered the question for him.
"ANH! Time's up! The answer is any and all the time!"
Sunset rolled her eyes as she pressed the button, shocking the Phantom Virus once again. This time, however, the Phantom Virus was furious and yanked the ECG pads right off his face. This left the group with only one other option, which was to run away as quickly as possible. The group ran into the biology lab, which had a bunch of animals in cages for study purposes. This gave Fluttershy an idea. As soon as the virus caught up to them and opened the door, she immediately let the animals loose. The animals ran out of the lab and trampled over the Phantom Virus, leaving animals tracks all over his body. To add insult to injury, he even got trampled by the group of friends, as well.
A little while later in the chemistry lab, Sunset decided to mix a concoction of her own. As soon as the Phantom Virus came along, she handed him the flask and ran out the door with the others. A few seconds later, an explosion was heard inside the lab. Shaggy cracked the door open and the virus was covered in ash from the resulting explosion.
Sometime later in the robotics lab, it seemed like the virus had cornered both Shaggy and Sunset when all of a sudden, one of the robots started moving towards the virus. It was because of Scooby that the robot was able to save Shaggy and Sunset from the virus. The robot kept dealing with the virus until it finally threw it directly at the door to the college library. Once entering the library, Scooby and Shaggy proceeded to climb up the ladder, only to notice that the Phantom Virus was right behind them. The girls poked their heads out from behind one of the bookcases and thought of an idea. Sunset whistled for the boys to jump down, which they did. Pinkie then ran towards the ladder and started pushing it towards another bookcase. When the virus collided with it, the bookcase came tumbling down on top of him, along with a bunch of books.
"Ooohh! That's gotta hurt!" Fluttershy whispered.
The Phantom Virus emerged from the pile of books and groaned in pain. The others shushed him, since they were in the library. He simply just growled at them in response as they went out the door.
Back in the computer lab, Fred worriedly paced the floor as Officer Wembley was sitting in a chair eating a bag of potato chips.
"I'm worried about Shaggy, Scooby, and the rest of the girls," said Daphne. "They've been gone for a long time."
"Yeah. Maybe we should go look for them," Fred suggested.
"Nobody goes anywhere until Professor Kaufman gets back!" Officer Wembley barked.
Just then, Phantasma popped out of the desk and attempted to scare Wembley.
"BOO!" she shrieked.
"Hey, get out of here, you little delinquent!"
He tried swatting her but missed every time. She then blew raspberry at him. Before he could do anything else, Shaggy, Scooby, and the rest of the girls came bursting through the door with the Phantom Virus hot on their tail. Due to how fast they were running, their speed caused Wembley's chair to spin as fast a top. He slowly got up and from the chair and wondered what he had just seen.
"That was him! That's the Phantom Virus!" Rainbow shouted.
The group ran after him, causing Wembley to spin again. Everyone ran in different directions to try and corner the Phantom Virus but ended up crashing into each other. As soon as they did, someone fired the laser at them and beamed the twelve friends into cyberspace. After that happened, everyone found themselves wearing spacesuits on Earth's moon.
"Jinkies! It looks like we've been beamed into Eric's computer game!" Velma exclaimed.
Back in the real world, Eric, Bill Professor Kaufman, Officer Wembley, and Phantasma went to see what the commotion was about.
"What? The laser's been fired!" Eric gasped.
"At that Phantom Virus, I hope," said Wembley.
Bill ran over his computer and checked the various files until he came across Eric's computer game.
"Look here! Your friends have been transported into cyberspace!" he explained.
"So? Throw the switch or something and get 'em out!" said Wembley.
"The game doesn't work that way. They'll have to play through all the levels to get out," explained Eric.
"You're kidding me."
"I wish he was," Professor Kaufman admitted shamefully.
"Until they can get out by winning every level of the game, the danger in there will be very real," said Bill.
"Danger? You mean as in, life threatening kind of danger?" asked Phantasma.
Bill slowly nodded his head. Phantasma gulped in fear for her friend, Twilight.
"Twilight, please be safe."
Back in the game, Shaggy was having fun jumping around the moon's surface.
"Be careful, Shaggy, there's less gravity on the moon," warned Velma.
Shaggy then lifted a moon rock over his head as if he were Superman.
"Look, it's Super Shaggy!" he exclaimed excitedly.
He then tossed the rock away, which landed with a loud thud.
"Scooby, could you please get Shaggy back over here before he gets hurt?" asked Sunset.
"Rokay," said Scooby.
Scooby attempted to catch Shaggy, but Shaggy jumped out of the way of his best friend at the last minute.
"Nice try, Scoob!" Shaggy mocked. "Like, catch me if you can!"
Unfortunately, Shaggy wasn't watching where he was going and collided with one of the hills on the moon. The others cringed at what they saw, as it looked very painful. Shaggy slowly slid back down to the moon's surface as his friends hopped over to him.
"Shaggy are you all right?" asked Fred.
"Uh… I think so," groaned Shaggy. "But I made an important discovery."
"Oh, really? And what's that?" Twilight asked dryly, folding her arms.
"In this video game, you CAN get hurt."
"Or worse," said Velma. "We'd better be careful."
"Velma's right," said Fred. "Eric said this game is full of creatures and who knows what else."
"Zoinks! I know who!" exclaimed Shaggy as he pointed to one of the moon's mountains.
Standing on the mountain he was pointing at was none other than the Phantom Virus. Like the friends, he also got beamed into the game, as well. Both Scooby and Fluttershy ran away as fast as they could upon seeing him. As soon as they did, Rainbow noticed that the virus wasn't alone. Two monster-like creatures with red spacesuits and glowing yellow eyes hopped towards the group.
"Let's play ball!" the virus exclaimed.
"Play ball? What are you, a Dodgers fan?!" Twilight exclaimed.
"No time for comebacks, Twilight, just run! Or jump… or whatever! Let's just get away from that virus!" Rainbow panicked.
The friends then hopped away as fast as they could.
"I thought we were chasing him," said Daphne.
"Back at the lab, we were!" said Fred.
"But here in the game, he's got friends," said Velma.
"They don't look very friendly to me," said Shaggy as the gang hopped behind the rocks where Scooby and Fluttershy were hiding.
"I think we lost him for now," Twilight said as she breathed heavily.
"W-W-W-W-W-W-W-What do you mean for now?" shivered Fluttershy.
"All I'm saying is that the Phantom Virus doesn't look like the type of creature who would give up that easily. So, we'll rest while we can."
"Good idea," Velma concurred. "And you know, maybe getting beamed into cyberspace might not be such a bad thing."
"And just how is this not a bad thing?" Rarity whimpered.
"Maybe if we play along, we can find out who created this virus."
"Right! Maybe we can find some clues," Fred added.
"Now that sounds like a plan!" Applejack said excitedly. "But uh, how exactly are we going to get out of this here level?"
"I helped work on the game, Applejack. Remember what Eric told us? We need to find the box of Scooby Snacks on each level," explained Twilight.
"And like, there it is," said Shaggy, pointing to where the first astronauts placed the American flag on the moon.
"Wow, that was easy," said Daphne.
"It's only the first level of the game. It's supposed to be easy."
Just then, they heard the virus's voice close by. He had found them.
"Look! A rover!" said Scooby.
"A moon rover!" exclaimed Fred.
Sure enough, there was a moon rover straight in front of them that was painted like the Mystery Machine. The gang hopped over to the rover and took their seats inside of it. Fred started the rover and drove it towards the box of Scooby Snacks.
"This thing needs new shocks," he said as the rover struggled to cushion the impact of the moon's craters.
"I don't really care much about that right now, Freddy. Just as long as we're far away from that creepy virus and his creepy friends," Rarity whimpered.
"Oh, no! They've got a set of wheels, too," Shaggy exclaimed.
Sure enough, the virus also had a lunar rover. This one was colored black with a red zigzag stripe. He then shot out beams of electromagnetic energy at the gang as the drove towards the Scooby Snacks.
"Come on, Freddy! Step on it! Those virtual creeps are gaining on us!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"I am!" said Fred as he stepped on the gas peddle to go the maximum speed, which was 11.2 miles per hour. "But this is as fast as it goes!"
"The virus then shot another beam, which hit the rover, bringing it to a complete stop.
"Aw, man! He's got us!" Shaggy groaned.
"It's okay, guys. The Scooby Snacks are right there," Velma said reassuringly.
As soon as he saw the box, Scooby immediately went for the Scooby Snacks. He then saw the virus's rover gaining on him and panicked for a bit. Just then, the virus's rover hit a crater and sent him, the moon monsters, and his rover flying until they landed somewhere on the moon's surface. Scooby was able to jump out of the way of the rover before it hit the rocky surface of the moon. The virus poked his head out from the rubble, and he was not happy.
"Stop that dog!" he snarled.
The moon monsters hopped towards Scooby, only to bump into each other instead thanks to Scooby's quick thinking. Scooby then hopped towards the box of Scooby Snacks and grabbed them. Just before he could have one, however, the box disappeared, along with Scooby himself. Then the entire gang disappeared as well. They may have completed the first level, but their adventure in cyberspace was far from over.
