Chapter 2

Return of the Hex Girls

Meanwhile, at Vampire Rock, a blonde man named Russell was arguing with a stout band manager named Jasper.

"The rules of the contest are very simple," Russell said sternly. "It's for unsigned bands, no one can enter more than once, and as I've told you again and again, each contestant only gets three minutes."

"But the Bad Omens' best song lasts five," Jasper pleaded.

"Daniel and I have set the rules, and rules are rules, Jasper."

"Aw, can't you bend the rules a little? Especially for such an upstanding group of young people?"

The Bad Omens were a punk-rock group consisting of three members. There was Jack the drummer. He had orange hair and wore sunglasses, a red shirt with a Spade suit picture on it, red pants, and black shoes. Next, there was the lead guitarist, King. He had spiky green hair and mostly wore black. On his shirt was a picture of a Club suit symbol. Finally, there was Queen, the bass guitarist. She had lavender-colored hair and green eyes. She wore a sleeveless pink shirt, black pants, and red shoes. Here belt had the Heart suit symbol on it. She was currently blowing some bubblegum.

"This better be important," said King. "I've got things to pierce."

"And I'm trying to find a new shade of eyeliner," said Jack.

"You were saying?" Russell asked suspiciously.

"Come on, Russell," Jasper pleaded. "Now that Matt Marvelous is gone, it's obvious the Bad Omens are the best in the contest. Why not just declare us the winner now?"

"Jasper, get out of my face or the Bad Omens won't perform at all!"

"You're making a big mistake, Russell!"

Out of frustration, Jasper got out an old poster from the previous year and put it up on the stage's wall.

"I didn't have to come back here, especially after what happened to Wildwind last year. But I am back, and I intend to have my group win this time!"

"I'm warning you…!"

Jasper motioned for the Bad Omens to get into his golf cart. Once they were all in, Jasper drove off with them in it. Once he was out of sight, Daniel walked up to Russell.

"How much of that did you hear, partner?"

"Enough," sighed Daniel. "Jasper's never going to get over what happened to Wildwind. I can't believe it's been almost a year since they disappeared."

The two then talked about whether they should cancel the concert or not. They ultimately decided not to and have all of the other musicians perform, regardless of what happened last night.

Back on the road, the Mystery Machine continued down the path of the outback while Shaggy and Scooby played the game that their old friend, Eric, had made.

"There's the Scooby Snacks!" Shaggy exclaimed.

Both he and Scooby guided their characters to the box, which got them a lot of points once they collected it.

"I'm glad Eric finally added a point system to the game," said Sunset.

"Me too," said Rainbow. "Adds a sense of competition, especially now that it's been released for people to enjoy online."

"Aren't you guys ever going to stop playing that game?" asked Velma.

"Like I said before, nothing to look at but dust and trees," said Shaggy.

"You'd be surprised, Shaggy. The outback is full of life."

"Besides, I'm getting hungry. Anyone up for a picnic?" asked Pinkie.

Everyone just laughed at Pinkie's randomness. The gang did, however, stop for a picnic in the outback. Scooby wanted some Scooby Snacks while the others chowed down on the food they brought along. Fluttershy tossed a couple of snacks to Scooby, which ended up getting snatched by a parrot before he could eat them. Everyone laughed at how silly Scooby looked to be outsmarted by a bird. After they ate, both Shaggy and Scooby rode with some of the local kangaroos. Sunset took a picture of it on her phone. After she did, she laughed at how silly her boyfriend looked riding on the back of a kangaroo.

Sometime later, the gang played gridiron football with each other, with two trees acting as the goal post. Fred tossed the ball to Velma, who then gave it to Daphne. Daphne tossed it to Rainbow, who then threw it over to Sunset. Sunset tossed it to Twilight, who then passed it over to Rarity. Rarity threw it over to Fluttershy, who then passed it over to Pinkie. Pinkie tossed the ball to Applejack, who then passed it Shaggy. Shaggy then kicked the ball to Scooby. Scooby tried to get the ball, but it ended up bouncing off his head and into the coils of a snake. The snake used its tail to smack the ball right into the Scooby's mouth, causing him to go flying through the trees.

"TOUCHDOWN!" Rarity exclaimed.

A while later, Scooby emptied the watering hole that a couple of wild cats were drinking out of. This, of course, made them angry, causing them to chase him. They did, however, stop to pose with him when Velma took a picture for her photo album. As the gang continued down the road, they eventually stopped at a service station to refill up on gas. While there, Shaggy encountered a strange lizard. The lizard stuck out its tongue and Shaggy did the same. This caused the lizard to hiss and show its frills.

"Shaggy! Don't scare it like that!" Fluttershy chastised. "You're lucky they're not poisonous."

The gang eventually decided to do some sightseeing in the outback. Unfortunately, both Shaggy and Scooby came across a very defensive emu and ended up getting chased by it. They eventually buried their heads in the ground as if they were chickens. This allowed them to escape the emu without getting pecked by it. Everyone else just laughed at how silly they looked after getting their heads out.

Later that evening, the gang eventually came to the place known as Vampire Rock.

"It's amazing that they're having a music festival way out here," Daphne marveled.

Everyone took one look at the formation and gasped in astonishment. It was mysterious and unsettling, especially at night.

"Why do they call it Vampire Rock, anyhow?" Rainbow asked. "It looks nothing like a vampire."

Velma started researching the formation on her laptop and eventually found what she was looking for.

"It says the locals call it Vampire Rock because they believe the Yowie Yahoo lives in the rocks' caves," she read.

"The Yowie Yahoo?" Daphne mused.

"An ancient Australian vampire, dating back to the 1870s. Apparently somewhat younger than Dracula, if he exists."

"If werewolves exist, then who's to say that vampires don't?" Fluttershy trembled.

Velma printed out a picture of the Yowie Yahoo to the Mystery Machine's printer.

"The last thing I want is to be turned into a vampire myself!"

After traveling on the road for a little bit longer, Fred parked the Mystery Machine near the place he figured the music festival would be taking place. Everyone got out of the van with Fred holding a flashlight. As the gang started walking, Scooby eventually heard a vicious growling sound behind him. He turned around and saw two mean-looking red eyes staring right back at him. He tried letting Shaggy know, but the eyes disappeared as soon as he looked at where Scooby saw them.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, wasn't having the best of luck, either. In fact, she was often getting startled by the local nighttime wildlife's calls. There was one call that really managed to scare her, though. It was the screeching of a very odd-looking bat. This particular bat was an all-purple color and had a strange-looking face. The screeching sound that it made really managed to scare Fluttershy, as it was almost otherworldly.

"Get away from me! Shoo! Shoo!" she cried.

Fluttershy tried to swat the bat away, but it kept hovering around her. Fluttershy eventually couldn't take it anymore and started running in fear. She was eventually met with an equally-frightened Shaggy and Scooby. Unlike her, however, both Shaggy and Scooby were frightened because they allegedly saw the Yowie Yahoo with their own eyes.

"You saw him? I was getting scared by this strange-looking bat. I-I-I-I-I-I-I-It wouldn't leave me alone! It just kept hovering around me."

"What kind of bat, darling?" Rarity asked.

"I don't know. It was really strange. It had a weird face that almost looked human and was colored purple."

"A purple bat? Are you sure?"

Fluttershy nodded in fear. Fred then went over to the bushes where Scooby allegedly saw the Yowie Yahoo earlier. Sure enough, there were the two mean-looking eyes again. Unlike before, however, the eyes were eventually scared away when a pack of wild dingoes came back and growled at them. After the dingoes left, Daphne heard something familiar. It was the sound of someone playing music.

"Is that who I think it is?" Applejack asked.

"It might be," said Rainbow. "Come on, let's go check it out!"

Everyone walked towards the source of the music, and it turned out to be coming from the stage of festival. Not only that, but it also turned out to be their old friends from Oakhaven, the Hex Girls. They were singing their hit song, I'm a Hex Girl. Upon seeing the gang, the Hex Girls stopped playing and ran up to them in delight.

"It is you!" Thorn gasped.

"Boy, are we glad to see you," said Fred.

"What are you doing here?" asked Dusk.

"We're on our first-week vacation from college," Twilight explained. "Plus, we, the Rainbooms, are performing in the festival."

"Cool! We're opening the festival," said Luna.

"How long have you guys been here?" asked Velma.

"A couple of days. Why?"

"Have you girls seen anything strange as of lately?" asked Twilight.

"Strange?" asked Dusk.

"Like what?" asked Luna.

"Like what? Like, how about big, creepy, and like, scary?" said Shaggy as he and Scooby tried to visualize the Yowie Yahoo from earlier.

"I have a better question," said Rainbow. "Where are your cousins?"

"Oh, you mean the Dazzlings?" Thorn chuckled. "They didn't want to come. Too busy trying to set up the siren projections for their upcoming concert."

"Figures."

Just then, Daniel and Russell came up to the stage wondering if everything was all right.

"Of course we're all right," said Luna.

"Why wouldn't we be?" scoffed Dusk.

"Just checking," said Russell. "Are you going to introduce us to your friends?"

"Yeah. Daniel and Russell, these are our friends from America," said Thorn. "Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy…"

"And Scooby-Doo!" Scooby finished.

"G'day," greeted Russell.

"Welcome," said Daniel. "Sorry we interrupted. We're trying to clear up some trouble before the festival starts."

"What kind of trouble?" asked Applejack.

"Most of the finalists in our unsigned band contest are disappearing," Russell explained.

"That's not good," Daphne said worriedly.

"D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Disappearing?" shuddered Fluttershy.

Russell nodded his head in confirmation.

"The groups are bailing as quickly as they arrive," said Daniel. "They hear Matt Marvelous has been kidnapped and go from g'day to goodbye."

"Kidnapped? By who?" asked Fred.

"Vampire," said Malcolm from his jeep. "Daniel, I warned you terrible things would happen."

And with that, Malcolm left the stage in his jeep in a huff. As he was leaving, he failed to notice a pair of yellow eyes watching his every move silently. Who exactly was that mysterious figure watching Malcolm? And were they related to the purple bat that Fluttershy encountered earlier? The gang was about to find out real soon.