Post by Ark on Apr 13, 2015 17:06:43 GMT -5
Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Guarded Geocache
By Arkmabat*
The all-you-can-eat buffet was busy and alive as families entered and split into different lines, excited to try all the different food at the various bars. Scrappy Doo climbed up on the top of one of the food bars. “Aww, the salad bar. Wrong one.” He announced to himself. Jumping down, his head turned back and forth, scanning the room. On the other side of the buffet, Scooby Doo tilted his head under the ice-cream machine and pulled the lever for vanilla. As the ice-cream swirled into his mouth, Shaggy walked over. “Like Scoob, he said, “Save some for the kids.” They both turned around to see a line of three children, all too short to reach the machine. “Like I have an idea, Scoob.” Shaggy said. “I'll throw you cones and you can fill them up for the kids.” “Roh Kay!” Scooby smiled. “Coming right at you, Scoob!” Shaggy exclaimed as he wound up the pitch, swinging his arm around in a circle. Scooby caught each one and filled them up, tossing them to the kids, one by one. “And one last one for us!” Shaggy added. “Ruh?” Scooby grunted as the cone bounced off his unsuspecting nose. Tripping on his own paws, Scooby flipped over topping plates as he scrambled to catch the last cone. Both the toppings and the cone flew up into the air, hung mid-air for a moment, and slowly began to fall toward the floor. Scrappy walked up behind, not seeing the commotion. Tripping over Scrappy and falling to the ground in the process, Scooby reached out his tongue and caught all the food in one swipe, which he swallowed quickly. “Reeelishous!” He uttered, swirling his tongue around. The kids laughed.
The gang balanced towers of food-filled plates back to a table, inside a booth with padded seats. “Like, let's chow down!” Shaggy said as they all began to pour plates of food into their mouths. The count was four for Shaggy, four for Scooby. Looking over at Scrappy, both stared in surprise as Scrappy finished his seventh plate. “Your nephew sure can eat!” Shaggy whispered to Scooby, scratching his head. After dinner the gang sat at the table, letting all the food settle. Shaggy pulled out his phone and the dogs leaned in to see. “I found a groovy new app for something called Geocaching.” Shaggy said curiously. “Somebody hides a container cache and then leaves a clue to find it.” “That sound like fun!” Scrappy said excitedly. “Yeah, and there's one right nearby, look!” The cache was named “Mister E.M.O.” and was marked “Easy / 4.2 Miles Away”. “Let's hop in the Mystery Machine and take a look around for it!”
The cold fall air blew eerily as Shaggy pushed open the buffet's exit door. “That's funny” he squinted. “I thought I just saw something huge just fly past us.” Shaggy continued staring into the moon-lit sky. “Probably just your imagination, Shag.” Scrappy assured him, and with that, they drove off into the night, off toward the location of the Geocache. As Shaggy pulled into the parking lot of the city cemetery, he began looking around, nervously. “I don't like the looks of this!” he said. “Maybe we outta come back in the daylight, when we can see better, huh Scooby?” Scooby's teeth chattered. “Don't be silly, Shag! You were going to show us how to Geocache, remember? We even have an old lantern we can use to light the way!” Scrappy pulled out the lantern from the back of the Mystery Machine and handed it to Scooby. “This'll be fun! An adventure!” “I guess you're right, Scrappy. Like, this is our own city cemetery. We'll just find the cache and leave. Alright.” With that, he struck a match and lit Scooby's lantern. Scooby grabbed the metal handle in his jaws and they all jumped out of the van. Closing his door, Shaggy walked around to the passenger side of the Mystery Machine. Scrappy quickly piped in. “So where do we go, Shag?”
“Oh, right.” Shaggy replied, pulling out his phone. “Well, it looks like the clouds are making the GPS jump around a bit. We'll have to walk around a bit guys.” Shaggy frowned, looking around the dark cemetery lit only by headlights, the lantern, and the dim lighting from far-off streetlights. “Looks like we're looking for the grave of Emo Harris, who died in 1843. Let's split up and look for the sections that start with 'H'. You can use the light on my phone, Scrappy.” Passing his phone off to Scrappy, Scooby gave Shaggy a look of concern. Would Scrappy be all right, alone? Before they could decide, Scrappy happily bounced off into the dark. “Okay Scoob, I guess we'll go this way.” and they headed off to the other side of the graveyard. Shaggy looked at the graves and headstones they passed as they walked. Not too far in, one of the bushes nearby rustled. “Raggy?” “Yeah, Scoob? What is it?” “Ri reard ruh roast!” “You heard a ghost?” Shaggy asked rhetorically. “Like, don't be silly Scoob, this is our city cemetery. Not some far-off place with angry ghosts. Like Scrappy already said, we'll just find the cache and head home.” They continued walking but the rustling followed. “Like Scoob, did you hear that?” The two grabbed each other, shaking. “S-S-Something is following us!”
Scrappy plopped his tiny paws, one in front of another, staring at the phone's GPS and trying to make sense of the location, though the point kept jumping around due to the dark, cloudy sky and poor connection. Before he knew it, he'd entered the site of a large memorial. It looked like a miniature house, made of brick with a large, rusted door. Etched over an insignia, on a circular metal plate on the door, was the name 'Emo'.
Scooby and Shaggy heard Scrappy suddenly call out. “Hey guys, I think I found it! Over here!” Running over, but still scared, they met up with Scrappy. “Listen Scrappy, something's following us.” Shaggy said hastily. Focused, Scrappy didn't even turn around. His right paw searched the memorial building for any sort of clue. “But this is it, Shag! Emo's memorial! The cache has to be here!” Suddenly, the three heard a terrifying screech which echoed throughout the cemetery. Shaggy's hair stood on end and Scooby jumped into his arms. “That settles it.” Shaggy decided. “We'll come back tomorrow.” He exclaimed as they ran back to the Mystery Machine. Shaggy pulled out of the parking lot, Scooby looking around nervously. Suddenly, Shaggy braked hard. The two looked and each other and came to the same, sudden conclusion: “We forgot Scrappy!”
Scrappy waved his small-pawed fists at the terrifying human bat creature which stood tall before him. “I'll let you have it!” He warned precariously, as he swung his fists at the creature's furry, thin body. Green saliva oozed from the creature's red mouth as he reached for Scrappy. Scooby and Shaggy ran up to the scene. “Like Scrappy, now's not the time for games! That bat creature looks hungry!” But before they could save him, the creature grabbed Scrappy in his claws and flew off into the dark sky.
“Well, there's no telling where that bat creature flew off to.” Shaggy said, worried. “But let's look around for clues. Scrappy's in danger!” Scooby nodded as a few tears hit the ground. The two devoted friends began searching. A few minutes passed as the two searched around in the dirt and grass of the small memorial, looking for anything to help them in their search for Scrappy. “Raggy!” Scooby announced, as he looked down at a flashing light in the grass. Shaggy cautiously reached for it, eyes squinting. “It's a cell phone, covered in that bat creature's green slime! Now why would a bat creature need a cell phone?” Shaggy turned the phone around and turned on the screen. A Geocaching app appeared on the screen, with the map view still open. “Like Scoob, that bat creature was looking for the same Geocache as us! What would a Bat creature want with a Geocache?” Shaggy turned off the screen and flipped the phone around again. “And here's something else, this green slime isn't very sticky... in fact it smells sweet. Like pudding.”
Scrappy's fur bristled in the wind as the bat creature flew over a nearby cornfield and swooped low, dropping scrappy into a soft bed of grass and corn. “Is that all you've got you furry, flying rat?” He yelled as the creature turned mid-air and headed back for the cemetery. Scrappy turned Shaggy's phone back on and placed a call. “Hello? At the city cemetery. Yeah. Great! Thanks.”
Shaggy looked at the phone again and looked for the 'hint' button. All it read was ' OWE '. “Like, I don't get it Scoob.” he said curiously. “It's only one word. I guess they forgot to finish the hint.” Scooby ran his paws up and down the metal door of the memorial building. One got caught in the metal plate with the insignia. Shaggy looked over and joked with worry. “Now you've done it Scoob. Well, wiggle your paw and I'll pull!” As Shaggy pulled Scooby from behind, Scooby's paw pulled free and they both landed in the grass. “Like Scoob, how did you get your paw stuck on the door?” They both looked back and saw the insignia, now turned upside down. It now read 'OWE'. Shaggy's eyes grew wide. “Like that's it Scoob! That's what the hint means!” Scooby pulled on the plate and out popped the entire piece. Flipped around, it appeared to have been a holder for leaving flowers, during warmer months long ago. Before Scooby could turn it over to empty it, the two heard a terrible screech. The human bat swooped from the sky and snatched the metal plate with its claws, landed, and began running toward the exit gate. Right before exiting, the creature tripped on a gravestone and fell over, face-first. Shaggy ran up to him and opened his left hand. A pearl necklace and a green gem dropped from his human hand, which the costume had begun ripping and fraying around. Sirens could be heard in the distance as the man grunted angrily. Scrappy and a policeman jumped out of the car and ran to the scene. “Alright, you big old menace! Time to see who you really are!” Scrappy announced, scaling the torn costume up to the furry bat mask. Biting the furry, left bat-ear and yanking to the right, the mask flew off. “Why it's Mr Keene, the meat chef from the buffet!” Shaggy exclaimed with surprise. The policeman and the gang exchanged details. The policeman took the man away, along with the stolen goods. The gang headed back to the Mystery Machine.
As they drove to a nearby gas station, Shaggy thought out loud: “So the chef and his partner must have temporarily used the cemetery Geocache as a quick swapping location for some stolen goods. What neither of them planned on was the weather being bad and the GPS not working that night. Mr Keene came up with the whole 'bat creature' idea to scare away anyone who came around before he could find the cache himself.” As Shaggy talked, he simultaneously pulled into a gas station. Scooby jumped out and hid behind another car, quickly putting on the torn bat costume. “Well I for one, wasn't scared for a minute.” Shaggy confidently assured himself. Suddenly, Scrappy and Shaggy heard a terrible screech. “Not another bat creature! Let's get outta here!” Shaggy yelled as Scooby snickered. The Mystery Machine went off down the street into the moonlight, leaving the gas pump hose dangling and the gas cap on the ground. Scooby grabbed the gas cap and flapped the bat costume's wings as he made a scary face. “Scooby Doobie Doo!” He howled as he ran down the road into the moonlight to catch up with the gang.
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Scooby Doo! And all related characters and trademarks are copyright Warner Brothers/Hanna Barbera. This work is unaffiliated with any of these associated trademark and copyright holders. This is a work of fiction, written solely by me, promoting my love for the Scooby Doo franchise. I consider myself operating under non-commercial, non-profit, fair-use terms. Please contact me at Arkmabat@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments. Thank you.
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