sonderling || mystery incorporated

020 MENACE OF THE MANTICORE

The gang sat in Mayor Jones' office in City Hall. Fred, Daphne, Velma and Lydia sat on separate chairs while Shaggy and Scooby sat on the couch. Fred had gotten a call from his father about something and needing Mystery Incorporated to come see him at City Hall.

"Look..." Mayor Jones started with a sigh, "This isn't easy for me, but I need your help." He stated simply, Fred's eyes going wide as he slowly grinned, "Our help? Dad... are we... bonding?" He gasped, raising his hands to look at them, "Look at me!" He was shakily breathing as he spoke, "I'm shaking!!"

His father frowned a bit, raising a hand to wave the idea away, "Galloping gopher ponies, Fred, don't get all girly on me... I asked you here because... this Manticore problem may be my fault." Mayor Jones hesitated as he finished, everyone looking at him confused.

"Your fault?" Scooby asked as the mayor nodded, "I was looking around the internet for something that might help the park when I found hauntedattractions4sale.scare, advertising an ancient Persian temple haunted by a manticore."

Lydia ducked her head a bit to hide her laugh as Daphne giggled, shaking her head, "Oh, come on. Who buys a temple on the internet?" But with Mayor Jones steadily glaring at her, lowering his glasses a bit to drive his point home, she quickly cleared her throat, looking away with an unsteady smile, "Sorry, sir..."

"It was a deal." Mayor Jones continued explaining, "I paid the owners of the temple in leftover Que Horrifico t-shirts and they shipped the temple up here. Seemed like a good idea at the time to boost tourism... but now it appears that a Manticore is actually eating tourists. What can I say?" He frowned, though shrugged, "Buyer's remorse."

Suddenly Fred stood up, slamming his fists down on the office desk, successfully startling his father, "We'll do it!!" He leaned closer to his dad, grinning wildly, "We'll fix this for you! I can't tell you what it means to me that you're actually asking for our help! This is gonna be great, dad!"

Lydia's eyebrows raised as she slowly looked away from Fred, pursing her lips as she made eye contact with Velma, though continued looking away until she found a delightful spot on the wall to look at. "We'll go on team stakeouts together, we'll build traps together!" Fred excitedly rambled as his father tiredly looked up at his son over the top of his glasses frames, "Yeah... I won't be taking part in any of that."

Fred paused, processing that new information before nodding and stepping away a bit, "Understood... But I know you'll be there in spirit!" He kept his optimism up despite his fathers lack of excitement or care.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ ❔ ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Let's wrap this one up neat and fast, gang." Fred spoke, leading the way through the carnival. It was rundown and clearly needed lots of repairs, but maybe if Mayor Jones put less money into haunted tourist traps and large quantities of merchandise for monsters that barely last a week, they'd be able to fix up the carnival. "My dad's counting on us."

They stopped in front of a booth filled with clown themed prizes as someone spoke, "We're running a special on our nefarious nachos..." At the news, Shaggy and Scooby excitedly turned around, "Where-!" They both grunted, falling to the ground after running smack into a older man and a girl about the gangs age.

"Sorry, mister. Which way did he say the nachos were?" Shaggy asked as Lydia helped him stand back up, "Not now, Shaggy. We're here to solidify my relationship with my father." Fred frowned, Daphne and Velma giving him looks that screamed disappointment, "And... save the amusement park." He added, glancing away.

The man dressed in a lab coat- despite not being anywhere near a lab- sighed, shoulders dropping, "I'm afraid Creepy, Spooky Terror Land may be beyond saving." He complained before giving an awkward chuckle and wave, "Oh, I'm the owner, Winslow Fleach, and this is my daughter."