Was this what denial felt like? While Ihaan didn’t want to believe that Ro was the Thunderbird, a part of him said that Velma wasn’t wrong (she was Velma). And if Ro was the Thunderbird…
“Why?” Ihaan asked the glowing Spirit before him and the Mystery Gang.
“Zoinks!” Shaggy yelped, reaching forward and hugging Scooby.
“Jeepers!” Daphne said soon after.
The Thunderbird… Ro… whatever it was, cried out, sending more lightning sparks flying across the lake toward the sunny section. It faced the gang, and its shimmering blue eyes seemed to glare.
No, that wasn’t Ro. Ro hadn’t flown since the accident. Velma was wrong—she had to be, but Ihaan couldn’t dwell on it now. He and the Mystery Gang needed to get out of there, and fast. Where were the Spirit Animals when he needed them?
The Thunderbird let out another cry, causing Daphne to grip Freddie’s shoulders, who sat in their canoe’s bow. “Um, Fred,” she said, gently shaking him, “do you have a plan?”
A sarcastic chuckle escaped Fred’s lips. “A plan? Of course, I do, Daph.” He quickly glanced at each of his friends and Ihaan. “Paddle!”
“Like, I thought you’d never ask, Fred.” As quick as a flash, Shaggy stuck his paddle in the water and whipped his, Scooby, and Velma’s canoe around. “Pedal to the metal, Scoob! Pedal to the metal, Velma!”
“Jinkies!” Velma shrieked as they sped across the lake toward the mainland. Her glasses flew off her face, but Ihaan caught them, hearing her say over the wind, “My glasses!”
“Go, go!” Fred ordered Daphne, and she nodded, paddling in perfect sync with him toward the mainland, too.
Ihaan, left behind with Velma’s glasses, glanced up at the Thunderbird. “Ro, Ro, please,” he begged. “If that’s you, give me a sign.”
The Thunderbird let out another cry and opened its wings wider. For a second, it shook and lowered its head, but then, with a second flap of its wings, aimed the next set of lightning sparks at Ihaan.
It felt like a rock was on his chest, dragging him to Anima’s bottom. While it hurt, Ihaan turned his canoe and hurried after the gang, saying, “I’m sorry,” the entire time. He soon caught up with them and added, “We need to split up to confuse it.” Fear and denial killed him softly on the inside, but right now, the Mystery Gang was more important than confronting the Thunderbird without answers and a plan. From what Ihaan recalled, Fred was the one who usually came up with a plan, but he couldn’t do that right now—not until the Thunderbird calmed down.
Ihaan tossed Velma her glasses and parted from the group, watching them over his shoulder. He had only known them for one winter, but it was enough to know they would be okay. It wasn’t their first rodeo with a mystery or a monster (Ro wasn’t a monster, though). As the Mystery Gang, they had probably faced much worse, but Ihaan did find himself wondering if the Lightning Spirit was their first encounter with the supernatural.
***
Scooby, Shaggy, and Velma reached the mainland first and crawled out of their canoe, just as the Thunderbird appeared behind them.
They yelped and hopped onto its head when it launched its neck at them. The three sprinted for the forest and stopped when they reached it, grabbing a low-lying branch at the forest’s edge. They brought it back and let it go, but it caught on Scooby’s collar.
“Relp!” he hollered. Scooby and the branch smacked the Thunderbird in the face, and Scooby ended up on its bill, paws outstretched. He jumped up just before it shocked him and dove off the Spirit’s bill, landing in Shaggy’s arms.
“Zoinks!” he yelled again, his hair shooting out like static electricity. He dodged the Spirit’s lightning bolts and hurried to Velma, accidentally hitting her shoulder.
Velma twirled in a circle with the force and ended up on the forest floor with her glasses knocked off her face again.
While she felt around for them, the Thunderbird waited patiently, wings folded, before her.
“Hey!” a voice called out from a cluster of ferns, and a bright light shone in the Thunderbird’s face. Fred waved his arm and moved his flashlight’s beam across the Spirit’s eyes. “Pick on someone your own size, you overgrown chicken!”
Almost instantly, the creature landed, and its open wing swooshed over Velma’s head. It marched toward Freddie, giving Scooby time to jump down from Shaggy and rush to Velma.
He picked up her glasses, handed them to her, and slung Velma on his back.
She tightly gripped Scooby’s collar, and he rushed her to Shaggy, out of the fray.
Where Freddie was, he cupped his hand around his mouth and ordered, “Okay, now, Daphne!”
At his request, Daphne leaped out from behind the ferns, a Deet bottle in her hand. She aimed it at the Thunderbird and announced, “Try this, bird brain! You need more style!” She sprayed the Deet before the Spirit’s nostrils, and it gagged, stumbling away from her. It rubbed against a few trees to remove the smell. “And that,” Daphne said, “is why you let Daphne carry the Deet.” She chuckled and tucked it into her purse.
That was when Freddie noticed something out of the corner of his eye in a tight tree cluster. “Duck, Daphne!” he said, pulling her and himself to the ground.
An arrow shot out of the tree cluster and grazed a few of the Thunderbird’s electrified feathers, causing them to drift into the area. “Ro, stop!” Ihaan shouted, appearing from behind the cluster, bow and arrow at the ready. “Stop, please! I don’t want to hurt you!”
Fred noticed tears in his eyes and growled to himself. Velma likely wasn’t wrong about Ro being the Thunderbird, but that only opened the stage for so many more questions: what, when, where, why, and how, instead of solving the mystery. He snapped out of his trance when Daphne pulled him to his feet, and Ihaan approached them, pushing Freddie’s back.
“Go!” he said. “You ever heard of switchbacks? Let’s run in switchback formation to alter her.”
He was trying to be brave, but Fred saw it in his deep brown eyes: grief, denial, and confusion. The reveal was killing Ihaan inside, softly but surely.
Ihaan slipped his bow over his shoulder and tugged on his jacket’s sleeve, popping the bow up higher. “Switchback formation,” he repeated.
The Mystery Gang nodded in response and let Freddie take the lead. From there, they ran in switchback formation back and forth across the open area, almost reaching the road, as the Lightning Spirit chased them.
For a moment, Scooby paused and imitated a male bird by flapping his front paws. Shaggy grabbed his collar and pulled him back, and both narrowly avoided the bird’s beak. The chase went on until the gang hit the road, then they stopped and faced the creature together. The Mystery Gang hugged each other, but Ihaan stepped forward and aimed his bow again.
“Please,” he begged, his arm and hand trembling, “this isn’t who you are, Ro. Let us figure out what’s happening together. Please.”
“I’m coming behind you, Ihaan.” Velma reached forward and carefully removed the charred feather from Ihaan’s back pocket. She stood beside him, closed her eyes, and held it up to the Thunderbird’s face.
Shaggy and Scooby dropped to their knees and clasped their hands/paws together. “Please show mercy, please show mercy,” Shaggy pleaded. “Scooby and I haven’t tried the newest Scooby Snack flavors yet.”
Scooby whimpered and nodded. “Reah. Rease.”
There was silence, and then the Thunderbird sniffed the feather and looked at Ihaan.
“Please,” he tried again.
Another minute passed, and then the Spirit’s wings stopped sizzling and releasing lightning bolts. Soon, the sparks disappeared completely, and Ro floated in their place; however, she closed her eyes and dropped toward the forest floor.
“Ro!” Ihaan tossed his bow and arrow aside and dove, catching her before she hit the ground. “It’s okay, girl, it’s okay,” he said, hugging her close. “I’m right here.” He sniffed and rubbed the side of his eye before tugging on his jacket’s collar. Ihaan clenched his fists and punched the forest floor, saying, “It’s not fair. Why her? Why her?”
Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby watched sadly, but Velma kneeled and grasped Ihaan’s shoulder, explaining in a gentle voice, “That’s why we’re here, Ihaan; we’re going to solve this mystery.”
“That’s right,” Freddie added. They needed to give him hope—let him know that he was not alone. “And it starts by canoeing to Red Squirrel Lake.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Ihaan removed his jacket and wrapped it around Ro, standing. He scooped up his bow and arrow and started back for the open area’s dock, Lake Anima Nipissing, and Red Squirrel Lake. “I will do whatever I can to save her. My job as forest protector.”
The Mystery Gang said nothing else after that. They chased after Ihaan, except Shaggy and Scooby, who crossed their arms and stayed behind.
Eventually, Freddie returned and grabbed them, dragging them to the crowd before they glued their feet to the ground. This was the end of their shenanigans until they figured this out.
16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdPUynnUcT1
Prompt: "Killing Me Softly" - performed by many
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