No! What had Fred done? He had been so caught up in Ro’s test flight, so excited for her and Ihaan, that he forgot Ihaan didn’t know his mother had died and returned to him as Ro. He was supposed to be the leader of the Mystery Gang, the person who held everything together with traps and plans, and he failed. Why couldn’t Freddie keep his mouth in check?
“Ihaan, I-I’m sorry,” he tried apologizing. “I wasn’t thinking. I—”
“Mother’s not dead!” Ihaan fought, and Freddie jumped. “We were separated. No one died.” However, the look in his eyes suggested that maybe deep down, he had always known.
Freddie faced his friends, whose mouths had all dropped. “Please, guys, I didn’t mean to—”
Velma narrowed her eyes. “Well, you did, Fred, so I guess we’re telling him now.”
“Wait…” Ihaan eyed each member of the Mystery Gang. “You all in this?”
Daphne gulped. “We were hoping to tell you a little later, Ihaan, but—”
“Zoinks!” Shaggy exclaimed, hugging Scooby. “Like, don’t look now, gang, but like, something’s happening.” He pointed at the lake, and the gang looked with him.
A section of the low clouds cleared, and a massive thunderhead flashing with lightning replaced them.
Oh, no.
Fred reached for Ihaan. “Come on, Ihaan, there’s a new plan. It’s called We Need to Get off This Lake.”
Tears shimmered in Ihaan’s eyes, and he shook his head. “I thought you guys were friends.”
“We were going to tell you, Ihaan,” Daphne argued, “but we didn’t think you were ready.”
Fred wasn’t sure if her empathy would help them now, especially when Ro screeched and lifted out of the lake, lightning flashing from her wingtips.
“No, Ro!” Ihaan yelled, pulling wet hair out of his face.
“Ihaan, get out of the water,” Velma said. “It’s not safe. Water conducts electricity.”
Ihaan didn’t make direct eye contact with Fred and his friends and crawled back into his canoe… just as the thundercloud reached them. “Ro, please,” he begged. “You just learned to control it.”
“Kate,” Velma said suddenly, setting her paddle on her lap. She collected her notebook and flashed it at Ihaan.
“Kate?” he repeated after her.
Velma tried to be gentle, but Fred wasn’t sure it would work, either. “Kate is her real name, Ihaan. Kate is your mother.” She yelled when a sudden lightning bolt flashed over her head and covered it.
“Aw, man,” Shaggy complained. “If only we had the marshmallows out, Scoob.”
“Aw, rats,” Scooby growled. He whined when a second lightning bolt struck the water beside his, Shaggy, and Velma’s canoe.
“We need to get out of here now,” Fred ordered, gesturing toward the mainland on the other side of Red Squirrel. “Before that Spirit Animal transforms again.”
His friends nodded, but Ihaan said, “No, I’m not leaving her.”
“Please, Ihaan.” Daphne clasped her hands together. “We know this is hard, and that you’re mad at us, but Fred is great when it comes to plans. Please.”
Ihaan sniffed and thought for a second, but he finally nodded and paddled with the gang to a nearby large island.
Fred had just crushed his heart, and he felt awful. He would make it up to Ihaan, though; he would make it right. They would get Kate back together.
The gang soon reached the island and lugged their canoes onto the beach, swatting away mosquitoes.
Within seconds, Ihaan collapsed to his hands and knees and punched the sand. “Why her?” he cried out. “Why not me?”
The gang surrounded him, looking guilty but hopeful.
Velma and Daphne kneeled, and Daphne offered Ihaan an encouraging smile. “We’re going to get her back, Ihaan. We promise. We just need a plan.”
Shaggy lifted his hand. “Like, let me guess, Daphne—Scooby and I are the live bait again?”
Fred opened his mouth, but before words escaped, a shriek sounded from the sky, and Ro dropped from it before them. Her twenty-foot-tall frame and electrified body loomed over them, and she glared at the Mystery Gang.
“Zoinks!” Shaggy yelped again, and his hair shot out like static electricity.
“Run, gang!” Freddie yelled, pulling the girls and Ihaan to their feet. “That’s the plan now. Run!”
He and his friends seemed to hover above the ground briefly before they took off into the forest, narrowly missing Ro’s open beak.
She cut through several trees chasing them, and a few plummeted onto the forest floor with a loud crash.
And Fred thought Zombie Island was scary.
He and the gang halted when Ihaan tripped over a log and fell onto his front, arms outstretched.
“Ihaan!” Freddie called. He and the others sprinted toward him, and Ihaan shakily stood. It looked like he had injured his foot again because he didn’t put much weight on it.
Before the Mystery Gang reached him, Ro came in from above and crashed down between them. The shockwave she gave off knocked the gang off their feet and threw Ihaan into a nearby tree.
He yelled and hit the ground with a thud, rolling a few times. Once he stopped, he lay motionless on the dirt beside the log he tripped over.
“Ihaan!” the Mystery Gang shouted.
They started toward him, but Ro screeched, and, with a quick flap, landed before Ihaan.
Fred tucked the gang behind his arms and ordered, “Retreat, gang! Retreat!”
“Like, I never thought you would ask, Fred,” Shaggy said, ducking behind some ferns into an overgrown part of the forest, with the others right behind him.
They kneeled, pulled the ferns apart, and watched Ro, who was still crying but refused to leave Ihaan.
She paced back and forth before him and stomped her feet.
“Jeepers,” Daphne said, “that is one angry Spirit.”
Freddie chewed his nails and held his head. “This is all my fault, gang—I’m so sorry. Thanks to me, Kate’s the Thunderbird again, and Ihaan’s hurt.” There was no movement from where he lay, nothing.
“We need to get him out of there,” Velma sternly stated.
Daphne brushed her fingers through her hair and took off her headband. “But Ro wouldn’t hurt Ihaan.”
“Well, she did,” Velma said. “We can’t risk it.”
Fred bobbed his head. “Velma’s right, but I have a plan, gang.” He pulled the ferns before him and his friends like curtains and faced them. “Shaggy and Scooby will lure Ro away from Ihaan, and then you girls and I will get him out of there.”
“Like, huh?” Shaggy inquired. “Like, I thought we would skip the live bait this time, Fred. Scoob and I are allergic to lightning birds.”
Freddie swore… He loved Shaggy and Scooby like brothers, but now was not a good time for them to be chickens. “Ihaan’s hurt, Shaggy!” he retorted, shooting him an evil glare. “And it’s all my fault! If anyone should confront that Spirit once we get her away from Ihaan, it’s me.”
“Now, hold on, Fred.” Velma raised her hands. “We know you’re upset, but don’t take it out on Shaggy and Scooby.”
“Yeah, they can’t help being chickens,” Daphne added.
“Like, no worries, Fred,” Shaggy said, standing tall and nudging Scooby. “We chickens were only making a joke. Come on, Scoob, let’s do this like the cowards we are, and”—he gulped—“let the gang do the rest.” With those words, he and Scooby locked their knees and stepped out from the ferns. “We’d better get six months’ worth of Scooby Snacks from this,” Shaggy told Scooby, and he nodded in response.
The two chickens raised their arms and waved them, and Scooby repeated his male bird impression from earlier, saying, “Yoo-hoo!”
“Like, Lightning Spirit!” Shaggy called, cupping his hands around his mouth. “There’s a handsome bird over here for you and another snack!”
At their voices, the Thunderbird turned and called out again.
She soared toward Shaggy and Scooby, and Shaggy said, “Zoinks! Like, I didn’t think that would work. Well, Scooby old pal, if we don’t make it through this, I want to let you know that you’re the best pal a guy could have.”
“Aw, Raggy,” Scooby returned, but he quickly jumped into his arms as the Thunderbird approached, and they took off running together.
That was the bravest Fred had ever seen them, but he would congratulate them later. “Now, girls!” he said to Velma and Daphne, gesturing at Ihaan.
They hurried out of their hiding spot and rushed to him.
A few raindrops fell from the sky, and a rumble of thunder that sounded too close for comfort boomed overhead.
Fred grabbed Ihaan’s arm and flipped him over, shaking his shoulders. “Come on, Ihaan, wake up. Daphne, do you have the Deet?” It worked like smelling salts last year when he and the gang first met Ihaan.
Daphne smiled and reached into her purse, pulling out the Deet bottle. “A girl always comes prepared, Freddie.”
Fred released Ihaan’s shoulders and stood. “Step Two of the plan is for you girls to try to wake him.”
A nervous look crossed Velma’s face. “Step…?” she started. “What’s Step Three, Fred?”
It was rare to see her vulnerable, but Fred had to do it. Ro transforming had been his fault.
He gestured at the girls and answered, “Stay with Ihaan. I’m going to get Kate away from Shaggy and Scooby.”
“No, you are not,” Velma fought back. “Would you like to know the odds of you surviving a confrontation with that Animal yourself?”
Fred didn’t care about odds; he needed to ensure his team’s safety after his mistake. “I’ll be fine, Velma,” he encouragingly said. “I promise. Just wake Ihaan, and we’ll go from there.”
“But, Fred!” Velma argued, but Daphne held her back and gave him a slow nod.
“We’ll be right behind you, Fred.”
“Thanks, Daph,” he said, motioning at her hair. “Try not to mess up your hair too much in this storm, okay?”
Daphne giggled, but Velma still looked fearful.
“I’ll be right back, Velma,” Fred promised one last time. With that, he left the girls and raced toward Shaggy, Scooby, and Ro.
With more lightning emanating from her body, Ro backed Shaggy and Scooby up to a few trees; she turned around, though, when Freddie yelled, “Hey, Ro, over here! I’m the one you want!”
Almost immediately upon seeing him, the Thunderbird left Shaggy and Scooby alone. Her wings gave off a gust of wind while she moved closer to him. Oh, yeah, that Spirit was definitely mad at him.
“Time to run,” Freddie told himself. He had never been the best track guy in high school, but boy, that was the fastest he had ever run in his life.
Freddie lured Ro away from the gang and dashed into the overgrown part of the island, running over hills and jumping logs along the way—all while on the edge of the land and the lake. “Note to self, Fred,” he said while running, “never do something stupid again.” He chuckled at his joke but flinched when three loud cracks sounded behind him, and the trees landed like bowling pins around him. Fred wasn’t dying today; he wanted to at least make it to twenty.
He glanced back at Ro, then his foot struck a fallen tree branch, and he tumbled down a hill to the lower level of the island: an open area with a field, ferns, and trees growing on its edge like the palms in the South Pacific.
Fred rose to his knees but fell back when Ro touched down before him. Yep, this was scarier than Zombie Island, but Fred expected nothing less from the Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park.
He picked up a stick and swung it at Ro, who chomped at him. “Back, back!” he ordered, sweating profusely. “Kate, please! I didn’t mean to hurt you and Ihaan. Please, this isn’t who you are.”
Something—guilt?—flashed in Ro’s glowing eyes. She briefly closed them before snatching the stick from Freddie and snapping it in two.
“Aw,” he groaned, “I liked that stick.” But there was no doubt that Ro’s hesitation before breaking it showed that Kate was still in there somewhere—just corrupted by malice, love, and grief that took her too soon.
Freddie would never forgive himself for what he did.
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Prompt: "Gone Too Soon" - Simple Plan
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