Wasting no more time, the gang and their new mystery-solving allies journeyed to the warehouse, and just like they suspected, it was dark and seemed to be empty… but the superheroes and the Mane 6 knew better.
They knew at any moment, a villain that could be waiting in the shadows could show up and attack.
Batman and Ivory stepped further into the dark warehouse, but then, a murmuring began to rise up… and only they could hear it. “Batman…” it rasped, causing Ivory's ears to flicker. “Batman…”
For years, Batman heard this voice, and thought it only affected him, when it affected Ivory too, after witnessing something... unforgettable as a filly. “Batman, everything okay?” Misty asked quietly, causing them to shift back to reality. “What? Oh, yes, I’m fine,” Batman nodded stiffly, and Zipp looked over the files for the warehouse’s inventory. “Hmm…” she muttered. “A dozen companies have used this storage facility over the years.”
“That could mean a lot of suspects to go through,” Hitch said. “Right,” Hoof Beatz said in an impressed tone. “We need to narrow down the suspect list to all those who’ve used it recently.”
Suddenly, there came a crashing and banging noise from the other side of the warehouse. “Sounds like whoever did it is still in here,” Black Canary spoke cautiously, which caused Ivory to turn. “Manhunter,” she spoke simply, and Martian Manhunter used his telepathy to scan the area… but something was off. “Odd… I’m not sensing a living being inside.”
“Zoinks! So whatever is in there isn’t… alive?” Shaggy gulped nervously, just as Fred noticed something. “Strange… the alarm seems to have been tripped intentionally,” he spoke, and Question soon caught on. “As if someone wanted us to come.”
“By Jove, this is starting to sound intriguing,” Detective Chimp spoke up. “Mystery Incorporated, this is your case. How do you wanna start?” Black Canary asked, but Fred was so deep into her beauty that he didn’t hear her right away. “Huh? O-Oh, right. L-Like we always do-- split up and look for clues!”
“Everyone take the one on your left,” Plastic Man said, immediately zipping over to Daphne and Pipp with a smirk. “Looks like it's you and me, dolls. Meow…”
“Ugh…” Pipp groaned-- she did not need to see that. “Okay, fine. You three search the north section,” Fred instructed. “Velma, Detective Chimp-- you take the south.”
“Oh, do try and keep up, won’t you?” Detective Chimp asked, sauntering off. “Oh, yeah? You try and keep up!” Velma said as she followed him. “Mentally, I mean!”
“Sunny, Izzy and Shaggy, you’re with Paradise, Question and Martian Manhunter-- search the east section,” Fred told them, and Nita nodded at the arrangement. “Like, sure,” Shaggy said sarcastically. “I’d love to search for an undead science thief with a faceless man and a space alien.”
As he turned, Martian Manhunter had morphed into a scary monster, making Shaggy jump into Scooby’s paws with a scream. “That never gets old,” Martian Manhunter spoke. “And Misty and Scooby? You go with Ivory, Slipstream, Batman and Aquaman. Search the perimeter storage units,” Fred told the remaining team. “Outrageous!” Aquaman said, and once the ponies and Batman went on ahead, he turned to Scooby. “I'll get him to spill the bat beans about that unsolved case yet, my canine compadre.”
“Outrageous!” Scooby giggled before he followed, leaving Hitch, Fred and Zipp with Hoof Beatz and Black Canary... just as Fred wanted.
XXXXXXXX
Scooby eagerly sniffed ahead with the ponies following behind, and Aquaman and Batman trailing the pack so they could talk... partially alone. “So, Batman,” Aquaman started. “Now that we’re alone… confide in your old chum A-man. What's in that old file of yours? Did you lose another Robin?”
“Just drop it, Aquaman,” Batman said, and he followed after the ponies and Scooby. That's when Aquaman knew something… there was definitely something bugging him. “Well, I’m not seeing anything suspicious,” Misty said with a frown, looking around. “But… that doesn’t mean that there isn’t trouble.”
“Hey… you good, Butterfly Defender?” Slipstream asked Misty by her superhero name. “Just… a little worried,” Misty said. “We’ve been sent on this quest for some reason… I just don’t know why. Opaline is finally gone-- I wasn’t sure if we were ever gonna see our Mystery Inc friends again. Why did the crystals send us out again?”
“All will be figured out in due time,” Ivory assured the unicorn. “We just have to focus on the case ahead.”
“Yeah… the case. Right.”
XXXXXXXX
At the same time, Sunny, Izzy and Paradise were walking alongside Shaggy, Question and Martian Manhunter on the east side of the warehouse. “These devices were activated recently,” Question spoke, causing Paradise to nod. “Radioactivity could do that.”
“Like, all this investigating is making me hungry,” Shaggy said before he began to reach in his pockets for something. “Now where did I put that last Choco--”
“MINE!!!” Martian Manhunter chomped the last cookie down as swift as lightning. “Dude, do they have manners on your planet?” Shaggy asked with a raised eyebrow as Martian Manhunter swallowed. “No, I'll search ahead.”
With that, he disappeared through the wall, and Sunny shuddered at seeing this. “I'm never gonna get used to seeing that.”
“Heh, I spent practically every moment of every day training with him and I still haven't gotten used to it,” Paradise said, looping about in mid-air. “At least I let people know when I'm gonna turn invisible before I turn invisible.”
“Ooooh… you must be super-supreme sneaky!” Izzy said cheerfully. “Heh… I don’t know about super-supreme,” Paradise said with a chuckle, “but… yeah. I get around. Come on-- let’s see if there’s anything around the corner.”
XXXXXXXX
Soon, on the other side of the warehouse, Black Canary, Fred and their pony friends navigated through the dark, no luck in finding anything. “So, Miss Canary,” Fred brought up a conversation starter, “what do you know about Batman's unsolved case?”
“Not much, Ascot. No one knows what it is,” Black Canary answered honestly. “Just now, he… he seemed worried,” Fred recalled his observations, and Hoof Beatz suddenly became steely eyed as he looked up at his comrades. “Worried… or guilty?”
“You think Batman could be hiding something from us that’s… criminal serious?” Hitch asked. “I don’t know,” Hoof Beatz said. “But a good detective develops theories. Whether it’s true or not is a different story.”
“You’re right,” Zipp said. “Come on. Let’s keep going.”
XXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, on the south side of the building, Detective Chimp and Velma approached a broken containment unit, and Velma peered at it closer. “Someone broke into this storage unit, and it looks like several vials labeled 'Isotope 29' have been stolen.”
“Three to be exact. You can see the indentations clearly,” Detective Chimp pointed out. “Clearly, there were four. There's a ring where it was standing alongside the others,” Velma pointed the fourth missing vial out to him. “But clearly, this was radioactive in nature,” Detective Chimp added. “The specific chemical makeup is unknowable.”
“And clearly, it was Isotope 29. The label ink left a faint imprint in the tray. Reversed, of course,” Velma spoke, and when Detective Chimp saw that she was right, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy, which emerged in a smirk. “Ruddy show-off... clearly.”
XXXXXXXX
Finally, we go to Plastic Man, Pipp and Daphne, who were searching in the chilly northern section. “Is it me, or is it getting cold in here?” Plastic Man shivered before Pipp finally decided to ask something. “So, what was that about stealing televisions?” she asked. “Oh, my real name is Edward O'Brian. Folks used to call me…”
At that moment, Daphne suddenly knew where she had heard that name. “Eel O'Brian? The most slippery thief ever sought by the Gotham PD? You're a criminal!”
“Correction, doll. I'm a used-to-be criminal. Ever since an accident made Eel O'Brian the stretchiest man alive…” Plastic Man began to say before he let off a huge sneeze, making himself inflate like a balloon for a moment before going back to normal. “I’m 100% hero.”
“Are you okay?” Pipp asked in concern as they watched Plastic Man shiver. “The cold messes with my stretching. You go ahead, I'll catch up,” Plastic Man spoke. “And… let’s keep this between us? It’s kinda embarrassing.”
XXXXXXXX
So, Daphne and Pipp left the sneezing Plastic Man to himself to rejoin the others in the middle of the warehouse. “Did anyone else find anything? Cause we found zilch,” Daphne spoke. “Actually, we did,” Velma spoke up. “We found that some vials of Isotope 29 had been taken from one of the storage units on the south side.”
“Like, what would an undead dude want with those chemicals?” Shaggy wondered. “I have no idea,” Sunny said. “But whatever they’re doing, we’ll figure it out. Together. Right, super-ponies?”
“Right!”
“You know it!”
“Oh yeah!”
“Definitely!”
The ponies all stacked their hooves on top of one another, and their cutie marks began to shine increasingly bright. “Whoa… I never get used to seeing my cutie mark glow like that!” Hoof Beatz said. “This unity magic stuff is pretty powerful.”
“But we can worry about that later, right, Cosmic Sunlight?” Misty asked. “Right,” Sunny winked. “Okay, let’s go over the facts again.”
“Batman…” spoke an eerie voice-- the same one that Ivory and Batman were hearing earlier. “Something is in here,” Question said, feeling some sort of presence as well. “Batman…” rasped the voice again. “I can handle this alone,” Batman walked forward a bit. “Ivory should lead you all head back to headquarters.”
“Batman…” the voice called, and this time, everyone else heard it echo through the building. Suddenly, a wisp of red mist swirled around before them before creating a cloaked ghoul with piercing red eyes. “You did this to me. Do you remember, Batman?” the ghoul asked. “Now, I’m back… back to make you pay. You… and all of Gotham.”
“Zoinks!” Shaggy cried as he and Scooby trembled. “What is that?!” Paradise shrieked. “A ghost!!” Scooby yelped, jumping into Shaggy’s arms while Ivory's eyes narrowed. “Who or what are you?”
“You may call me… the Crimson Cloak,” the being introduced, and Batman and the kirin remained steely-eyed and silent. “Is that the thing from your case?” Black Canary asked them. “What's this have to do with the missing vials?”
“Now's not the time, Canary,” Batman dismissed the question, just as the Crimson Cloak launched red ribbons to try to grab the group, but most were able to dodge them. “Have at thee, you felonious phantasm!” Aquaman shouted and tried to blast the Crimson Cloak with his trident, but the blast went right through, and the Crimson Cloak grabbed him and flung him, Slipstream, Ivory and Batman into the stack of crates.
When Black Canary tried to use her sonic warbler shriek to stop him and Hoof Beatz using his sonic DJ scratch, it proved ineffective, and the two of them, Paradise, Question and Detective Chimp were flung into the crates, leaving the gang and ponies to fend for themselves. “None of you shall escape!” the Crimson Cloak snarled to the gang. “Everybody!” Hitch cried. “RUN!!”
Shaggy and Scooby and the girls let out a scream, and the gang ran as fast as they could and split up to escape...
...that is, until the Crimson Cloak was surrounded by six super-powered heroes of Equestria.“Make sure he doesn’t go after the gang!” Sunny shouted. “Use all the superpowers you can!”
“Unicycling POWER!!” Izzy tossed several jump ropes at the creature, but phased right through and fell to the ground, useless. “Oh, sweet sauce horseshoe toss!”
“My turn!” Zipp shouted, and tried to use her lightning to strike, but the Crimson Cloak was able to avoid them. “Misty, think you can try now?”
“On it!” Misty nodded. “Butterflies… CHARGE!!!”
Some of the butterflies of Gotham flew in through the open windows and flew around the Crimson Cloak’s face, irritating him. “Get off of me, you puny insects!”
Eventually, he was able to get away from the butterflies and scattered the ponies enough so he could run in the direction Shaggy and Scooby ran off in, eventually cornering them. “Scoob, old pal, it's been nice knowing you,” Shaggy shuddered as he and Scooby covered each other’s eyes. “Likewise,” Scooby trembled, and as the Crimson Cloak struck, Batman swooped in and grabbed them.
Angered, the Crimson Cloak let out a roar before grabbing hold of two pipes and crushing them, causing them to leak out liquids that caused a series of small explosions as the group reunited and ran for the nearest exits. “Hey, what’d I miss?” Plastic Man asked. “Yes, what’s happening?” Martian Manhunter questioned. Ivory quickly looked ahead and saw something that could prevent them from escaping. “Plastic Man, those barrels are combustible! Cover us!”
“I’m on it-- literally!” Plastic Man responded before wrapping himself around the group as a huge ball and rolled outside just as the warehouse exploded. Luckily, everyone else was safe, but Plastic Man seemed a little disoriented from the explosion. “I’ll help Plastic Man, Ivory,” Paradise assured. “You guys do what you need to do.”
“Thanks,” Ivory smiled, and Paradise pulled Plastic Man to a safer place. “Aquaman, Canary-- put that fire out before it spreads!” Batman spoke. “Chimp and Question, check for any innocent bystanders!”
“Follow my lead,” Black Canary told Aquaman. “Of course, my siren sister,” Aquaman nodded. Black Canary then let out a sonic shriek which burst open a fire hydrant, and Slipstream and Aquaman guided the water to put out the fire. “What can we do to help?” Fred asked. “You and the others need to get someplace safe,” Batman told them. “Meet me at the malt shop on the corner of Spears and Ruby.”
“But we were just--” Velma tried to say. “Go!” Ivory said sternly. “We’ll be in contact soon.”
And as the gang rushed away to do as they were told, the sound of sirens faded into existence… and all Ivory hoped was that this wasn't what she thought it was going to be... a complete disaster waiting to happen.