Daphne walked over to the “Club House” that she had had
made for her friends. It was a modern carriage
house really, a space to work on their van “The Mystery Machine,” a kitchen and
common room behind it and loft bedroom turned editing room upstairs. Inside she found Shaggy and Scooby eating a
box of Scooby Snacks while watching cartoons.
“I have been stuck at my sister’s field hockey game and
you two are watching cartoons?” Daphne asked.
“Like relax Daphne,” Shaggy said, “Everyone got a late
start this weekend. Like, at least, like
Scoob and I got stuff, like done.”
“Like what?” Daphne huffed.
“I like, changed the oil on the Mystery Machine and did a
rough cut of the footage of our trip to that light house,” Shaggy smiled.
“Ray rot rail!” Scooby added pointing his nose to the box
on the table.
“Where is Velma?” Daphne asked.
“Like, helping her mom with, like, something,” Shaggy
shrugged.
“And Fred?” Daphne asked.
“Roccer Ractices,” Scooby said.
“What?”
“Like Soccer practice.”
Daphne sighed. One
would think after graduating high school Fred would stop playing with the high
school soccer team, but when he had the chance and the gang wasn’t off together
for the weekend he still hung around. If
this kept up after they finished college, he would be the creeper getting busted
by the cops.
“What are you watching?” She asked.
“Oh, like, they are making, like CGI cartoons, but like
with lego figures,” Shaggy said.
Daphne looked at the screen and saw a lego Batgirl figure
doing spin kicks and knocking out goons left and right. She sighed and then turned her attention to
the box, it had her name on it, but Shaggy’s house number on it. Granted it was just next door, but it was weird.
“I’m going to look at the rough cut,” Daphne said
grabbing the box, “Send Fred and Velma up when they get here.”
“Right,” Shaggy said as he poured Scooby snacks into his
mouth.
As Daphne went upstairs, she thought about how sad it was
that a block figure was more acrobatic than her even after Ballet classes.
She put the box on the desk next to the editing computer and
brought up the work in progress. She
looked at the time length of the video… two hours? Yeah, nobody would buy it at the that time
length. They would need to edit it down
for a network to grab it.
Daphne clicked play and watched the first two minutes was
almost a montage of “Danger Prone Daphne does it again!” The shot when the
title card came over was Daphne hanging upside down with her butt in the
air. Daphne looked for a spare key and
opened the small box. In it was a memory
stick. Daphne pulled out her laptop and
started it up. There was the shot of her
tripping on the stairs to the light house.
Daphne growled at the video. Once
her computer was up Daphne put the memory stick in the USB port and looked at
the two files. Install.exe and MASTERPC
3.0 Archive. Daphne arched an eyebrow
and thought for a second. Daphne
unplugged the memory and opened her web browser. While half watching the rough cut Daphne did
a search for Master PC.
The only responses were a few forum posts claiming that
the program was some sort of god machine program that allowed people to alter
reality. They cited some celebrities as
people who were claimed to have been users of the program. No one knew where it came from but everyone
who spoke of it agreed that it could make your life awesome!
Daphne went back to the video and watched the fish
monster chasing them and Fred watching her face plant into sand bar. She went back to her laptop and plugged in the
memory card and opened the program. Instantly
a prompt came up asking if she wanted to give the program permission to install
itself. A second later a complete prompt
came up and asked if she wanted to start the program. Daphne clicked yes while watching the Doggy
Cam Scooby was wearing flying all over the place as she was screaming for
Scooby to stop. She knew that that was
the point Scooby was dragging her by his leash.
A welcome screen came up with a cartoon girl offering for a guided tour
of Master PC. Daphne clicked yes. The Cartoon then brought up a flash of
screens and explained how to find subjects, standard controls, how to get the
enhanced controls, saving restore points applying changes, how to get history
editor, Chimeric Template features and finished with a brief word about the AI
virtual assistant that she could use by clicking on a help Icon and then
talking to it over her computer microphone.
Daphne watched as video play back showed the monster
dumping her in a barrel half filled with fish before chasing after Velma and
Fred. Daphne clicked the help and her
laptop asked for her to allow the Master PC program to let her use the
microphone. Daphne clicked yes and a
ping let her know it was waiting for her.
“Bring up Daphne Blake,” Daphne said.
“Bringing up Daphne Blake in operational radius,” the computer
replied. There were two, her and another
woman in another city with the same name.
Daphne looked over the file, it had everything about her
on tabs on the side and a big 3D image of her standing in a box. Daphne looked at the Athletics scores and
frowned. She realized she was probably
the least athletic of her friends. Heck,
she was the only one in the group without any sort of award for being
physical. Fred had a near perfect career
in High School Soccer as the goalie and along with the team won two state
titles. Velma had done Judo and had a
few first place medals from tournaments.
Shaggy was a champion track and field and Gymnastics star. He might not be a fighter, but he was fast
and agile. Daphne couldn’t get on the
dance team, Gymnastics team or the cheerleading team! Daphne sighed.