The stairs that led to the basement, looked daunting in the darkness. Even though the moon was out, there was no window nearby enough to let the bright light gain purchase on the darkened stairs. Like a open maw of some large creature, just calling for her to step in so it could close its mouth around her. A lone figure stood at the top, debating on how to reach the bottom; unscathed. She dared not to use the light that hung about the middle of the stairs, for it would give her position away. (Not that she didn't think about it, a few times...) She had to get to the bottom without anyone knowing. It would have to be reached, the hard way. Slowly, (with no other way to go about it) the woman started on her way down the stairs. She was only a few steps down when she thought of something. Looking back, she tried to see how many steps she had already come down. Remembering to count the top stair, she kept track of the steps in her mind. There was one step in particular she had to be aware of. Step number fourteen was the one to look out for, as it loved to squeal under pressure. And she wasn't going to get so close to the bottom, only to have her location given away so early. No, she would finally find out tonight... what secret meeting she was missing. In the basement of her own house.

Skipping that one step, she only had two more before the cool stone floor, met her questing feet. She had gone bare foot, knowing that her socks might make some noise she didn't want to hear. But now she was regretting it, as she shivered with the chilly floor coming in contact with her feet. She rubbed the sides of her arms to gather warmth, but she could not do too much more then that. But she didn't have time to worry about her feet, she had some spying to do. Giving the basement door a look, she noticed that the door had been shut. Blast! She grumbled, eyeing the door handle. She thought about trying the handle, but worried that she would be noticed. Looking down, she noticed that some of the light was creeping through the base of the door. Against her better judgment, (and with a sigh) she got on her hands and knees and tried to peer under the door to see who was beyond. But no matter how she pressed her face against the cement, she was unable to see more then a bit of the floor beyond the crack. All she got was a cold face, to go with her cold feet and now hands as well. Giving her hand a shake, she chided herself for not planning this better. Or had something on her that would help. Heck, if Velma was in this position, she would have some gizmo that could look under the crack for her. But Daphne didn't have such a device... yet. But that was for another day, now she had to find out what was going on.

Getting to her feet, she dusted off her pajamas before considering the door handle again. She knew it wouldn't squeak at least, since Velma made sure to that. The last thing the brainac wanted when she was working in her lab on some big project, was a rude, sudden squeak from the door if anyone else came downstairs. So maybe... Just maybe, if she did it slow enough, she would be able to open it. Pressing her ear lightly to the door, she was able to make out some talking. But no matter how she strained, she had no way of knowing what was being said. She only caught a few words, like pencil, sheet and something -erity. Which made no sense to her! She needed the door open, in order to hear what was going on. Considering the knob one more time, she nodded and resigned herself to being extra careful.

Slowly, Daphne extended her hand upon the door handle. Light at first, but then she gripped it harder. The sounds she made were hard to hear on her end, so she bet with them all talking that no one would notice. Well, as long as Scooby was talking, he might not notice the sounds of her holding the door knob. Curse that dog hearing! Holding her breath, she strained her ears against the door to see if anyone noticed. But the sounds seemed to continue at a constant enough pace that she figured that she hadn't been found out yet. Breathing in to steady herself, she slowly started to apply pressure to the handle. Moving slower then a snail, she began to slowly turn the knob. Centimeter by centimeter inched one by one, in an agonizing manner. But she dared not rush it and have it all go to waste. They eventually became an inch, and then two. When her hand met resistance, she knew that she had it fully turned. Spreading her legs shoulder width, she made sure to get her balance before she tried to move the door. Bracing against the floor, she used the wall nearby the door to prop her head by the crack she planned to make. Pushing the door inwards, she made sure to make the crack only as wide as she needed to look inside. To the people inside, it should look like the door was barely open and dismiss it. Or so she hoped.

But she had reached her goal, now all she had to do... was watch and listen.

The basement was really big, to support the house that sat above it. When they had first moved into the house, it had been mostly open, unused space. But Velma soon took it over, making it her 'laboratory'. Though it was mainly in name only, except one room that split off from the main area. (Where she had a bunch of scientific gadgets and things that were beyond Daphne's understanding. But they looked neat!) But the main room had various tables and seats that were scattered about the room normally... but for some reason, they were all gathered in the middle for this 'meeting'. Daphne wasn't sure what it meant, and she was confused at how they sat around the table. On one side sat the guys; Fred, Shaggy and Scooby. Each in their own chairs that sat on one end of the large table. Fred sat on the far side of where she was looking, but was closer to the back end of the table. On the end sat an empty chair that was between him and Scooby. Scooby was sitting mostly in the middle of the end of the table, but who could be joining them? Did they have a seat for her? Or was there another person that was coming to their meeting. And how were they going to get down there?

Looking back up to where she had come down, she considered all the people who had keys to the house. No one that came to mind, she thought would be coming this late at night. So what was the chair for? Shifting her glance back to the table, she went back to the task at hand. Looking opposite of Fred, Shaggy sat on the other side at the end of the table. Moving up the table, she noticed that some paper sat scattered across the table face. But as far as she was from the table, she couldn't see what was on the pages. Moving further up, she finally spotted Velma. Sitting in a rather large chair, she sat in the middle of the opposite end of where the guys were. She sat there, with an oddly confident look on her face. Not her normal look of confidence, but one that Daphne really never saw the other woman having before. Rubbing her hands together, Velma looked like a downright plotting villain, with an odd scheme brewing about her mind. Beyond her glasses, Velma's eyes danced with a mischievousness glint that could send a shiver down your spine to see. But looking back at the guys, they didn't seem to even notice the look on Velma's face, even though she was looking straight at them.

"Soon... We should be able to start once the last member of your party arrives." Velma commented, her voice low and deep. "Are you all ready, other then that? Have you gathered your things and are ready to start?"

"Yep! Like' all ready! I had some questions from the last time, but I read that book you told me to read, and it had the answers to my questions. So yeah, I'm all set." Piped up Shaggy, bouncing a bit in his seat.

"Rah Rah! R'all ret! E-hehehe..." Added Scooby, giggling as he looked down at a paper in front of him. He gave it a pat, before looking off to one side of the basement. Though he was looking away from her door, and to her knowledge, there was nothing really important over on that side. Scooby was sure being weird... er, then normal. With his happy, yet odd motions against that paper on the table, one of his paw falls hit a nearby pencil, sending it flying off to the side. Turning back as he felt the pencil, Scooby blushed as he realized what he had done.

"I'll get it Scoob." Shaggy suggested, pushing his chair out from behind him to give chase after the airborne writing implement. Daphne sucked in her breath as she noticed him pass closer to the door, before disappearing beyond where her crack could see. She hoped that getting the pencil would occupy him, and keep his attention away from the door.

"Hey, like did you see where it went?" Shaggy questioned, his voice floating off to the side where she couldn't locate him very well. But he seemed far enough, she hoped.

"Over there!" Fred shouted, offering some obscure hand gestures in an attempt to steer the other man in the proper direction. She didn't know how it would help, but as long as he didn't come over there.

"Here it... Ack!" It seemed that Shaggy almost had it, but he managed to knock it away from himself. Clattering, Daphne's eyes grew wide as she saw the pencil roll in front of the door. The stupid beatnik had kicked it right too where she was hiding! Locking herself up, she gripped the door for all that she was worth and tried to stay as still as possible. Maybe he wouldn't see her. Seconds ticked by as she waited for the scruffy man to enter her sight. His head was down, as he searched for the missing pencil. Scanning the floor, he soon came across the pencil. Getting down on the floor, it didn't take him long to grip the pencil. But there was a clack that sounded loudly behind him, that made everyone turn to look.

"He's here!" Fred clapped, announcing their final member to the secret meeting. But the worst thing happened!

In an effort to pull himself to his feet quicker, Shaggy reached up and gripped the door handle. Heaving himself upwards; Daphne had been locked in a position to stay still, not one to take the weight of her lanky friend. With a squeak, Daphne was pulled forward as Shaggy fell off to the side. He had been expecting the door to be closed like he had left it, not open. Catching his footing, he turned to watch Daphne fall to the floor at his feet with a thud.

"Daphne! What the..."
"Hey, it's Daphne!"
"Raphne!"
"Like... What are you doing here?" The whole gang was surprised to see the sprawled red head at Shaggy's feet. They all had assumed that she was asleep, like all the other times she slept through their group gathering.

Face pressing into the floor, she left it there for a few seconds in embarrassment before looking up. Giving a weak wave, she knew that her cover was blown. Pushing herself to her knees, she noticed that Shaggy was offering his hand to her. Smiling, feeling more embarrassed, she took it and let him help her to her feet. He dusted her off, (a second time, but he didn't know that) and then gestured off to the table they had been all sitting at.

"Wanna join us?" Shaggy offered, though Velma didn't seem very happy with the thought. Daphne opened her mouth to say something, when she was interrupted by someone.

"Wait, does that mean we'll have another player? Sweet!" Came a mysterious voice from the shadows. Squinting towards the darkness, Daphne tried to make out the figure that was walking towards them.