Author's Notes: Scooby Doo and all related characters and trademarks are copyright 2014 Hanna-Barbera Productions/Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network, however the idea for the Mystery Morphs series is my own.

In addition, I am not making any money from writing this story, I am merely but a humble fan.

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In a remote portion of the country of Nepal in the Himalayan Mountains stands a large and imposing Gothic like castle in which sits two men. On the surface, the two of them would seem to be a pair of rather ordinary people; but of course, since they live in an imposing castle stronghold in the Himalayas, nothing is ordinary about these two particular people.

The elder of the pair is a Grey haired gentleman, who looks to be quite wise beyond his years. Naturally, he is quite wise; specifically he is Vincent Van Ghoul, one of if not the most powerful warlock, wizard and mystic on the planet.

Many years before, he helped a certain cowardly Great Dane and his friends capture the thirteen most powerful ghosts, ghouls, specters and spooks on Earth. These specters, whose powers and abilities most mortals would never be able to comprehend, were unfortunately released by the aforementioned Great Dane and one of his friends, mainly one Shaggy Rogers.

Previously these spirits were contained in an enchanted chest, known as the Chest of Demons. They were entombed there many years prior to Scooby Doo and company encountering them by the citizens of the small village of Ursylvania, a township hidden among the aforementioned, but mysterious mountains known as the Himalayas.

However, the spirits that dwelled inside the Demon Chest were none too happy with their imprisonment, so before they were locked inside their prison, they placed a curse on the village and all who inhabited it.

The curse, which was explained to Scooby Doo and his friends in their first visit to the mountains by Vincent Van Ghoul, was that all the members of the community, young and old, tall and short became hideous, snarling werewolves each night during a full moon.

After escaping the werewolves(which included one Daphne Blake, who unfortunately drank some wolfs bane and had the moon shine down on her while the group was in the village), the intrepid college aged sleuths eventually encountered another problem: one that would send them all over the world, in search of the spirits that Scooby and Shaggy had released from the Chest of Demons.

However, all of that was in the past, and this is the present; and in the present, Vincent is joined by the younger of the two gentleman I mentioned earlier.

The younger of the pair is a one time, but now reformed con artist named Flim Flam. Flim Flam also at one time joined with Scooby Doo and his friends in order to track down the aforementioned 13 most dangerous ghosts, ghouls and spooks in the world.

Since he and his new found friends separated, he decided to turn his love of magic and performing prestidigitation into something much more. So, with Scooby and his gang going their different ways, he decided to move in with Vincent Van Ghoul; the Grey haired conjurer was more then happy to teach Flim Flam all he knew about the worlds of magic, sorcery, monsters and all sorts of unique and mysterious arts and secrets.

In addition to all the mysterious magic and learning about the world of the supernatural and paranormal, Flim Flam learned about mundane things as well. Science, Geography, World History, English, and many more topics and lessons were taught to Flim Flam by the Grey haired knowledgeable warlock.

But there was something that Flim Flam learned that wasn't found in any book, magic or otherwise.

What the now teenage former con artist learned was that there were people who cared about him. In the time since he met Scooby Doo and company, they began treating him not as a con artist, and not as the goofy trickster that he seemed to be whenever he, Scooby, Shaggy and the others tracked down mysteries or ghosts or monsters.

Instead, they treated him like a good friend and more often then not they treated him like something he hadn't had too much of in his young life... they treated him like family.

You see, Flim Flam's parents had died when he was young, around the time he was 5 or 6. They had perished in a major typhoon that hit the small town he and his birth family lived many years before; after that, and after it was discovered that he was the only member of his family that survived the disaster, he was shipped off to orphanage after orphanage.

No matter where he lived though, he seemed to make trouble, or what the people who ran the various orphanages perceived as trouble. In reality, he gave the folks at each orphanage he attended thrills, fun and a few magic tricks whenever possible; however, his favorite pastime was being a pint sized con artist.

Sure, it probably got him a lot of unwanted attention, but as far as he was concerned he was doing what he loved and what he loved was the con artist game. The main trick he was pulling when he met Scooby and company was selling something called Lotsa Luck Joy Juice; as it turns out, the strange elixir was exactly what the gang needed to turn Daphne and the rest of the small village of Urslvania back to normal and breaking their werewolf curse.

During the time he hung out with Scooby and company, he found that Vincent seemed to be a great foster father, and Daphne seemed to be a great foster mother. Scooby Doo, Shaggy and Scrappy Doo meanwhile seemed to be like foster brothers, the best ones he could have asked for if you asked his opinion.

He even warmed up to Fred and Velma whenever they visited, or whenever the other members of the mystery solving group talked about them. Quite a few years passed, and when Fred and Velma met Flim Flam face to face for the first time, the two sleuths found that the young man was rather nice, and nothing like what he appeared to be.

With thoughts of those previous adventures running through his head, he and Vincent watched with great interest and great shock at the pictures that were displayed during a television newscast, picked up via the warlock's magically enhanced satellite system.

"We have to do something about this" Flim Flam remarked.

"We most certainly do" Vincent responded.

"But what can we do Vincent? This ghost is wreaking havoc around the world" Flim Flam replied.

"I'm not sure" Vincent commented.

"But we do have to do something Vince" Flim Flam responded.

"Well the first thing we need to do is some research, I'm almost positive I've seen that ghost somewhere before." Vincent said.

Vincent and Flim Flam turn off the television and head into Vincent Van Ghoul's library, the library is immense to say the least as it is filled with dozens and dozens of shelves containing all manner of books about many different subjects, Vincent walks over to one of the shelves and takes out a book called The Complete Guide to the Supernatural.

He then proceeds to flip through the pages of the book and finds what he's looking for.

"Here it is, I knew I recognized that specter from somewhere, and this is where." Vincent said rather proudly.

He then called Flim Flam over and both of them sit down at a desk in the room and read through the volume that Vincent has picked out.

"His name is Rangor and he is one of the most if not the most powerful ghost or ghoul on the planet, and he also happens to be the 13th ghost from the Chest of Demons." Vincent explained.

Flim Flam looked at the volume that lay on the table and at the picture of the thirteenth ghost with a partially puzzled and partially worried look on his face.

Deep down he knew that this ghost was going to be among the most challenging of the 13 ghosts, and that Scooby Doo and friends may not survive their encounter with him. But what could he do? He was staying with Vincent, and the cowardly Great Dane and company were going to have to tackle this monstrous creature themselves.

"Man, Rangor looks like a tough customer." Flim Flam remarked, with a slightly worried tone in his voice.

"Indeed he is Flim Flam. Which is why we need to do as much planning and strategizing as possible; to deal with any and all possible tricks he might conjure up against Mystery Incorporated." Vincent replied, with a studious and determined look on his face.

The budding teenage warlock and former con artist/trickster nodded in agreement with what his mentor was saying. After all, Vincent Van Ghoul was a man who knew everything there was to know about ghosts, spirits, demons and other like creatures, so to Flim Flam that was the best endorsement possible to ease any fears he might have had about his friends going into battle... at least for now.

The powerful warlock then took the volume from the Library back into the main hall of the castle with Flim Flam following in tow; once the two of them were in the main hall, they began to discuss what Vincent found in his book, and what the two of them could possibly do to stop him.

"Vincent I'm curious, why didn't Scooby, Shaggy, Scrappy, Daphne and I catch him when we were trying to catch the 13 ghosts all those years ago, or at least make an attempt to find him?" Flim Flam wondered aloud.

"A very simple reason Flim Flam, while I fully intended to have Scooby and friends catch the thirteenth ghost. The main reason why it never happened is because Scooby's friends got back together, then disbanded Mystery Inc. for a while and then each of them became busy with their careers and college, then Mystery Inc. decided to get back together and went back to solving mysteries. Naturally it was all too much to keep track of, so it wasn't at the top of mind at that time. The good news is I do still have Scooby, Shaggy and Daphne's e-mail addresses and phone numbers; they still send me Christmas cards, letters and e-mails every so often, also I was able to get the other two members of Mystery Inc.'s information online as well." Vincent explained.

"Ah, you mean Fred and Velma right?" Flim Flam asked.

"Correct Flim Flam, Fred and Velma." replied the sage warlock.

"Vince, are you sure Scooby and friends are available, I mean they could be off solving a mystery in some far off part of the world." Flim Flam commented, full well realizing as he said it that there might an opportunity for his friends to track the ghost down.

"I am aware that Scooby and friends may not be available, however Flim Flam if we cannot reach them then I'm afraid the fate of the world maybe in serious jeopardy." Vincent responded.

"I certainly hope we can reach them." Flim Flam replied.

"Flim Flam not only will we reach them but I believe we can give them a some magical help against the 13th Ghost, in one of my spell books there is a spell that would give someone or a group of people the power to transform into various animals & creatures." Vincent said, rather determined.

"Hmm... that sounds a bit unusual." Flim Flam remarked, sounding unsure of what his mentor was talking about.

"It may be unusual as you say Flim Flam, but what other alternative is there. Especially when dealing with a creature as powerful as the final spirit from the Chest of Demons is." Vincent replied.

"True Vince. Actually, when I think about further that might be a good idea, besides if this ghost is as powerful as you say, Scooby and his friends will need all the help that they can get." Flim Flam replied.

Vincent and Flim Flam walk from the main hall of the castle back into the library, the mystic looks over at one of the book shelves trying to find a specific spell book, he then finds what he was looking for and walks back into the main hall of the castle.

"Here it is, this is the spell that can give anyone the power to transform into various animals and creatures." Vincent remarked.

"I certainly hope this spell will work, Vincent" Flim Flam commented.

"I certainly hope so too Flim Flam for our sake, Scooby and his friends sake, and most importantly the world's." Vincent remarked.

Author's Notes: As you may or may not have noticed, I decided to update Chapter 1 of this story. I posted this story elsewhere online(or started to) and I realized when I was getting ready to post the first chapter on that other site that it could have been better then the first chapter I posted when I posted this originally(which was maybe 5 years ago).

That said, I decided to re-post Chapter 1 of Mystery Morphs:The 13th Ghost. I may or may not update the rest of the story here; it really depends on whether or not I can come up with ideas to make the rest of the story sound just as good as the first time I posted it, if not better.