As the gang returned from Louisiana, they settled down and enjoy their meal at Pops Diner, that is until Abby, Duncan, and Ashlyn came in.
"Bri, you're back," Ashlyn smiled at her best friend. "So, how did it go?"
Brianna stretched a little, it had been well over a month since they all came back, came back to school, and civilization and what-not. "It wasn't too bad... Daphne's gonna interview that Beau guy for her show."
"Did Trent ever... Tell you anything... Ya know... 'Important'?" Duncan teased with a small grin.
Brianna rolled her eyes slightly with a smile. "Maybe Duncan, maybe..."
This made Duncan and Abby laugh.
"I heard there's a mystery at the museum," Velma spoke up. "Think you're ready to go back on the road again, Bri?"
"Sure." Brianna agreed.
"Could I come?" Ashlyn requested.
"Us too?" Duncan and Abby also volunteered.
Dawn came from behind Shaggy. "I would like to come as well."
"Zoinks!" Shaggy gasped out, then glanced back at Dawn. "Geez, Dawn, can't you wear a bell or something?"
"Sorry..." Dawn said softly as always.
"Well, okay, you guys can come too, but remember to be on your best behavior for the curators," Velma advised, then looked to the Nelson siblings. "And please, no vandalism on the artwork and no using brute force to interrogate the bad guys..."
Duncan snapped in defeat, but respected Velma's conditions.
"Fine..." Abby snorted.
Shaggy and gulped, looking to Duncan and Abby. "You're not gonna hurt me, like, are you?"
"No." Duncan and Abby answered, very annoyed, why do so many people have to ask that?
Fred, Daphne, Velma, Scooby, and Brianna shared small giggles.
"We'll see you guys in the museum at 7:00, and remember, follow our lead." Velma instructed.
"You can count on us, Velmster." Ashlyn agreed.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Abby scoffed, but in a friendly way.
"You got that, Dawn?" Velma asked, then looked around for her. "Dawn?"
"In here." Dawn revealed she was already inside of the van, meditating.
"All right, gang, get in the van," Fred lightly ordered. "Ladies first."
"Does that mean Abby too?" Brianna joked.
Abby gave a glare to Brianna before going in with the others. Duncan hid a laugh as they went in. Ashlyn was excited, her first actual time to be apart of a mystery with Mystery Inc. She and Brianna had been fans since they were little and they were just the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency, but the two weren't involved with them yet. Once they were all in, they set off.
It was now 7:00 and they all met as instructed and it was now time to put their plan in action.
"Okay guys, let's all fit into the museum clothes to blend in and catch the bad guys." Velma told the others.
The group nodded to her.
"Hey Abby, let's find something cool to wear." Duncan told his sister.
"There's gotta be something cool for us to wear..." Abby grinned just as eager as her brother.
Duncan and Abby came to a viking exhibit that came with axes, that would be perfect, even if they weren't real. Shaggy and Scooby hid in a prehistoric exhibit, Velma was a Roman, Fred and Daphne were a prince and princess.
"So... What do we do?" Trent asked once he was with Brianna, Ashlyn, and Dawn.
"I don't think she needs to blend in." Ashlyn pointed jokingly to the moonchild.
"Hey Trent, let's go in the Egypt exhibit." Brianna suggested as she dressed as Cleopatra.
"Alrighty then..." Trent agreed once he got in the Mark Anthony outfit to blend in with her. He grinned at her Cleopatra outfit, it suited her so well, but he had to keep from moving for a little while.
Ashlyn saw a sarcophagus and decided to be a mummy. So far so good, hopefully they wouldn't have to wait too long for the bad guys to show up so they could bust them. The curator clicked his office lights off and he walked out from the curator, carrying a book of files with him. Dawn mediated and sensed someone or something coming. The curator left his office and locked the door so that he could get home. He felt something a little bit off about the place for some reason, but he kept walking.
There were a couple of mechanical men with helmets and had glowing green eyes that seemed part of the scenery, but they weren't. They were moving after the curator after he passed the prehistoric exhibit with Shaggy as a caveman and Scooby as a saber-toothed tiger. The mechanical men walked past Fred, Daphne, and Velma and looked at Duncan and Abby.
Duncan and Abby did their best not to move until those men were gone. The curator tried to pick up his papers, unknowing the bad guys were behind him, but Shaggy and Scooby were unable to keep themselves from not moving, due to them being them. Trent tried not to sneeze, Brianna saw this and held his nose. Trent felt better, but he still sneezed after she let go. The mechanical guards looked very angry as they held their deathly weapons.
"P-P-Professor, behind you!" Shaggy pointed his club.
The curator gasped due to the 'talking exhibits' and got even more scared of the guards as they slammed down their weapons.
Shaggy threw his club to the bad guys and Scooby threw his tiger pelt.
Ashyln came out from her hiding place, coming between Brianna and Trent. "Now, Scooby!" they all called to the Great Dane.
Scooby pushed his paw against a giant net trap and trapped the two guards. This was working out well so far, until one of the guards held out his axe and started to tear against the net.
"That didn't work!" Abby called. "Now what?"
"Like, I know!" Shaggy called, starting to run with Scooby.
The guards were now chasing them, including Brianna, Trent, and Ashlyn.
"Oh, no you're not gonna chop me up!" Ashlyn scoffed as she ran with them.
"It wouldn't surprise me if one of these guys was Izzy trying to be funny..." Trent scoffed as he ran with the girls, Shaggy, and Scooby.
"Okay, Sis, on the count of three," Duncan signaled. "One... Two... Three!"
Abby and Duncan threw their axes at the guards.
"Zoinks!" Shaggy gasped. "What was that?"
The guards growled from the impact and glared at the delinquent siblings. Fred and Daphne saw the chasing and decided to get out of their Renaissance costumes and go after to help their friends. However, while they did, they ran into Velma in her normal clothes and they all ran into each other as Shaggy ran while carrying Scooby. Abby, Ashlyn, Brianna, and Trent met up with the others and helped them up. The guards weren't hurt from the axes and kept chasing the teens and their dog.
"Hey, where's Dawn?" Daphne asked. "I didn't see her anywhere."
"I hope she's okay..." Velma sounded worried.
Shaggy and Scooby climbed up a tarp, but unfortunately for them, it peeled off the wall and they fell on top of the guards. The chase continued and Shaggy and Scooby ended up in a torture room with nowhere to hide that wouldn't hurt them severally, then somebody tripped the guards and made them crash, finally defeating them.
"What the heck, who did that?" Duncan wondered.
Dawn came from behind the now damaged broken wooden torture table as the guards were trapped and stuck now.
"That wasn't you?" Trent asked, a little shocked.
"No, sorry..." Dawn shrugged calmly. "Someone else did it."
"But who could it be?" Ashlyn asked. "We're the only ones here!"
"Not exactly." Dawn replied.
Fred, Daphne, Velma, the curator, and a couple of security guards came over.
"Great work, guys, you caught 'em!" Fred congratulated.
"Like, no problem, Freddy, but we had a little help." Shaggy said to him.
"Whoa, whoa, back up..." Ashlyn tried to process this in her overwhelmed mind. "If Nature Girl didn't do it, then who did!?"
There came an older man with black hair with a beard with a small ponytail, square-shaped glasses, a brown jacket with a black undershirt, brown pants and dark brown shoes.
"Who are you?" Daphne asked the stranger.
Velma instantly recognized him and had a fan girl moment. "I don't believe it... You're Ben Ravencroft!" she gasped. "The famous horror writer!"
"That's right..." the author smiled to her before going to the guards to remove their masks in the traditional Scooby Doo mystery fashion.
"It could be Scott, Lightning, or Chicken underneath those masks." Abby growled.
"Let's just see who these two are, shall we?" Ben asked as he removed the masks, it wasn't Chicken, Lightning, or even Scott.
The curator gasped at one of them, revealing to be a man with short red hair with a mustache and glasses. "It's Perkins!"
Velma removed the other mask to show a man with curly black hair. "And Griswold! Disgruntled archaeologists from the museum's Babylonian project. They were upset with you for cutting their funding, Dr. Dean." he told the curator.
"And we would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for this meddling..." Perkins glared at Mystery Inc, but looked to Ben. "Writer!"
Ashlyn rolled her eyes at that. "So, Mr. Ravencroft, what are you doing here?"
"I was doing research on my latest novel when I saw the archaeologists acting suspiciously and decided to investigate." Ben explained with a friendly enough smile.
"Mr. Ravencroft," Velma gushed. "I am a huge fan of your work... I have read all your books, which, in my opinion, are the best horror stories ever written."
"Um, thanks... Velma..." Ben smiled to her, he then surprised the rest of Mystery Inc by knowing their names, even Brianna's. He looked to Trent, Duncan, Abby, Ashlyn, and Dawn. "I don't believe I've seen you all before though."
"We're not with Mystery Inc either, we're just all good friends." Trent explained.
"Especially with Brianna..." Duncan teased, making Abby giggle to that.
"Oh, haha, very funny, Duncan," Trent deadpanned. "And I wouldn't be laughing, Little Miss I-Have-A-Crush-On-Jamie."
Abby stopped and got angry. "I do not have a crush on him!"
This made everybody chuckle then. Abby folded her arms as her face turned red slightly, from embarrassment, not from anger.
"I've admired your work unraveling supernatural mysteries for some time now," Ben smiled to Mystery Inc. "I mean, basically we're in the same business of mystery and the occult, right?"
"Oh please," Velma looked to him. "What we do pales in comparison with the sheer palpable fright of your novels."
"I wouldn't say that," Ben replied with a playful smile. "So I heard that you just got back from Louisiana where zombies and werecats were at, but I don't think," he pointed to Ashlyn, Duncan, Abby, and Dawn. "They was there were there other people with you while you were over there?"
"Nah, they just wanted to come for this mystery." Brianna explained.
"Well, it's nice to meet you all," Ben smiled at all of them and decided to invite them on a little journey of his own. "Listen, Velma, I'm going back to my hometown in Massachusetts this weekend to the house where I wrote my early books. I go back every year for the fall color. It's very peaceful and relaxing. Why don't you and your friends come visit?"
"Really? Oh, that'd be great!" Velma was in delight, then she had a thought. "Could we bring another someone along for the ride? It would mean so much to her."
"Why sure, the more the merrier." Ben smiled, allowing it.
"Who?" Ashlyn wondered who Velma could be referring to.
"My guess that's probably Mike or Justine." Trent shrugged.
"As long as it's not Sarah, I'm fine." Abby scowled.
"I take it you don't like her?" Fred asked, he didn't have the misfortune of meeting and knowing Ed's younger sister.
"Dude... Don't get me started..." Abby rolled her eyes.
The others agreed to it though. Maybe a little weekend vacation would be nice.
Ben even got Shaggy and Scooby to come by mentioning the best food of New England.
"Hello, may I speak with Cindy?" Velma asked after she took out her cell phone and called the Butler house.
Cindy answered after a moment. "Am I in trouble?" she asked, a little nervous since Velma was one of her teachers in school.
"Nope, not at all, listen, we're going to Massachusetts with Ben Ravencroft, would you like to come?" Velma invited.
Cindy had a laugh. "Yeah right... Duncan and Abby, if this is a joke, it's not funny... You know much I love Mr. Ravencroft..."
"No really," Velma assured. "He's right here with us if you would like to talk with him..."
Ben cleared his throat and spoke up. "Hello, is this Cindy?"
"OHMYGOSH, IT IS BEN RAVENCROFT!" Cindy had an emotional fit. "Mom, get on the other line, I'm talking to Ben Ravencroft!"
Abby scoffed. "Fan girls... Go figure."
"At least Cindy will get to see her favorite author in person like Justine got to see Lena the last time." Dawn came from next to Abby.
"Like, whoa man, how did you know about Lena if you weren't with us?" Shaggy asked.
"Because she's Dawn, duh!" Duncan scoffed.
Dawn glanced at him, then looked to Shaggy. "I could sense her presence..."
"Can you talk to dead people?" Daphne asked.
"I've been working on that actually..." Dawn explained. "It doesn't work all the way yet, but usually, I can sense ghosts these days... Kind of like when Danny Fenton senses a ghost when he's in his human form before he turns into Danny Phantom."
Ashlyn slowly blinked. "You are one weird girl..."
"Thank you..." Dawn smiled, that was actually nice sounding.
Velma hung up her cell. "Okay, Cindy's on board... Ben, we need to pick her up and then we'll go to Oakhaven, okay?"
"Fine by me..." Ben agreed.
Ashlyn thought Oakhaven sounded familiar, but she couldn't figure out why yet. "Oakhaven... Where have I heard that before?" she slowly asked herself.
"So I heard from Eddy that he did the ultimate prank no one has ever done before." Abby spoke up about the last trip with Mystery Inc.
"That being...?" Duncan asked her.
"Putting make-up on our favorite jockette."
Duncan rolled his eyes. "How childish..."
"It horribly backfired though..." Brianna laughed, then looked to Ashlyn. "You okay, bud?"
"I know I've heard that name Oakhaven somewhere before..." Ashlyn was in deep thought, but shrugged it off for now. "Ah well, it'll come to me..."
"Let's all be ready to go by 9:00 so then we can get there at a good time." Velma advised her friends.
"Right..." the others agreed.
"Looking forward to it." Ben smiled to all of them.