Author's Notes: Author's Notes: Scooby Doo and all related characters and trademarks are copyright 2010 Hanna-Barbera Productions/Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network. I am not making any money off of writing this story, I am just a fan. Also this story is a sequel to my series of stories that are rewrites of each of the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo episodes without Scrappy and with Fred and Velma; if anyone who reads this story is confused about any of the references or events in this story, please go back and read the aforementioned series of stories as a refresher. Also the inspiration for this story came from the 2003 Disney Direct to Video Movie Atlantis: Milo's Return.
Chapter 1
Our story begins at an ancient looking castle nestled among a lush forest, unlike several years ago when something quite unusual happened at the castle, which was well publicized and almost ruined the castle's reputation, in addition to nearly closing the castle permanently, things are quite peaceful and serene.
Normally the above sentence would sound a little weird or bizarre to most people, but in reality this statement makes as much sense as anything else in the world; because unknown to most people, the castle is home to the Merlin Brothers Academy Of Magic, one of the world's foremost schools for magicians and the study of stage magic, the academy is run by a pair of brothers named Whirlen and Marlon Merlin and has flourished in the several years that have passed since the appearance of a Griffin nearly shut down the school, but thankfully for the brothers and staff of the school, one of their students happened to be the younger sister of a member of the world famous Mystery Inc. detective agency.
After receiving a call from her mother, the bespectacled member of the group Velma Dinkley and the rest of the gang traveled to the castle to unravel the mystery behind the strange appearance of the Griffin, which they did as usual; after performing at the re-opening of the school, Madelyn Dinkley, the aforementioned younger sister of Velma was able to relax, not having to worry about any monsters or creatures attacking the school ever again, or so she thought.
Wearing her pink tinted glasses, maroon colored dress with white sleeves, white pants and gray shoes, Madelyn sat at a small desk in one of the student dorm rooms of the castle, with a black pen in hand writing in a brown leather bound book; after doing that for a few minutes she closed the book, put it away in the desk, and walked back towards the other side of the room; Madelyn then approached her bed and decided to lay down in it and take a short nap, while she laid down she smiled and sighed, thinking about how wonderful it was to be studying stage magic and more importantly how great it was to be Velma's younger sister; however, very soon she would join Scooby and company and her older sister yet again, and this time they would encounter a mystery that would be much worse than the mystery they encountered the last time they saw Madelyn, in fact if this mystery wasn't solved, it would mean the end of the world and the end of man kind as we know it.
However as she lay back down she was unaware that a dark sinister presence was beginning to cover and envelop every inch of the forest and the grounds that surrounded the castle; for the moment the strange presence seemed to be miles away from the Merlin Brothers Academy, but within a matter of moments it began get closer and closer, and soon it would reach the ancient castle and invade the school, that is unless something could be done about it and judging by the progression of the darkness, something might have needed to be done about it soon.
Meanwhile thousands of miles away inside the grounds of a luxury condominium resort in the Southwestern United States, three familiar figures walk along one of the numerous dirt pathways that criss cross the grounds of the resort; one is a dark brown haired young woman dressed in an orange shirt, red shorts and red sandals, and wearing black horn rimmed glasses, the second is a young man with sandy light brown hair wearing a light green shirt, dark blue shorts and black sandals; the third figure is a somewhat large Great Dane with brown fur and black spots, he wears a dark blue collar around his neck with a blue and gold dog tag with the letters SD on it and looks somewhat content as he follows closely behind the other two figures; while the three figures might look like regular people to the untrained eye, they are actually quite famous, as a matter of fact the three figures are Velma Dinkley, Shaggy Rogers and Scooby Doo, three members of the world famous detective agency.
Having solved several dozen very difficult cases in the past few months, Scooby Doo and the rest of Mystery Inc. reached somewhat of a consensus and decided to take a break from solving mysteries, in this case the five sleuths are taking a well deserved vacation, this time in the state of Arizona, specifically in the small town of Sedona, located in the Northern portion of the state; all the while the five sleuths were hoping that this vacation didn't turn into a mystery as most of their vacations usually did.
However, now unlike years ago when the two young adults began solving mysteries, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to have a vacation turn into a mystery; especially since Shaggy and Velma had started dating some time ago, while both of them didn't like solving mysteries while on vacation when the quartet of detectives plus one began their career of solving cases, both for various reasons: Velma, because she never wanted to think a lot while on a vacation, and Shaggy, well Shaggy never wanted to encounter ghosts or monsters during vacations, and as a result he would always want to spend vacations eating as much as possible.
But since the two young adults had started going out, which went well enough that the relationship eventually resulted in them becoming girlfriend and boyfriend, they found themselves enjoying vacations more and more, partly because whenever either the six of them or just Shaggy and Velma in some cases went on vacation they managed to spend as much time with each other as humanly possible, which is what they were doing as the mid afternoon sun shone brilliantly overhead.
"Shaggy?" Velma asked, as her arm locked around the arm of her green shirted companion.
"Yes Velma?" Shaggy replied.
"This is great isn't it? Having some time to ourselves, well that and spending time with the gang; but now when we spend time together it seems like it's more than just four friends and their dog solving mysteries and just hanging out, ever since we started dating it feels like we've become much more than friends, it really seems like we've become closer and closer to one another" Velma said, looking into the cowardly sleuth's eyes and smiling all the while at him.
"Actually this is pretty nice, I mean spending time with you is one of my favorite things in the entire world Velma, well other than eating and maybe watching horror movies" Shaggy replied, smiling back at her.
"I still can't believe you and Scooby like watching horror movies, I mean I would think that running from ghosts and monsters on a regular basis would turn you and Scooby off of watching horror movies" Velma remarked.
"Velma, as long as Scooby and I get to relax at home on our own sofa, with popcorn, soft drinks and maybe candy, I could watch Psycho and it probably wouldn't matter, right Scoob?" Shaggy said.
"Reah, ri rove ratching rovies at home" the Great Dane replied.
"That reminds me Shaggy, is Scooby still okay with you and me being a couple?" Velma asked.
"Like I've told you before, of course he's okay with the two of us dating; why wouldn't he be?" Shaggy responded, sounding somewhat confused.
"Well when you had a crush on my sister didn't he have a hissy fit, and wasn't he annoyed that you weren't paying attention to him?" Velma replied with a question of her own.
"Like don't be ridiculous Velma, he loved the fact that Madelyn and I were seeing a lot of each other" Shaggy said.
"Okay I guess I'll give you that one, but what about when you were dating Googie and Rachel and every other single girl you've known who wasn't me or Crystal?" Velma asked.
"Well..." Shaggy said, attempting to think of something that wouldn't cause Velma to hit him upside the head, or worse.
"Well what?" Velma asked.
"You know I haven't really addressed that with Scoob, although whenever I have a bad date I usually talk to him anyway and believe me I've had plenty of those in my life" Shaggy replied.
"And what does Scooby usually say during the time that you talk to him?" Velma asked.
"He usually says don't worry about it, you'll find somebody that likes you for who you are, or something like that" Shaggy replied.
"Oh really?" Velma said after her folding her arms and raising her eyebrows.
"Okay I made that part up, but he is nice to talk to when I've had a bad date" Shaggy replied.
"Um Shaggy, shouldn't you be talking to someone besides Scooby when you have a problem in your love life" Velma remarked.
"Like who else could I talk to, my parents are living in Massachusetts; I rarely talk to my relatives any more, well sometimes I do, but they usually give me the same advice that I said that Scooby gives me, although he doesn't really give me advice like that, I made it up" Shaggy explained.
"Obviously" Velma replied, still sounding annoyed with her boyfriend.
"Oh come on Velma, who am I supposed to go to for advice in romance? Daphne, Fred, Vincent Van Ghoul? Okay, okay I'm kidding about Vincent but still, who am I supposed to go to for advice?" Shaggy asked.
"How about, well me?" Velma answered.
"You? why would I go to my girl..." Shaggy said before stopping in mid-sentence, knowing that if he said any more Velma would very likely never speak to him again.
"You were going to say why would I go to my girlfriend for advice on dating right?" Velma asked, now slightly exasperated with the cowardly teen.
"Like right, but how did you know what I was going to say?" Shaggy asked.
"Trust me, when you've been dating someone as long as I've been dating you, I've learned to figure things like that out; but I can understand why you wouldn't want to go to your girlfriend for advice on romance, I mean it is kind of weird" Velma replied.
"That's not why I was going to say that at all, the reason why I was going to say that was because, well because it's kind of unusual to talk to someone who you're dating and who for all intensive purposes you're in love with for romance advice" Shaggy responded.
Velma looked a bit puzzled by this statement, but eventually realized that what he was saying might have had some credence to it, after all he had been right about many things in the past in regards to mysteries, so maybe he was right this time; so with no other options and realizing full well that he might be correct Velma responded to Shaggy's comment.
"Shaggy, it doesn't matter if you're in love with someone or not, if you have someone who's a good enough friend then they'll want to give you advice, no matter what the subject; okay, sure we're boyfriend and girlfriend but it doesn't that we still can't give each other advice, especially when it comes to romance and dating, right?" Velma asked, as she held the cowardly teen's now trembling hands.
"Like I guess, I guess you're right; although I don't think I need that much romantic advice for now, I mean I do have the perfect girlfriend" Shaggy said as he held Velma's hand tightly.
"Neither do I, and by the way I have the perfect boyfriend too" Velma said, now blushing a bright scarlet color.
With that being said Velma and Shaggy continued their walk through the posh resort complex, meanwhile in another portion of the complex, specifically in the area that contained the pool a blond haired young man wearing blue shorts with orange trim sat lounging in a deck chair reading a mystery novel, while next to him in another deck chair sat a young red haired woman wearing a purple bikini and flower print towel around her waist; at the moment she was just enjoying the Arizona sunshine, although every couple of minutes she looked over at the blond man and smiled at him with great affection, naturally he smiled back which made sense considering they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and not only that but they were also members of Mystery Inc. in addition to Shaggy, Velma and Scooby.
The blond young man was Fred Jones, unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. and according to some people the brains of the outfit, but of course he didn't or couldn't take all the credit for Mystery Inc.'s success, that was shared among the five members of the group, which included the young woman sitting next to Fred whose name was Daphne Blake and who's father's wealth has immensely helped the group of sleuths over the years.
Things really couldn't be better for the pair of sleuths, they were in love and knew nothing would ever separate them, plus they were world famous and had solved who knows how many mysteries over the years, overall things were fairly quiet and low key at the moment; well quiet except for the black haired young man wearing yellow swim trunks splashing around in the water and calling out to the young man and woman every so often.
"Fred, Daphne, watch this!" the young man yelled as he stepped onto the diving board at the side of the pool, he then climbed a small step ladder and stood on the board, a few moments later he dove into the pool while managing to perform a perfect cannonball, which made quite a nice splash which of course annoyed some of the fellow swimmers.
"That's very good Flim Flam dear" Daphne said as she spoke to the young man in the pool.
"You weren't watching were you?" the young man replied.
"Of course we were Flim Flam, that was very cool, just make sure and stay out of trouble, and please try not to splash the other people in the pool, we don't want to get kicked out of the resort" Fred remarked.
"I know dad, I know" the young man replied as he resumed swimming.
The black haired young man wearing yellow swim trunks was Flim Flam, a young Asian former con artist and trickster who Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby first encountered when they took a trip to Hawaii in the gang's private plane the Mystery Flying Machine, however Mystery Inc. didn't make it to Hawaii, in fact they made a wrong turn and ended up in the Himalayas where two evil spirits took the gang's plane and hid it inside an ancient temple.
The gang eventually got their plane back but not without incident, in this case Shaggy and Scooby were tricked into opening a chest containing the 13 foulest, most evil, most threatening ghosts, ghouls, phantoms and spirits in the world; while they were in the village however they were sidetracked by the citizens of said village, who had the unfortunate curse of transforming into werewolves every night. While the gang did open the sinister container known as the Chest of Demons, they weren't alone in their quest to track down the sinister specters, they were joined by a powerful wizard and mystic named Vincent Van Ghoul, who they met in the small Tibetan village, which is where they also met the young man named Flim Flam who was currently swimming in the pool.
Flim Flam was an orphan whose parents died when he was six years old, they had lived in Southeast Asia with the young boy until they were killed when a Typhoon ravaged his home country; left without a home or parents, Flim Flam eventually bounced around from Orphanage to Orphanage eventually landing in the village of Urslvania, where he ran afoul of the local authorities because of his own invention called Lotsa Luck Joy Juice, which proved to be quite useful for the gang in turning Daphne back to normal after she fell under the werewolf curse.
For many years Flim Flam trained under the powerful mystic and warlock named Vincent Van Ghoul in sorcery and magic, as well as ever single thing that the great wizard knew about the supernatural and the macabre, which could fill as many volumes as were stored in the Library of Congress.
Flim Flam trained under Vincent for quite some time, that is until one day when he spoke to Fred and Daphne regarding the young orphan; while Flim Flam considered Vincent to be as close as authority or father figure as he had since his parents died, in truth Vincent realized that while his guidance was good for the young man, he really needed a mother and father, so he made the decision to find one, the only problem was who would it be?
One September evening, Daphne received a phone call; at first she was a bit perplexed by who was calling her, but once Vincent explained what was going and what he needed she called Fred and the two of them began speaking to Vincent; the warlock then explained that Flim Flam needed parents and that through his past experiences with the gang, it seemed like the blond haired young man and the red haired young woman would make the perfect parents.
However Fred and Daphne tried to reason with the warlock saying that maybe there was someone else that could be the young orphan's guardians, but Vincent persisted saying that Fred and Daphne were the only option; despite some protests by both the teen's parents saying that they were too young to be parents, and they were still technically kids, the two sleuths agreed with Vincent saying that it was the only option for Flim Flam to have a good upbringing, so despite the pair's parents still not completely agreeing to the idea, Daphne's father through his attorneys drew up the proper paperwork and on a late October day at the Coolsville County Courthouse, adoption papers were officially filed and Flim Flam became the son of Fred Jones and Daphne Blake.
Since they adopted their young companion, the red haired beauty and the blond man were the best parents a son could ever have; one of the first activities the young couple's new son participated in was the city of Coolsville's annual Halloween party and costume contest sponsored naturally by Daphne's parents, which the young man found enjoyable considering it was probably one of the first, if not the first Halloween that the youngster was able to celebrate.
Flim Flam, as you might expect wore an exact copy of Vincent's cloak as a Halloween costume for the party, right down to the exact same mustache as the warlock; even though Vincent didn't make an appearance at the party, even though it was Halloween, the gang was able to set up a video stream of the event which the warlock was able to watch at his castle.
When Vincent spoke to the young boy, he couldn't have been prouder of him; he had worn the exact same outfit as Vincent Van Ghoul, not to mention he had probably two of the most perfect parents any kid could ever have, who were also quite proud of him; several of the gang's old friends also appeared at the party, including the Hex Girls who took time out from one of their tours to perform, as well as a few of the gang's aunts and uncles, and a few miscellaneous friends from the various mysteries the group had solved over the years.
Thanksgiving was also quite wonderful for Flim Flam as he was able to celebrate the holiday with his best friends from Mystery Inc. in addition to each of his friends' parents who came to Coolsville for the holiday; many more holidays followed and each of them were celebrated by Mystery Inc. along with their newest member: Flim Flam, who was quite thankful that he had real parents for the first time in many years.
Now he was taking part in one of the gang's favorite activities: taking a vacation, which unlike many other times before, hadn't turned into a mystery quite yet, although there was plenty of time for that to change; as the youngster continued to swim around in the resort's pool he looked over at his new parents, smiled and then waved as they continued to keep a close eye on him, as they didn't want anything to happen to their adopted son.
"Freddie?" Daphne asked, raising her sunglasses to look over at her boyfriend.
"Yes Daphne?" Fred answered, after placing the book he was reading on his lap.
"It's a beautiful day isn't it?" Daphne asked.
"Sure is Daphne, it sure is; and you know something, I don't think things could be going any better; we're officially parents, we're on vacation and best of all no mysteries" Fred replied.
"I can agree with that, I'm so glad that for the first time in for who knows how long, we actually are going to have a restful vacation, with no ghosts, ghouls or any villains to chase or unmask" Daphne remarked.
"Yep, needless to say I think this is the perfect day; absolutely nothing could go wrong" Fred replied.
However, unbeknownst to Scooby Doo and his friends, approximately several thousand miles away at the Merlin Brothers Magic Academy something was indeed about to go wrong; the sinister presence that surrounded the school was slowly creeping into the grounds of the school, although at the moment the co-owners/operators of the school didn't seem to notice what was going on, actually as luck would have it, the two Merlin brothers were in a room that served as the school's office and were looking over recent enrollments at the academy, which had skyrocketed since the Griffin incident some time back.
"Amazing, simply amazing!" the younger of the brothers, Whirlen Merlin remarked.
"What's so amazing?" the elder of the brothers, Marlon Merlin asked as he walked over to where his brother was sitting.
"Take a look at this Marlon, during the last six months we've seen an increase of enrollments here ten fold, it's simply remarkable; so many young people want to study magic and illusions here since Madelyn's sister and her friends solved the mystery of the Griffin" Whilen Merlin replied as he showed his brother a black leather bound book with hundreds upon hundreds of pages of ledger type paper inside.
"My, my you're certainly right Whirlen, it's simply magical for lack of a better phrase; by the way, how is Madelyn doing with her studies?" Marlon asked.
"Good so far, she's near the top of her class in all of the courses she's taking; actually come to think of it, she told me something interesting involving magic some time back" Whirlen replied.
"Like what?" Marlon asked.
"Well she said that her sister's two friends Fred and Daphne adopted a young boy named Flim Flam, and that this Flim Flam studied real magic under an actual warlock named Vincent Van Ghoul many years ago, in addition Fred studied to be a warlock as well, and as I understand it he's very good" Whirlen explained.
"My my, you don't say; I never knew real magic existed, I mean I guess I was aware that it existed, but I didn't know much about it until you just told me, so how is this young man named Flim Flam doing?" Marlon asked.
"From what Madelyn told me, he's doing great; actually I wouldn't mind meeting with Vincent Van Ghoul and Flim Flam some day, maybe I can have Madelyn teach them a little about stage magic and maybe the two of them can teach us about sorcery and real magic" Whirlen replied.
"That's not a bad idea at all brother, I wouldn't mind that myself; maybe we'll be able to set up a time for us to meet with Flim Flam and Vincent Van Ghoul" Marlon commented.
Suddenly a strange voice, unseen to the brothers began speaking; the co-operators of the magic school weren't quite sure at first where the voice was coming from, so they scanned the room looking for the source of the voice, although soon they would find out just who they were speaking to.
Author's Notes: For the purposes of this story and in regards to the plot, I decided to make Madelyn and Flim Flam about the same age, probably around 15-16 years old or so, give or take a year; also in this story I'm toying with the idea of Flim Flam and Madelyn being a couple, however if they weren't the same age then it probably wouldn't work out all that well, so that's why I decided have them the same age.