After their first encounter with the thirteenth ghost Fred and Daphne walked towards the center of town to meet with their friends; while this was going on Velma, Shaggy and Scooby were heading in the opposite direction.

"Velma?" the lanky teenager asked.

"Yes Shaggy" the young brown haired girl responded.

"I hope we can catch this ghost" the cowardly teen replied.

"What makes you say that Shaggy?" the intelligent brown haired girl wondered.

"Well, when Daphne, Scooby, Scrappy, Flim Flam and I tracked down the first twelve ghosts there were a lot of them that were really powerful, some of them I thought were really tough to capture, there were even a few times I thought we would never capture all those phantoms" the cowardly teen explained with some worry in his voice.

"Shaggy I fully understand that the ghosts from the Demon Chest were quite powerful, but that was then and this is now, you four were able to capture each and every ghost you went up against; now Fred and I here plus Scooby, Daphne and you have always been around, believe me Shaggy we've been able to handle any mystery we come across and this one won't be any different" the intelligent female detective explained to him.

"That's just the thing Velma, what if we can't solve this mystery, what if Rangor defeats us? What if something happens to you, Daphne, Fred and Scooby? If something did happen to you, I don't know if I could forgive myself" Shaggy replied sounding quite afraid, as his female companion looked over at him she knew that this time was different from the hundreds of previous mysteries that gang had solved; every other time during a mystery Shaggy had been afraid of whatever ghost or spook the group faced, but this time he didn't seem to be afraid of the ghost; the green shirted teenager seemed to be more afraid of losing his friends in the midst of capturing Rangor than of the specter, and he knew very well the ramifications of facing such a powerful foe; mainly a horrible fate not only for the world but also for himself, that fate being life without his four best friends in the world.

Suddenly the cowardly teen could feel a hand on his shoulder, he looked over and saw Velma standing there attempting to comfort him; she had always been there for him and was always able to shine light upon even the darkest situation.

"Shaggy, I know what you must be going through right now; after facing who knows how many creepy situations like the ones we've faced over the years the five of us have I formed a pretty special bond as friends and you're afraid that bond might be broken if we face Rangor and lose, well Shaggy I can tell you know that we won't lose, and we'll always be friends" the female sleuth calmly explained.

"Velma, all these years you've been the most logical person I've ever met; being able to give a simple rational explanation for whatever frightening or scary situation we ran up against, I guess maybe that's the reason why I've loved you for many years now" the lanky teenager replied scratching the back of his head as he spoke.

"You what?" the intelligent female sleuth asked, looking surprised that her friend would say such a thing.

"I-I love you, and I fully understand if you don't feel the same way; I step on your feet whenever we dance, I'm a complete coward, no to mention…" the lanky teenager started to explain before Velma put up her hand.

"Shaggy, to tell you the truth I really don't care about those things; it doesn't matter if you're a coward, it doesn't matter if you eat a lot, all that matters is that I love you too besides a lot of couples have differences, that's what makes romance and dating all the more exciting; however there's one thing I'm confused about" the intelligent female sleuth replied.

"What's that Velma?" the cowardly teen asked.

"Why all of a sudden did you want to tell me how you really felt about me?" the female teen sleuth wondered.

"If Rangor does defeat us and something bad does happen, I wanted to tell you how I felt just in case we don't come out of this alive," the cowardly teen explained.

"Shaggy, I'm taken aback by your statement; we've been through mysteries that were a thousand times worse than this and we always come through with flying colors" the female sleuth replied.

"Thanks Velma, like I said before you're always there to brighten up a dark situation" the cowardly teen said with a smile.

"I feel the same way Shaggy and you're welcome" the intelligent female teen replied smiling.

Velma and Shaggy stuck very close to each other as they and their cowardly Great Dane continued exploring the town square area.

Their investigation was interrupted however when they heard a couple of familiar voices calling for them in the distance.

"Velma, Shaggy, Scooby?" called the voice.

The intelligent female sleuth didn't know who was calling for the three of them at first but then noticed a blond man wearing a white shirt along with a redheaded woman wearing a purple dress coming into view.

"Fred, Daphne!" Velma exclaimed, instantly recognizing the two figures.

The blond haired teen and his female redheaded companion rejoined the group, however Shaggy noticed that there was a frightened look on both their faces and wondered what was going on.

"Like what happened to you two, you look like you've seen a ghost," the cowardly teen stated.

"We sure did" Daphne said.

"Jinkies, you're kidding!" Velma replied looking shocked.

"I wish we were but we're not, we saw Rangor" Fred added.

"Like was he as powerful as Vincent said he was?" Shaggy asked.

"He sure was, he almost scared the two of us to death" Daphne responded.

"What did he look like?" Velma wondered.

"He was a gigantic, almost transparent figure glowing green all over almost as big as a house; he looked kind of like a huge shadow and pretty terrifying if you got a chance to look at him" Daphne responded, telling the gang about her and Fred's experience.

"Zoinks! Like I'm sorry I asked" Shaggy replied with a whimper.

"What happened after that?" Velma wondered.

"We told him who we were and that Vincent had sent us to stop him" Fred explained.

"Wow, then what?" Velma asked.

"Then he said he was going to make sure to stop us one way or another, after that we transformed into Cat Creatures to show him what we were capable of" Fred continued.

"Jinkies!" Velma exclaimed in amazement.

"Then he just disappeared into thin air" Daphne responded.

"Wow" Velma added.

"Like he must have been a scary sight" Shaggy remarked, sounding quite nervous.

"Reah rary" Scooby added.

"I'll say he was" the redhead stated.

"While we were walking back here I mentioned to Daphne that it would be a good idea if we stayed together during the rest of our investigation, after all there's strength in numbers" the blond haired leader of Mystery Inc. explained.

"Like, I can sure agree to that," responded Shaggy.

"Reah, rive is retter rhan rhree or rwo" Scooby added.

"Considering the situation I agree with Shaggy and Scooby" Velma stated.

"Like, you do?" Shaggy questioned.

"Of course, with the combined power of the five of us we should have no trouble in taking that ghost down" Velma declared.

"Agreed, now I think we should contact Mr. Van Ghoul again to tell him of our experiences so far with Rangor" the blond teen explained.

"Right, if there's one person in the world that has the most expertise in dealing with ghosts like the one we're facing now it's him" the redhead replied.

With that Scooby and company returned to the Mystery Machine to inform their warlock ally of their progress thus far.

"Freddie give me the keys so I can open the van and retrieve the Crystal Ball Mr. Van Ghoul gave us" Daphne explained.

"OK here you go Daph" the blond teen replied, acknowledging her request.

The redhead sleuth took the keys from her companion and unlocked the van, Daphne sat in the passenger seat and opened the vehicle's glove compartment; inside of which was the Crystal, she brought it outside the van with her after closing the vehicle door.

After returning the keys to Fred, the redhead also handed the Crystal Ball to the blond teenager; the gang stood at the side of the Mystery Machine and gathered around the Crystal as they prepared to make contact with their powerful friend.

"Calling Vincent Van Ghoul, Mr. Van Ghoul come in please," Fred said placing his hand atop the crystal ball.

"Hello, hello, Fred is that you?" a voice coming from the crystal asked.

"Yes it's me Fred" addressed Fred.

"I can hear you clearly Fred, what is it?" asked Vincent.

"Mr. Van Ghoul, we're in Russia and we found the thirteenth ghost" addressed Fred.

"I see" Vincent replied.

"Now that we've located the phantom, what should our next plan of action be Mr. Van Ghoul?" addressed Fred.

Scooby and company stood in the filtered midday sunshine next to their vehicle with Fred holding the Crystal Ball, as the four teenage sleuths and their Great Dane awaited further instructions from powerful warlock ally.