Then:

Sugie Rogers knew that her big brother was going to protect her; after all, that was his job. Shaggy was always going to be there for her, deep in her heart of hearts she knew that. Well, he was always going to be there for her unless she made a mess in her diaper. He always managed to avoid being around for that. But that wasn't the case this time. He was off on another mystery with his friends in the Scooby Doo Detective Agency. They were going to beat some bad guy and stop their schemes. Sugie didn't understand a lot about the world, but she did know that much.

Sugie was crawling towards her favorite rattle. She knew that she was supposed to be too old for rattles, those were baby toys and she was becoming a big girl, but she didn't care, she only cared that the rattle soothed her. Some kids had a stuffed animal, but she had a rattle. It was perfect for her. It made noise and was colorful. It was all that she needed.

Her rattle was slowly coming towards her, crawling was a drag, but she was too shaky on her feet to walk very well, and she needed that rattle right away. It wasn't going to shake itself. But imagine how amazing it would be if it could shake itself! But Velma would probably take it from her to conduct science experiments on. And Sugie was never allowed to play with any of Velma's toys. Freddy would probably say that it was haunted, and he would want to take it to a psychic. Daphne would probably make fun of the color.

Sugie didn't care about any of that; she only cared about the rattle right now. Maybe once she had it, she would be able to talk to Scooby and they could play her favorite game, hide the rattle. She would hide her rattle and watch as Scooby sniffed it out. It was the perfect game and then after they played, Scooby would lick her face and then she would lick his face back. It was perfect.

She got distracted for a second by an interesting shadow that she saw on the ground. It was coming from outside and it looked like a person. Or a flamingo. Sugie wasn't sure what those looked like, but she was told that she would see one at the zoo. She had spent most of the day imagining what it would be and the shadow was exactly what she thought it would look like. But she knew it wasn't a flamingo, it was just an interesting looking shadow, and that was it.

She gave up looking at the shadow and started to go back to the rattle. This was going to be the best!

Just as Sugie reached for the rattle, from the open window a hand shot in and grabbed the rattle. Sugie jerked backwards and gasped. The figure was huge to her, but everyone was to her. She may have been wrong. It may have been a child who took it. But a bigger kid. The person who grabbed the rattle started to laugh and ran off into the woods.

Sugie couldn't help herself, she started to cry. This drew her brother in from another room. "Like, what's the problem?"

"Wattle!" She wailed, pointing out the window where the figure vanished into some woods.

"Like, someone stole your rattle?" Sugie nodded pathetically, but Shaggy reached down and hugged her. "Don't you worry, Sugie, the Scooby Doo Detective Agency is on the case!"

She loved her big brother.

Now:

It had been a few days since the gang had somehow solved the mystery of Treefallen, though there were several questions that they all still had. Now, they were traveling along the roads, following the advice of Mr. F. "So I'm telling you all, we need to be able to solve the mystery of this haunted pirate ship."

Velma had long since given up trying to understand this aspect of her life. She was just talking to the Mystery Machine's radio and that was what it was. She had a real suspicion about who Mr. F really was, but she wasn't ready to share it with the rest of them. "A vanishing pirate ship?"

Mr. F's voice on the other end laughed. "Yeah, I know it sounds odd."

"We were just in a town that wouldn't let us leave and we're talking to a radio in a van," Ned said evenly, "I think we left where we could call a vanishing pirate ship 'odd' a long time ago."

Daphne sighed. "I guess that means that we're going to be going to the library first?" She glanced over at Velma. "You know, they have all sorts of knowledge on our phones now. We don't have to go to the library for every bit of research that we do."

"Oh I know," Velma said, "But it doesn't compete with the smell of old books, now does it?"

"Dusty old books," Daphne muttered, "You know me so well."

"Ruh roh," Scooby said as he looked out the window.

Shaggy sighed. He knew that when his best friend said something like that, Shaggy was going to scream. He was wrong this time, as he very calmly said, "Like, I don't think our first stop is gonna be the library."

Fred didn't bother to look over. "Why are we not going to the library first?"

"Pull over," Rhett said, his face was in awe. He had seen a lot of amazing things in his life, but outside of a movie, he had never seen what was going on outside at that exact moment.

Fred pulled over, and looked around. Ned had started to record, and when Fred looked out the side window, he could understand why. Of all the things he had seen, he had never seen a pirate ship emerge from the water, water dripping off of it. "Wow." He felt like he should've said something else, but he couldn't think of another thing to say, so he simply said, "Wow," again and hoped that it sufficed.

Ned simply covered the entire thing. It was bright, and he was impressed with the entire thing. "Guys, how are we going to deal with this? Somehow, this seems way out of our league."

Rhett nodded slowly. "Velma, I really hope you have a good idea of what to do about this."

"Jinkies," came the reply.

"Yeah," Rhett muttered, "That's what I was going to say."

The Mystery Machine was silent as the ship started to fall back into the water, and soon disappeared from view. Ned slowly turned the camera off and turned to look at his friends. "Well," he said evenly, "If that shot doesn't convince a network to hire us then nothing will."

Velma didn't say anything, her face was pale and she had to wonder, just what were they going to do about that?

Then:

It was years later and Sugie had just turned ten. She had been watching her brother grow over time and was very impressed with how he had came into his own. He was a member of Mystery Incorporated now, long ago having left behind the name Scooby Doo Detective Agency, but he was having an awkward summer. He was given a choice that he was struggling with, was he going to do a TV show for the summer?

He was struggling hard with it, and had turned to someone that he trusted for sage advice. He had chosen wrong. "Why wouldn't you want to do the show?" Sugie asked confused.

Shaggy sighed. "I'm just really worried. Fred and Velma isn't here, and I feel like I'm cheating on them, y'know?"

Sugie raised an eyebrow. "Nope."

Shaggy smiled. "Like, you're young. See, we all have this mystery thing going on, and I think we all really dig it. But this opportunity is huge. Like, do you know how much I love Vincent Van Ghoul?"

Sugie smirked. She knew. It was impossible to go into Shaggy's room and not know that Van Ghoul was his favorite actor; DVDs lined the shelves, posters were hanging on the wall as if they were wallpaper, various merchandise was on his dresser, including a limited edition clock that had Vincent calling out the hours like a deranged lunatic and, of course, both of his autobiographies, which did not cover any different times of his life, but instead differed only in the fact that anytime his name was said, one copy had black text and another had red. Van Ghoul clearly ruled her brother's heart. "Yes, I know."

Shaggy laughed. "Like, I totally deserve that. So, like, I'm totally jumping for joy to get a chance to spend time with the legend himself, y'know?"

"Then I don't see what the big deal is. You should do the show."

"But like, what will Fred and Velma say?"

"Do you remember what you told me when Mom said I could only bring one person to Fun Land with me?"

"I do. I said that if they were really your friend, then they would totally understand the situation that you were in. They may not like it, but ultimately it wouldn't be the end of your friendship."

Sugie simply stared at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Like, I get ya!" Shaggy grinned and ruffled up Sugie's hair, "Like, how did you ever get to be so smart?"

"That's easy!" Sugie said, trying to smooth out her hair again. "I just listened to everything that my brother ever said."

"That's real sweet, sis."

"And then I did the opposite!"

She grinned as her brother reached down and grabbed a pillow, taking a huge swing at her that was easy to dodge. She ducked under it and rolled on the ground, and launched to her feet. "You big goof! How do you ever catch anyone?"

Shaggy started to chase after her, and both of them were giggling madly. This was one of her favorite moments in life. See, she also had a secret that her brother didn't know. She loved Vincent Van Ghoul.

Now:

Velma was inside the library, and Ned was bored. It wasn't that she wasn't doing work that was important, but he couldn't really get any action shots. Even the most exciting montage music that he could find wouldn't change the fact that she was just leafing through some books. He had tried. So instead, he was focusing his camera on the area around him. He hadn't meant to capture some of the conversations that he did, but he couldn't help it.

"So," Daphne said, as she sat on a log by the river, "Do you think that Mr. F is on the level?"

Shaggy shook his head, throwing a rock into the river. "Like, no way man. Anyone who talks to you through a magic van isn't anyone you should ever trust."

Daphne closed her eyes and leaned her head back, soaking up the sun on her face. "And why is he hiding who he really is? I mean, Mr. F? We're not spies, y'know?"

Shaggy looked over at her. "Like, we're not spies, but what if he is?"

Daphne opened her eyes and looked at her friend. "You think he's a spy?"

Shaggy shrugged. "It makes sense, doesn't it?'

Daphne paused. "You know what? It really does. We can safely assume that Mr. F is not his real name, and he does seem to be leading us around like a bunch of idiots. It would also explain that tech he has."

"I didn't think that Walkie Talkies were that impressive of technology. Maybe I was wrong, though."

Daphne shook her head. "You think he's doing all of this with a Walkie Talkie?"

Shaggy shrugged again. "He could be."

"Well yeah," Daphne said, "But Delilah showed me some of her military tech and its way more impressive than a Walkie Talkie. Normally, someone has to hold a button to talk to the other side. Our conversations have been more natural, like a cell call." She paused. "It runs on cell data."

"I didn't think that Walkie Talkies ran on cell data."

Daphne shook her head. "No. The way that he is talking to us. That's why when we went into Treefallen we lost him. He is running off of cell data."

Shaggy smiled. He had always known that Daphne was not just the damsel in distress, but it always made him happy when she was able to show that she had some brains too. Situations like this didn't seem to happen much around her, especially when Velma was around. "That makes a lot of sense. I bet the rest of the gang would be very happy to hear it!

Daphne grinned. "You think?"

Shaggy nodded. "Oh yeah! Like, we're your best friends, we're totally gonna support you with what you think!" He paused. "But, we totally need to stay away from the Mystery Machine, just in case he can pick us up at all times."

Daphne nodded slowly. "I think we can do that. Let's go ahead and do that just now." She paused. "What do you think, Ned?"

Ned smirked. "Knew I was here, huh?"

"Do you know how many times I've seen eyes watching me from behind paintings? I think I've picked up a sixth sense in when someone is watching me."

Ned smirked. "I have some ideas myself on Mr. F."

Then:

Maggie, she didn't want to be called Sugie anymore, had moved into high school herself. She didn't have to worry too much about people comparing her to her brother, by the time that she got into high school, he was gone. She was about to graduate and needed to decide what she was going to do with her life, but she had no idea what even sounded like an acceptable way to live.

She had heard it all before. "You have your whole life to decide what you want to do, you don't need to rush," but she knew better. She knew that if she didn't plan out every single moment, then her life was going to be ruined. Her friends may have mocked her for it, but it didn't matter.

She was pacing right now, looking rather distraught at the papers in her hands. The wind was trying to wrestle them away from her, but she held them tightly; they represented her future. They were brochures that told her about the various different colleges that she could find. Her future was literally in her hands, but she had no idea where she was going to go. She knew that there wasn't anything wrong with Darrow University and that her brother had wanted her to go there, but she didn't want to. She wanted to go and experience what the world held in store for her. She wanted to see what else was beyond Crystal Cove.

She kept shuffling the papers in her hand, as if there was going to be some divine thing that told her what she should do. She scoffed at the idea, real life didn't work like that, there wasn't going to be some magical answer that told her what to do. No matter how much that she may have wished for it otherwise. Only hard work was going to achieve her goals and she needed to figure out what they were. Now.

Her pacing became more energetic, and there was, at times, a skip to them. She didn't seem to realize that she was doing it, and by the time that she realized it, she knew that everyone around her had seen her. She blushed slightly, and moved to the other side of a tree, hoping that no had seen her, but knowing that she wasn't that lucky.

She sighed, clutching the brochures to her chest, and took a deep breath. So what if people saw her, would it be worse thing that ever happened? It might have been, she wasn't sure.

She realized that she had to make a choice. She could spend the rest of her life, hiding behind a tree, like some crazy tree person, or she could walk out from behind the tree and faced the scorn of high school. It wouldn't have been the first time that she had faced it and her brother had faced much worse.

She smiled and walked out from behind the tree, and to her surprise, no one was pointing and laughing at her. In fact, it was almost as if the entire world had moved on, without her being the center of attention. But she knew that someone had to have seen her, and they were judging her.

"Heads up!" A voice called out.

A Frisbee flew by her, startling her. She nearly dropped her papers and was about to tell off the person who threw it, when she saw him running over to her. "Are you OK?" The boy had brown hair, and he was…gorgeous.

"My name is Wilfred," the teenager said, holding his hand out to her, "What's your name?"

Suddenly, there wasn't a doubt in her mind, she loved Wilfred.

Now:

Ned had moved on, continuing his shots, when he realized that he had stumbled upon a conversation with Rhett and Fred. He should've let his presence be known, but this was the only relationship in the group that he knew had any sort of conflict. Sure, the two would act as if there was nothing wrong with them, but it was clear to anyone who watched them for any length, that they did not like each other. Furthermore, it didn't take Ned a long time to figure out exactly what was coming between them, they were both in love with the same woman. In matter of fact, Ned felt that everyone knew this fact, with one exception, Daphne.

Fred was sitting by the Mystery Machine, looking at the van that he had been taken care of for a very long time. "Whatcha thinkin' Jones?"

He turned to look at Rhett, who had managed to pick up a toothpick from somewhere and stuck it in his mouth "Why are we doing this?"

Rhett shrugged his shoulder. "Y'got me. I've been trying to figure out why you all have been doing this for so long."

Fred shook his head. "Not the mystery thing. I understand that. I mean, why are we following this Mr. F?"

Rhett raised an eyebrow. "So it's not just me that thinks it's a bad idea, right?"

Fred sighed. "No. But we can't say that we haven't done well following his advice. In the past, we'd just stumble into mysteries, but now, we're being directed. I'm not going to lie, it feels good."

"I don't doubt that we're doing good work," Rhett said slowly, "But what if we're not being directed towards something, but instead directed away from something? What if he's not leading us to something, but away.?"

"You think that it has something to do with Mr. E?"

Rhett nodded. "I think that we're in the middle of some dangerous game. I'm just not even sure which side is the good side."

"Maybe there isn't a good side," Fred said thoughtfully, "Maybe there's just one side and another, both of which was doing bad things. We could just be pawns in all of this."

"Well," Rhett said, flicking the toothpick into a nearby trash can, "Isn't that just a cheerful thought?"

Fred sighed. "Never said that it was going to be cheerful. I'm just trying to be honest here. Something about this entire series of circumstances stinks, and I am not sure which end smells worse."

Rhett snickered. "I know which end does!"

Fred rolled his eyes. "Real mature, Red."

Rhett shrugged. "Sometimes, the old me comes out. Didja realize that you are the only person who calls me Red still?"

"Sometimes, I never forget the old you."

Rhett raised an eyebrow. "You never do. Not everyone stays the same, Jones. You don't spend all your time reading supermarket tabloids, do you?" Rhett turned and motioned to Ned. "Ask your new boyfriend here, he can tell you that people changes. Heck, he gets it all on recording, don't you?"

Ned had nothing to say to that.

Then:

Her wedding hadn't exactly gone the way that she had wanted it to. In fact, if it wasn't for Shaggy and his friends, there was a very real chance that the wedding never would've happened at all. She had heard all about Shaggy's life, and all about the men in masks pretending to be ghosts, but she had never thought that she would get a first hand look at it. Her wedding ring apparently had a map that lead to treasure inside of it, and her photographer had pretended to be the ghost of McBaggy Rogers in order to steal it. It was as absurd as anything she had ever heard her brother describe. But all of that was in the past, now, she was on her honeymoon.

They didn't have the money to really go anywhere nice, so instead they decided to start their life together by going to a local hotel in nearby Gaterburg. It wasn't the nicest place they could've gone, but it was interesting, just to hear the way that Wilford spoke. "And here," he said, waving his hand towards some woods, "is where I'll build the power plant." He smiled. He had a big idea to help the local economy by building a new power plant, but one that ran on solar power. He had actually spent his entire college career trying to come up with a fresh, new way to convert solar power into usable energy. He had decided to go into Gaterburg first, because it was a smaller town and the people who lived there was desperate to try anything that may help their economy pick up. He had promised to hire local citizens for the job whenever possible.

Maggie loved to hear her husband talk about his passion, but it did make her wonder something, did she have a similar passion for something? She was passionate about Wilford, that much was true, but that wasn't the same thing like his passion. She was worried that his passion was going to overshadow her's. She had gone to school in communications and it was clear that she was going to play a role in the power plant, but was that what she wanted?

She had thought to call Daphne, she didn't have time to talk to her about this at the wedding with the ghost and all of that, but she didn't want to bother her husband, not on her honeymoon. She was going to let her concerns drift away for a little while and focus on trying to have the best honeymoon possible.

They were in a lovely little diner, and she was glowing as the waitress came over. "Can I get ya'll something?" She asked with a drawl that Maggie could tell wasn't how she normally talk. She realized that the waitress had them pegged as out of towners and people from out of town were more willing to tip more if they thought they were getting some down home service. Maggie was impressed really.

"What's the best meal you have?" Maggie said with a smile, "It's our honeymoon!"

"Well, darling, get right outta town! I've got something just special for ya'll! We're known for our gator steak. Y'ever have any?"

Maggie shook her head no, but she wasn't actually sure that she wanted any. The waitress could see the worry. "How about I do this for ya'll? I'll go back yonder and getcha a taste, if you like it, order it, if not pass. And I'll toss in a free piece of cake for the special day."

Maggie and Wilford agreed that it was good, and when they tried it, they had to admit that the gator wasn't bad. And the free cake was to die for. For Maggie, she had to admit, she loved being married.

Now:

Ned had moved himself away from the others, and went into the library where he was surprised to see Velma and Scooby looking through newspapers. This actually surprised him for numerous reasons. For one, he didn't realize that Scooby was able to read. He also didn't expect to see Scooby decide to help out Velma, he tended to spend most of his time with Shaggy. It was easy for Ned to forget that the dog was friends with the entire group. Lastly, he was surprised because the newspapers that Velma was reading weren't old. Normally, she had to really dig into the archives to find the information that she needed, but this time, it seemed like more recent events would suffice just fine for her.

"You have a question, Ned?" Velma asked without looking up from her paper.

"You know me well," he said as he took a seat next to her. "Why are you looking for information in recent papers? You normally have to go looking deeper into history for this stuff."

Velma waved her hands towards a set of older papers sitting on an empty chair that he had missed. "I did, but I realized something, it didn't show up at all for a while. I asked the librarian, the ship didn't actually show up until the last few months. It was your normal stuff at first, a whispered word here, a drunken man's notice there. There were two kids at lover's land who swore that they saw the ship and then things started to go missing."

Ned raised an eyebrow. "OK, but that's all at night. I think we can understand that it was certainly not night when we saw the ship."

Velma nodded. "Very good. Now, tell me why."

Ned laughed. "Alright, I'll play. I think the pirates are getting bolder. When they realized that they weren't stopped at night, they launched a surprise attack in the morning."

Velma grinned. "Yep! Any guesses about the first attack that they launched?"

Ned scratched his chin as he started to think about it. "The police station?"

Velma applauded happily. "You got it. They chased off the police, and now the entire town is terrified and the pirates are taking whatever they want, whenever they want to do it."

"How bold are they getting?"

"They basically run the town now. Even the newspaper has changed it's tone. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't running the newspaper at this point. At least I understand why Mr. F sent us here. We have a slight disadvantage here now."

"If they have the police and the newspaper, they could have spies everywhere. We may be looking at trying to solve a crime in a town that is actively working against us."

Velma nodded. "Yep. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't already aware of us. I suppose that only leaves us with one question."

"And what is that?"

"Are we even going to try to solve this crime?"

Ned raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't we? It's what we do, right? Stop men in masks who pretend to be ghosts? We aren't going to turn tail and run just because it's hard, are we?"

Then:

Maggie sighed as she looked over the paperwork for the power plant. It had been going very well, and she had found that there wasn't much in the way of work for her to do with it. There was some real initial issues getting the people of Gatorsburg to join up with them, but now that they've gone ahead and gotten everything up and running, her life was surprisingly simple. She didn't have to do much of anything, but still, she was being told how important that she was to the project. She was bored, and she really wanted to do something new with her life. She was going to have to do something and she had just asked Wilford for a private word.

She paced in the office, and sighed when her husband walked in. "What's bothering you, baby?"

She sat down. "I think I need a break."

Wilford went pale. "Wh…what did I do? What's wrong with us?"

Maggie shook her head quickly. "NO!" She screamed the word, but didn't intend to, "I didn't mean us. You're the best husband that I could ever hope for."

"Thank goodness," Wilford said as he placed his hand over his heart. "I think you nearly killed me."

Maggie grinned and gave her husband a quick kiss. "I'm sorry, silly." She waved her hand around the office. "I meant a break from all of this."

"What exactly are you looking for?"

She sighed. "I need something else. I want to live out my dreams."

"OK. What are they?"

"I want…adventure, I guess."

Wilford smirked. "If you start to break out into song right now, I'm going to have to ask for that divorce."

Maggie smacked him on the shoulder. "Jerk. I'm not going to break into song." She paused. "Probably."

Wilford grinned. "Fair enough.

Maggie smiled. "You are the best husband, you know that?"

Wilford shrugged. "I try. But it's easier when you have the best wife in the entire world."

He sat down and glanced at some paper work. "Are you going to leave?"

"I think something just for the weekends," she said, "but I really don't know what I am going to do."

Wilford placed a hand on his cheek. "What about your brother? Have you given any thought to asking him for help?"

Maggie shook her head. "I don't really want to go that route. What I am going to do, call him up and beg to be a third wheel for him and his friends?"

Wilford shrugged. "It's the best idea that I have. He's the one that knows things, you know."

Maggie sighed and stared at her phone. Her husband was being honest, and it was a good idea, but she didn't want to beg someone else for help. But what was she hoping was going to happen? That someone was going to put out a classified ad? That someone was just going to call her up?

Maggie stared at her phone, helpless in thought, as it started to ring.

Now:

Ned held the camera steady as Velma smiled slightly, and Ned was really concerned that she was going to be sick. Again. It was a pretty normal thing for her to get sick before the cameras started to roll. But she had already done that once. But given that normally it was just Ned watching her, and now the entire gang was watching it, it wouldn't have surprised him if she got sick again.

She took a deep breathe and motioned towards the ocean. "Once upon a time, the town of Brayfield was harassed by pirates."

She smiled. "For years, they would come and take off with whatever they wanted. It seemed pretty par for the course of life at that time, and then was put down hard when the United States first started up. Their small navy was enough to be able to stop the pirates. At this point, the pirates were sent to jail or to Davy Jones locker. They managed to sink the ship and it rested on the ground of the ocean until it disintegrated and was completely looted. All seemed to be forgotten, to the point that I could only find one mention of it after 1776. That is until years later. How many years, you may ask? A lot. It was pretty much ignored until three months ago. That is when the first attack happened."

"It was described as an amazing image when it first came out. From the bowels of the ocean a ship slowly started to rise and it came out, mast first, and slowly revealed the entire ship. It was decayed, bits of wood was following off it and it didn't look like anything that should've been able to float. In fact, the ship had numerous holes in it and cannons could be seen. However, the cannons were not the worst thing that could be seen. Next to the cannons were three pirates, but they had clearly seen better days. Their skin was dripping off their bones, and they were growling, waving a sword towards the man who saw the entire thing. However, he was a drunk, and he was waved off, as the sole witness. It slowly sank back into the water."

"Slowly, the attacks started. It waged against a couple in a car, having taken everything from them. We've deduced that they were using this to try to slowly attack the town bit by bit. When they finally made their final launch, they had managed to make sure that they couldn't be stopped. The police seem to be under their control. There seems to be no stopping them. And we're going to try."

She sighed. "I'm honestly not even sure how to start this. They are being protected by something and the takeover seemed to be really easy. Someone is helping them. I think it's pretty interesting that someone has tried to stop this. Why are we the only ones who are here to help? How is it that the state or even federal government hasn't helped out? I hate to sound all conspiracy theorist but the truth is out there somewhere. The pirates are only the start of it all. There is something keeping them safe. That is what we are up against. But even then, there is something else that I really find interesting."

"The thing that I find the most interesting is that they are being lead by someone that we have seen before. They are lead by the Ghost of Red Beard the Pirate!"

"The Ghost of Red Beard? Jeepers!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Again!" Fred said.

"Wait? Whose Red Beard?" Ned asked.