(A/N: I'm just gonna tell you guys this now instead of at the end. If you have Cartoon Network On Demand and you really like "Scooby-Doo" and "Teen Titans", then I have some great news. They have easily over 80% of every DTV "Scooby Doo" movie and a couple of the old cartoons. That's not all, "Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo" is on right now too!

Unfortunately, I have some bad news too, some of the movies are only on until the end of this month (others will be until the end of the year). So hurry it up if you want to watch them! I've already watched almost half of them.

X/X/X/X/X

While Marty and Al tried to calm down Kevin, who was still very distraught, the others decided to help by cleaning up the mess. The only problem was, no one was sure if anything had been stolen or if this was just vandalism.

When Freddie started to look through a stack of random papers he had just picked up off the floor, he saw what appeared to be an underwater photograph of the lakebed. But what he thought was both odd and intriguing was that there appeared to be a gold bar in the corner of the picture.

He decided to ask Jeff, who was the closest near him, picking up papers and other items on the floor, "Hey, Jeff, what's this?"

He stood up and looked at it, "Oh, that's a picture of the bottom of Lake Michigan. This was taken almost two years ago."

"Okay, but what about this gold bar?" he asked, circling his finger around the object in the picture.

He took a moment before explaining, "This," he tapped on the picture, "is what's been keeping us going on this whole... quest to find hundreds, if not thousands of gold bars at the bottom of Lake Michigan."

Velma heard their conversation, "I'm normally a skeptic when it comes to stories about a lost treasure, but even I have to admit that it's an interesting topic."

Kevin also heard their conversation, "Let me see that."

Jeff went over to them and handed it to him, "Here."

He took it and stared down at the gold bar in the picture with both hope and sadness. He started to chuckle a little when the memory of his recklessness suddenly popped into his mind.

Al seemed to know exactly which memory had just come to his brother's mind and let a chuckle too. "Hey, Kev, remember when you were so eager to get back into the water that you accidentally hit the diving ramp on the side of the boat we were on and dislocated your hip."

"Jeepers, that must've hurt," Daphne commented.

"It did, it hurt like hell and it still gives me some problems two years later," he replied, smiling.

Marty chuckled too, "I remember that day too, I was almost panicking when that happened."

"I think we all were," Fred agreed.

"I think we brought some other pictures of the lakebed from last year and the year before with us," Al told him.

It was then that Kevin suddenly realized something, they had brought all underwater imaging data from last year with them. "Has anyone found the sonar data collected last year on the lake?" he asked.

Everyone looked through their individual stacks, but no one could find anything like that. The closest thing to sonar data that was found by Shaggy and Scooby was a picture of the water taken from atop the lighthouse in Frankfort.

"Nope, nothing like that."

"Haven't found anything even close to anything relating to sonar in what I've found."

"No, sorry Kevin, I don't think any of the sonar data has been found yet."

Kevin stood up from the chair he sat in and went over to help them finish the search. There weren't too many items left on the floor anyway.

He gathered together the few items on the floor and searched through every single one of them himself. Nothing. He couldn't find anything.

He furrowed his eyebrows, "That's weird, I could've sworn I took all the evidence and information we have with us."

Marty then suddenly realized something himself, "Hey, does anyone know where Jillian is?"

"You mean that grouchy lady from earlier?" Shaggy questioned. "I thought she, like, took a lunch break or something."

"Reah, runch," Scooby licked his lips.

"Do you think she ran into the vandals and got kidnapped?" Daphne asked.

"Either that or she is the vandal," Freddie added.

Marty tried calling her on his phone, but got no answer, "Nothing, she's not picking up."

"Before everyone starts jumping to conclusions," Velma started. She adjusted her glasses and looked directly above the figure she saw earlier, "There's only one way to figure this out."

They all looked in the direction she was and saw what she was referring to. They saw a camera placed directly above the mysterious figure they saw when they first walked in.

"That's Tanit, she's a Punic and Phoenician goddess and the chief deity of Carthage. She was later adopted by different cultures in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East," Marty explained. "It's also believed that she was adopted by the Knights Templar as a protector during wars."

"Well, maybe in this case she can be our guardian angel," Alex commented.

A beckoning shine came from the camera lens, as if it was saying, 'I saw everything. Come to me if you wish to learn the truth.'

Marty got Alex to get the camera down and Velma got her laptop out of the Mystery Machine. She transferred the video feed in the camera to her laptop. Nearly everyone gathered around and watched what had been recorded.

The camera feed revealed that after everyone left the front area, Jillian started to open all the briefcases, folders and boxes Kevin and his team brought. At first, she looked through them one-by-one, then she got a phone call and afterwards started to scatter everything onto the floor. She grabbed some papers and other items, presumably the missing sonar data, and rushed out the door.

"Well, now we know what happened to the sonar data," Freddie deadpanned. Daphne roughly nudged his side, "Hey!"

"But what about the missing thumb drive?" Alex asked.

"Maybe we should replay the footage in case we missed something," Jeff suggested.

Kevin stood close to Velma as she replayed the footage. At one particular scene he exclaimed, "There! Pause this scene and zoom in as much as you can."

She did just that, due to zooming in so much the image was pixelated at first but eventually cleared up. As soon as it did it revealed what was already suspected, Jillian had taken the thumb drive just moments before she left.

Saddened and full of hopelessness, Kevin went back to his chair and slumped in it as he sat. Now, all chances of finding the Confederate gold were in the hands of greedy thieves.

"Oh, this is so sad," Daphne frowned.

"Yeah, real sad," Shaggy agreed.

"Reah, real rad," Scooby repeated, sniffling and using his tail to wipe away a tear.

"It's not your fault," he muttered in reassurance.

"It's mostly our fault, we shouldn't have brought all of our evidence and data with us," Brad stated.

On a hunch, Velma decided to do a little research after his statement. She had a sinking feeling that there was another reason why Jillian needed Kevin's research data.

"So, what now?" Alex asked his father.

"I'll tell you what we can't do," Marty started, "we can't quit."

"I don't know, Marty, with all of our sonar data gone, it just doesn't seem possible for us to continue with this mystery," Kevin replied grimly.

"Do you really think I decided to help you guys by funding you and your research because I knew that this was going to be an easy search?" he asked seriously.

He gave him no answer, so he decided to continue. Perhaps a little encouragement is just what he needs.

"Treasure hunting isn't easy and that's why I enjoy it so much, no matter how many times it may crush and disappoint you. If there's one thing I know is that you can't quit; not now, not ever," he encouraged.

"Marty, you're right, we can't quit, we won't quit until we find this treasure!" he declared enthusiastically.

At that moment Velma exclaimed, "Jinkies!"

"What is it, Velma?" Daphne asked.

"According to my research, there have been many recent attacks on people diving in Lake Michigan," she explained.

Kevin and Marty looked at each other with blank yet slightly worried expressions, then turned their attention back to her. They knew exactly what she had found.

She continued, "All the incidents happened within ten or less miles off the lake coast. All of the victims claimed they were attacked by a serpentine monster. They claimed the monster drove them up to the surface and beached their boats. After the attack, the spirit of Charles Hackley, a very noteable and important figure in Muskegon County, appeared to them and warned them to stay away from alleged Confederate gold at the bottom of the lake."

"Zoinks! First lake monsters, now ghosts?!" Shaggy screeched.

She ignored him and still continued, "Here's something else; I did a little research on the victims and found that most of them have criminal records. Most of them have convictions for theft, robbery, and fraud. Also, here's what's really odd: all of the incidents happened in the areas between Muskegon and Frankfort."

Marty sighed, "I guess we all knew this would happen sooner or later."

"And why's that, Mr. Lagina?" Daphne asked.

"Well, you see, last year just a day or so before we had to put our search of lake on hold until Spring, we sent two professional divers down to explore the lakebed with metal detectors. Soon after they told us they had found gold-colored bricks and we all got excited, thinking that eight years of hard work had finally paid off, but when they used the metal detectors on the objects, there was no hit, they were not gold bars. What they found were bricks painted gold to fool anyone searching down there. Ever since then all hope of finding the actual gold has been fading away," Kevin explained.

The gang was dumbfounded by this revelation yet wondered what this had to do with the monster or the ghost. Though, this wasn't exactly the first time they had a case like this and figured they most likely had something to do with the gold he was talking about. Though, perhaps this particular case would prove to be much more complex than first thought to be.

"Since that day, it feels like you have to look over your shoulder wherever, everywhere you go," Al added.

"Jeepers, that sounds like a very scary way to live your life," Daphne almost sounded a little frightened as she said it.

"Yeah, like, imagine people just staring at you at all sides as you try to enjoy a burger or a pizza or a burger pizza or a pizza burger," Shaggy and Scooby licked their lips at the thought of the possibilities.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Freddie asked.

"I don't know…" Marty trailed off with uncertainty.

"Well, they do seem to have experience when dealing with monsters, ghosts, and other things," Jeff pointed out.

"They might be young but they do seem to have the knowledge of experienced investigators," Fred added.

"And the problems we have going on with the lake is definitely worth investigating," Brad included.

"Plus it would be pretty neat to have mystery solvers on our team," Alex smiled.

"Well, they do say there is strength in numbers," Al told his brother, giving him a pointed look. And with that, the deal was sealed.

"Alright, you have a deal," Kevin agreed and grinned as he and Freddie shook hands once again, just as they did earlier that day.

"Well, gang, it looks like we have another mystery on our hands," he declared to his friends.

"Like, there goes the rest of another of our vacations," Shaggy muttered to Scooby.

"Reah, rhere goes another vacation," Scooby sulked.

The two started bawling their eyes out and hugged each other tightly as they cried in the other's arms. They could never catch a break for more than a couple of days.

How many times had this happened to them, again? Only every single day of their lives.

X/X/X/X/X

(A/N: I know this seems rushed and kind of short, but I'm going to be super busy this week and I just don't have the time to keep writing, even though I really want to continue with this chapter. If I did then the end result would be easily 4,000 words and it wouldn't get published until a week or so into December then the point of the author's note at the beginning is kind of pointless.

Speaking of the author's note, that's no joke, if you have Cartoon Network On Demand right now you will see a crap-ton of "Scooby-Doo" and "Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo". Two words: nostalgia overload.

Since it's unlikely that I'll be able to update or publish anything later on this week, I just want to say I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Again, I'm sorry for the short chapter and I hope you take advantage of the information I gave you. Once more, Happy Thanksgiving!)