(A/N: I hope you guys are just as ready for this chapter as I am. I know it's been a little while and believe me am I very sorry, but I've been very busy with a lot of stuff lately. I tell you, it can be pretty tiring at times, I'm sure more than a few people can agree with that.

I'm hoping to make this chapter a little longer than the last couple of chapters, but we'll see how it turns out. This may be a bit of a challenge for me, but I'm always up for a challenge when it comes to my stories.

Just so you guys don't get confused, "Fred" with the Michigan team is Fred Jones and "Fred" with the Utah team is Fred Monroe. I know it can be confusing going from Michigan scenes to Utah scenes, but I get tired writing "Freddie" every time and sometimes it's hard for me to remember.)

O-I-O-V-O-I-O

June 7 Frankfort, Michigan - 12:00 PM (Eastern Time)

Fred, Daphne, and Velma were waiting in the parking lot above the docks for Kevin and Al to arrive. They had been there for several minutes, not that they were complaining, they will arrive when they arrive.

They had already dropped off Shaggy and Scooby for their flight to Utah with the rest of Kevin's team. They were pretty excited to be going and they couldn't stop salivating at the thought of all of the barbecue they could eat upon arrival.

The skies were cloudy yet small openings allowed sunlight to come through and shine down onto the water. The shining water seemed to indicate that it would be a productive day, but who knows what Mother Nature has in store for them.

A silver truck pulled up right next to them and someone got out of it. A familiar friendly voice called out to them as the driver came around the truck bed, "Hey, guys, nice to see you again."

They saw that the driver of the truck was Alex, Marty's son. They weren't sure why he was there, but they were glad he was, they would need all the help they could get while out on the water.

"Hey, Alex, what are you doing here?" Fred asked.

"My Dad told me to join you in case you need any additional help," he answered.

"We're glad you're here, we'll need all the help we can get out there," Daphne gestured to the lake by pointing her thumb towards it.

At the same time, another truck pulled up and Kevin and Al got out of it. Both carried duffle bags with them, most likely items they would need for their investigation of the lake.

Kevin greeted them by raising his hand, "Hey, sorry if we kept you waiting."

"Not worry," Velma reassured him with a smile.

"Yeah, I just got here, too," Alex joked slightly.

He and Kevin shook hands, "So glad you could make it, Alex."

"No problem, it's my pleasure," he replied. He then shook hands with Al.

"Are we ready to get out onto the lake?" Fred asked.

"Always," Al grinned with a slight laugh.

Kevin addressed Fred and the girls and pointed towards the docks, "Just follow us."

"Lead the way," he replied.

Kevin, Al, and Alex led them to a boat tied to the wharf. A man came out from the lower deck to greet them. He wore sunglasses with a jacket over a polo shirt.

He shook hands with Alex when he came up to the ship with the others, "Nice to see you again, Alex."

"You too, John," he smiled. He gestured to Fred and the girls and introduced them, "This is Fred, Daphne, and Velma, they're helping us with our investigation." He turned to them and introduced him to them, "Guys, this is John, he owns the boat."

He nodded at them, "Pleased to meet you."

They got onto the boat and Fred commented, "This is a real nice boat, John."

"Yeah, Marty really hooked us up," Al chuckled.

John stepped off the boat for a moment to untie it from the wharf. He leaped back on and went to the wheel to pilot it to wherever they needed to go.

Kevin took out a piece of paper from his bag and handed to him, "We'll start off in the area we were last."

"Okay," he started to input the coordinates into the navigational system.

Once that was done, he steered his boat out of the marina out into the water. Although they knew from past experience that going back to a location where they had bad luck in the past was a bad idea, it still couldn't hurt to return to the scene of the crime.

Fillmore, Utah - 10:00 AM (Mountain Time)

Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, Jeff, and Brad were on their way to the home of the man who sent Kevin the telegram sent to his great-grandfather. They had only been in Utah for a few hours and all five of them were tired, but they had to investigate this lead to see if it could help them with this case in any way.

They arrived at a home in a neighborhood where the homes were spread some distance apart from each other and got out of their rented car. They went up to the front door and Brad knocked on it. A man in his forties answered the knock.

He smiled politely and shook hands with him, "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Brandon, Kevin said you would be coming."

He nodded, "I'm Brad, thanks for having us."

He stopped shaking his hand and moved aside to let them in, "Please, come in."

They walked into his house and sat in the living room. Brad, Jeff, and Shaggy sat on the couch while Fred sat in a chair and Scooby sat on the floor near Shaggy.

"Now, as you know, you sent us a telegram that had been sent to your great-grandfather and what we want to know is if you could give us some information that could help us in our investigation," Fred explained.

Brandon nodded, "I think I can. I remember my father once telling me about the story of the telegram."

"What did he tell you exactly?" Jeff inquired.

"He told me that my great-grandfather was approached by Charles Hackley himself when he was visiting Muskegon and he said he wanted to hire him for a mining job," he explained.

"Right, right," Brad nodded.

"When he and a bunch of other miners arrived at the mine, they discovered over a dozen crates of gold bars all marked 'US Cavalry' and inside of the crates was a note telling them to melt it down to hide their origins," he told them. "More crates would arrive every few months to keep the operation going. After a shipment was missed, the telegram from Mr. Hackley arrived shortly after and all operations were abandoned almost immediately."

"Do you, like, know where the mine is?" Shaggy asked.

He shook his head, "No, but I do know it's within a six mile radius of Delta, which isn't too far from here."

"Alright, well," Jeff stood up, "thanks for your time."

He stood up and shook his head with a friendly smile, "No problem, it was my pleasure."

They left Brandon's house and went back to their rented car. They all got inside and Brad started the engine.

"So, like, where are we going now?" Shaggy questioned, his hand scratching behind Scooby's ear.

"We're going to the desert," Fred answered.

"But first we'll have to rent ATVs or else we'll be wandering around the desert on foot all day," Brad joked slightly.

Five miles into Lake Michigan - 12:30 PM (Eastern Time)

John took them to the location the coordinates told him to go and dropped anchor. They were set into place for a look around the area whenever they were ready.

Kevin, Al, and Fred went down below deck to change into their wetsuits in order to dive into the water. The wetsuits were a pain to put on, but at least they would keep them alive while down there.

They went back up to the main deck once they were finished putting them on. They then started to hook up their diving gear.

"It'll have to be a quick dive, guys. I just checked the weather on my phone and it says it's going to rain within the next hour," Daphne informed them.

"Uh oh, that's bad, if these waters get too choppy we're gonna have a serious problem," Al uttered, scratching the back of his neck.

Kevin took out something from the duffle bag he brought. It was a metal detector.

"We'll use this metal detector to scan the lake bed for anything metallic from the Civil War era," he held up the said device.

They put on their breathing equipment and stepped onto the diving deck. One by one, they stepped into the water and slowly descended into the cool waters of the lake.

They went along markers at every ten feet as they made their way down to the lake bed. It was a painfully slow process, but it was for their safety and health.

Soon they were nearly touching the sandy floor of the lake and started to swim around the area. Kevin waved the metal detector around, trying to get a signal on anything that could be down there, so far, nothing.

"Are you getting anything?" his brother asked.

"Negatory," he replied, a little glum and very disappointed.

"I don't know how you'd be able to find anything anyway," Fred remarked, mostly to himself. "It's so murky down here you wouldn't be able to find a thing if you did get a signal."

"You're right about that," Kevin agreed, "I can hardly see anything past the metal detector."

"I know you guys just got down there, but you might want to resurface within the next ten minutes or so," Velma advised over the walkie-talkie, "I can see storm clouds coming our way from the boat."

"Thanks, Velma," Al responded. "Did you guys get that?"

"Yeah, I did," his older brother answered.

"Same here," Fred replied, too.

Meanwhile, on the boat, Velma set down the radio she used to contact the three of them. The storm clouds got closer to the boat, making her nervous because she knows how harsh rain and wind can get over water.

Alex was looking over some of the equipment and started to walk away to go below deck for a moment. Then, something caught him in the corner of his eye.

It was something he saw on the sonar scanner. He could see a thin, elongated object near their location... and it was moving towards them. Whatever this was, it was huge and coming at them fast! Faster than anything he had even seen on a sonar.

His eyes went wide and he took the radio Velma used and immediately contacted the others, "Guys, get out of the water! Get out of the water now! Now!"

The desert outside of Delta, Utah - 11:30 AM (Mountain Time)

They came to a stop once they were a mile into the desert. The five of them got out of the car and unloaded the four ATVs they just rented from the trailer that was rented with them.

Fred took out a map of the area and spread it across the side of the car. He used a marker to mark their search perimeter. "If we're in the right area, the mine shouldn't be too far from our current location."

"We're just west of the area we searched a couple years ago," Brad pointed in the direction he referred to.

"You guys have been in this area before?" Shaggy asked.

"We were just a few miles or so away from here two years ago to try to find evidence of Kevin's theory to convince Marty to fund our research," Jeff explained. "We weren't able to find anything, but Marty still agreed to fund us in the end."

"He sure is a nice guy, huh, Scoob?" he asked his best friend.

"Reah, rery rice," he agreed.

Fred, Brad, and Jeff mounted their ATVs and started them. Shaggy mounted his ATV as well and Scooby jumped onto the seat and sat behind him.

"Like, ready to go, Scooby?" he asked him again.

"Ready, Rhaggy," he replied, placing a helmet on his head in a manner that was almost comedic.

Brad and Jeff took off to search in the north, while Fred went with Shaggy and Scooby to the east. With some luck, perhaps they will find the mine, or perhaps they will run into an imminent danger that will cause them to have less than empty hands at the end of their investigation.

O-I-O-V-O-I-O

(A/N: Again, I apologize that this is kind of short, but I hope you guys enjoyed the new chapter. I hope you'll stick around for the next chapter (whenever I'm able to get to it), I won't give any spoilers but I will say that there be some supernatural involvement on both sides.

I'm also very sorry that I haven't updated in quite a while. I've been working on some of my other stories and the new school year recently started, so that's taking up some of my time right now.

I hope you guys enjoy your Labor Day weekend. I'll see all of you very soon.)