Meanwhile, everyone was shown to be asleep in bunk beds, though their sleep wouldn't last long.
"Ugh... Someone is snoring too loud..." Atticus groaned in his sleep.
"Maybe it's you, Nancy." Cherry retorted, also groaning.
"How would I be kept awake by my own snoring?" Atticus remarked. "When you're tired, you make even less sense than usual."
"Sometimes I snore myself awake if I've had too much sleep." Cherry retorted.
"Yeah, well, you're-" Atticus began to glare.
"Hey... Everyone, wake up!" Daphne cried out.
"Great..." Cherry and Atticus groaned as Daphne woke up.
"Look, Daph, we're sorry if we woke ya, but-" Atticus began.
"No, listen!" Daphne told him as everyone else slowly woke up from her cries. "There's a monster outside the door!"
The sound soon got louder as Josie, Alexandra, Melody, and Sebastian came out the door between the main room.
"You heard it too?" Josie asked the others.
"Yes, and I wish we hadn't!" Velma replied nervously.
"Maybe someone misplaced a Spooky Jar?" Sabrina gulped.
"Doubt it." Salem told her.
"Hey, guys, you wanna hold down the racket?" Fred asked as he came out from the next room.
The girls all pointed in the direction of the snoring, and Fred opened the door. "Oh, no!" he exclaimed.
Outside, Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy were collapsed in a pile, with the first two snoring loudly.
"So those are the monsters." Josie commented.
"And they interrupted my beauty sleep!" Alexandra groused.
"Leave it to those three to fall asleep on the job." Fred admonished.
"Oh, good, you guys are here." Patch said as he jumped out.
"Spot, I thought we told you guys to go on guard duty." Cherry glared at the Dalmatian.
"I know, but it's a complicated and long story," Patch replied. "I saw the ghosts."
"Ghosts? Where?" Cherry asked.
"They disappeared into the wall," Patch explained before glancing at himself. "...Huh. I guess it wasn't such a long story."
"It's not their fault, Fred," Velma said as she picked up a bottle and sniffed it curiously, trying to be very careful as she examined it in the proper detective way. "Someone got to them with this vial of sleeping gas."
"Gee, that really is vile!" Melody giggled.
"Patch, you're sure you saw ghosts?" Atticus asked his dog.
"I did," Patch nodded. "But they keep disappearing on me."
"That proves I'm right," Alexandra remarked. "As usual; ghosts don't need gimmicks. So the boat can't be haunted!"
"Well, the boat is haunted." said Captain Cannaby as he came by.
"Are you sure?" asked Josie.
"Yes; the ghosts struck last night," The captain explained. "C'mon, I'll show you."
"Looks like we're not going back to sleep any time soon." Cherry said to herself.
"Nope." Patch shook his head.
"All right, someone wake up Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy." Mo suggested.
"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty." Velma smirked as she began to shake Shaggy.
"Huh?" Shaggy asked as he woke up. "What's up?"
"You are, finally." Cherry said in a snarky voice.
"Come on, we have to meet Captain Cannaby for something." Sabrina added.
"Fine by me." Lionel shrugged. "I was getting bored, to be honest."
"Like, what's going on?" Shaggy asked.
"The ghosts were here last night." Daphne replied.
Shaggy soon groaned before he fainted again.
"Whoops." Daphne then said.
"Daphne..." Cherry rolled her eyes with a groan.
Eventually, some time had passed and the three groups came to meet Captain Cannaby in his quarters as they had discussed.
"It had to be ghosts," Captain Cannaby told the group as he showed his bare and open safe to prove his point. "The door was open from the inside, and Johnny was on guard. "Someone evil came in last night, and opened our safe, and stole all our life savings."
"Well, who knew of the combination?" Alan asked as Atticus took notes in a notepad he brought with him.
"Just Johnny and me," Captain Cannaby replied. "Now with the money gone, The Dixie Queen will never sail again for sure."
"How awful!" Valerie frowned.
"Worse than that, the ghosts have Johnny!" Captain Cannaby then urgently warned them.
"Wait, huh? How did they capture him if they're intangible?" asked Lionel. "That's a pretty big question right there."
"Well, he's gone and they were here." Captain Cannaby informed like it was obvious.
"Yeah, I guess..." Cherry narrowed her eyes. "How do you know for sure it was them though?"
"This." Captain Cannaby said, showing a note.
Sabrina soon took a look at the note and read it aloud to the others. "''Abandon the Dixie Queen now or you'll never see Johnny Briggs again, Signed Captain Scavenger'."
"Well, I guess that about says it all." Salem remarked to himself.
"How about that, a ghost writer?" Melody giggled.
"Please try to take this seriously, won't you?" Atticus rolled his eyes as Melody's ditziness was even getting to him, though not to Cherry's extent.
"Atticus is right," replied Josie. "We've gotta find Johnny and solve this mystery!"
"No! You youngsters must leave!" Captain Cannaby exclaimed. "Before the ghost strikes again! It no longer matters; without money I can't restore the ship!"
Patch glanced over before his eyes widened as he saw Injun Joe's ghost appear in the portrait behind them who then smirked while everyone else was talking.
"So, what, you're just gonna leave?" Cherry asked him.
"Yes, to notify the sheriff in town," Captain Cannaby replied. "I hope you're smart enough to be gone when I return."
"Ahoy! Dixie Queen?!" Another man's voice soon called out.
"Ugh... Now what?" Sabrina asked with a frustrated sigh.
"Sounds like we have company." Valerie nodded in agreement.
"Yes! The wrong kind!" Captain Cannaby confirmed as he looked down to see who was there as a man was shown in a fancy red car from down below. "That's Lance Goodwin: the worst scalawag on the Mississippi!"
"As if this story needed any more characters," Lionel remarked. "But let's go see what the jerk wants."
The group soon gathered around together to see this "Lance Goodwin" as he looked very skeevy and greedy.
"Captain Cannaby, I've come with the last offer to buy the Dixie Queen for scrap iron!" The man called out from his fancy red car.
"You mean for a floatin' gambling casino, you scoundrel!" The captain retorted. "My answer is still NO!"
"You heard him!" Atticus added.
"Right, so make like a bee and buzz off!" Shaggy added.
"Very well, but I suggest you discuss my offer with your partner, Johnny!" Lance called back before driving off. "If he's ever seen again!" he then added as he laughed maliciously down the docks.
"Oh, yeah, that totally wasn't creepy at all." Cherry rolled her eyes.
"What did he mean 'if he's ever seen again'?" Daphne soon asked suspiciously.
"And how did he know that Johnny was missing?" Velma added.
"I think we got ourselves a suspect, Mystery Team." Atticus spoke up as he balanced his pencil on his earlobe.
"Yup, yup." Lionel nodded.
"So it's decided then," declared Josie. "We'll give the Dixie Queen our own beauty treatment!"
The group let out a rousing cheer.
"What about g-ghosts?" asked Alexander.
"Relax," Velma told him. "Everybody knows ghosts only haunt at night!"
But on the upper half of the boat, Captain Scavenger was watching. "That's what you think!" he cackled.
Cherry shuddered as she shook a chill down her spine, but she didn't look scared.
"Doesn't the Mystery Machine have some ghost hunting stuff or something?" Atticus asked the mystery solving gang.
"Yeah, we have traps in there," Daphne nodded. "In case those creepies show up again."
"Great." Atticus smiled.
Sebastian snickered as he went to go and scare Shaggy, Scooby, and Alexander again.
"Okay, buddy, I think you should ease up on the pranks for a little while." Salem advised his old friend.
"Naaah, I'm having way too much fun!" Sebastian snickered as he crawled under the tarp.
"Are you sure ghosts only haunt at night?" asked Shaggy.
"Look around," said Fred. "Do you see any ghosts?"
Scooby turned around and shivered as Sebastian waved around, trying to look like a ghost.
"N-Now that ya mention it..." Alexander said nervously.
"You're not a g-g-ghost, are ya?" Shaggy added.
The lump soon nodded to answer his question as Sebastian was just being his trickster self.
"YIKES!" Shaggy, Alexander, and Scooby yelped and soon ran off. "GHOST!"
Shaggy shut the door behind them once they ran in.
"That's no ghost, it's just Sebastian." Salem told Cherry and the others in her group.
"Tell your cat to stop scaring my friends!" Sabrina glared at Alexandra, firmly putting her hands on her hips.
"Oh, fine." Alexandra said, surprised at Sebastian being soaked to the bone.
"It'll be a while before the captain gets back with the sheriff," said Alan. "So let's start fixing up the old girl!"
"Boy, will Captain Cannaby be surprised." Daphne replied.
"Let's hope in a good way." Atticus remarked as Patch nodded in agreement.
And so, everyone began to help each other out with fixing up The Dixie Queen.
"Are you two a couple?" Cherry asked Josie and Alan.
Josie and Alan blushed sheepishly. "Uh... Well..." they then spoke together nervously and bashfully.
"Sometimes I can tell." Cherry smirked.
"We've thought about it," Josie replied. "Though it makes Alexandra unhappy most of the time."
"Believe me, I've been in a similar situation in school about this one boy Harvey," Sabrina said while blushing. "I really like him, sometimes I wonder if he likes me back."
"Definitely more since we're teenagers now," Cherry reassured. "You two just seemed more like friends back in middle school."
"You mean like you and Lionel?" Sabrina asked.
"I wasn't sure what to think of Lionel when I first met him," Cherry shrugged. "Though it's fun to rent a couple of bad movies together and just riff on them while eating snacks."
"Oh, definitely." Lionel agreed as he was painting a part of the wall.
"Hmm..." Alexandra hummed in thought as she looked down to Josie and Alan being together. "Now's my chance to get Alan alone. Now don't forget, Sebastian, when I give the signal; pull the rope!"
Sebastian then nodded to his owner from where he was hiding.
"Hey, Alexandra, what's up?" Alan greeted the black-haired girl.
"You mean 'what's down'?" Alexandra smirked before whistling to her cat.
Sebastian snickered as he then reached for the rope before someone handed him the rope and the cat began to pull on it, unaware of the ghost's assistance.
"What're you up to now?" Cherry glared at Alexandra.
"What's it to you, Four Eyes?" Alexandra glared back.
"Oh, so original, I've never been called that before." Cherry dryly scoffed.
"Just keep out of my business, and I'll keep out of yours." Alexandra remarked.
Cherry just rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue as she walked off.
"Ignore her." Lionel told Cherry.
"Yeah... I just guess no matter where you go, there's always gonna be girls like that." Cherry scoffed.
The bench that had Josie and Alan sitting together soon began to shake all around.
"What's going on?" Josie soon asked.
"You're going off!" Alexandra giggled meanly.
Josie and Alexandra held each other as the bench tilted and Alexandra soon fell right off and landed right in the mud.
"Honestly, Alexandra, this is no time for a mud bath!" Josie smirked at the mean girl.
"See?" Lionel told Cherry. "Every jerk gets theirs sooner or later!"
"Mm-hmm~" Cherry smirked and nodded. "Glad I didn't interfere with that one then."
Meanwhile, below deck, Daphne, Fred, and Valerie were tightening some bolts.
"Is that piston rod secured?" asked Valerie.
"All set!" replied Fred.
"Let's fire it up!" Valerie declared as she pulled a lever, and the gears began to churn.
However, Injun Joe threw one of his chains into the gears, causing them to stop up.
"Something's wrong." Fred frowned in concern.
Valerie then pulled the lever up to stop the machine.
"Any ideas, Valerie?" Daphne asked.
"According to my expertise in Marine Gadgets, something's on the fritz." Valerie informed.
"I think I see the problem," Fred pointed out. "A broken chain!"
"Now that's a real problem." Daphne added.
Valerie soon went over to the gears and picked up the chain, beginning to look a bit suspicious. "This chain wasn't here a minute ago." she then remarked to Fred and Daphne.
"But where'd this chain come from?" asked Daphne.
"Would you believe, Injun Joe's manacle?" asked Valerie.
"Nope," Fred replied.
"Me neither!" Valerie agreed. "Activate the automatic oiler, and we'll try again!"
But Injun Joe peeked out again, and swapped the labels for the "automatic oiler" and "automatic sprinkler".
"Automatic Oilier, here goes!" Fred called out before pulling the wrong switch as water sprinkled over the girls.
"Good grief, it's raining!" Daphne cried out.
"No, it's the fire extinguisher sprinklers." Valerie told her.
"Nothing is doing what it's supposed to be doing; this can only mean one thing." Fred frowned.
"You mean the boat is haunted?" Daphne asked him in dismay.
"That's the spirit!" Valerie piped up.
Injun Joe soon belted out sinister laughter at their misfortune.
Meanwhile, Shaggy, Scooby, Patch, Scrappy, Cherry, Atticus, and Lionel were together as Shaggy took out the hose.
"What're you gonna do with that hose, Shaggy?" Cherry asked with her hands in her pockets.
"We can't swab the deck without a little water." Shaggy simply stated.
"Water! Right!" Scooby nodded.
"Set the force to in the middle and now below, we don't want water spraying all over the place." Atticus cautioned.
Scooby set it to middle speed, but Captain Scavenger set it to full force, so when Shaggy used the hose, it was spraying all around like crazy.
"Hey! I said a little water!" Shaggy yelped as it thrashed around madly.
Captain Scavenger smirked to himself as he slunk through another doorway.
"Hey! Who's the jokester?!" Atticus complained.
"I think it was our ghosts." Cherry glared.
"That sounds about right." Patch agreed as he nodded to Cherry.
"I just know that I'm getting wet and I don't like it." Cherry glared as she took off her dripping glasses.
Lionel gave her a large fluffy towel, and zapped himself dry. Cherry muffled as she accepted the towel and soon began to dry herself off.
Meanwhile, Melody was with Mo, Sabrina, Salem, and Alexander as they each had a broom.
"Gosh, you guys, where do we begin?" Melody wondered.
"Melody, why don't we guys clean the floor while you girls go on stage?" Alexander suggested.
"Oh, I couldn't do that, I get stage fright." Melody giggled.
"Oh, brother." Salem rolled his golden eyes.
Then suddenly, the piano began to play by itself which startled Sabrina and Salem just a little bit.
"Great! Music while we work." Alexander commented.
"Sure! And look at the piano player!" Melody pointed out. "I've seen it played with one hand, but no hands?"
"It's haunted," Alexander said about the piano. "I-I'd frighten them away."
"Naturally," Melody smiled at him. "You know how sensitive musicians are."
"Uh... Let's clean this place and split it." Alexander suggested.
"Whatever you say, Alexander." Melody giggled before sweeping up the floor.
"Somehow, I've seen a little stranger." Sabrina shrugged as she swept up the floor with them.
Eventually, the dust began to get a little too much as Alexander, Mo, Sabrina, and Salem started to cough.
"Whoa! Melody, let's turn down the volume on the dust, huh?" Mo asked as she coughed a bit.
"Air! Gimme air!" Alexander shouted as he opened a porthole, only to be sprayed by the hose. "I said air! Oh, no! Water! That means the boat is sinking!"
Everyone else coughed from the thick dust cloud and it soon cleared as Salem and Alexander seemed to be missing.
"Alexander?" Melody and Mo called.
"Salem?" Sabrina added. "Where'd you go?"
"Up here!" Alexander replied, revealing that he was hanging onto a ceiling fan with the cursed warlock.
"What are you doing, giving an autograph to that fan?" Melody giggled.
Mo and Sabrina sighed at Melody's attempt at a joke. Suddenly, the fan began to spin around and around with Salem and Alexander on it, both of them crying out suddenly.
"Stop! Slow down!" Salem yelped. "I think I'm gonna hack up a furball!"
"We gotta do something!" Sabrina cried out. "There must be something in the other room." she then guessed.
"We better go check first." Mo suggested.
Melody soon came into the other room as Shaggy was still flying around with the hose while Atticus, Lionel, and Cherry tried to get him down, though they had a bit of a hard time in doing so.
"MELODY! Shut off the water!" Shaggy cried out.
"Oh, right." Atticus said as Cherry and Lionel gave him deadpan gazes.
"Oh, all right, Shaggy." Melody said as she went over and turned off the water. As soon as she shut it off, Shaggy fell into Scooby's arms and they slipped onto the water wheel for the steamboat.
"See what'cha did?" Shaggy asked.
"So sue me!" Scooby-Doo replied.
"Maybe now they'll leave." remarked Injun Joe.
"And if they don't, they'll be sorry." agreed Captain Scavenger.
Atticus began to take a look around.
"Looking for something, Atticus?" Scrappy asked.
"Just some clues or evidence," Atticus replied. "This is getting more and more fishy."
"You said it." Patch agreed.
"We'll worry about that when we meet up with the others," Cherry said. "...Did you find anything though?"
"Nothing yet, but someone's been setting us up with the water." Atticus replied.
"Someone's been messing with us too when we were sweeping with Melody and Alexander." Mo said.
"I feel like it was the same person or at least some form of party," Sabrina remarked. "Probably those ghosts we've been hearing about."
Just then, the water wheel began to spin, causing Shaggy and Scooby to get flung into the water... only to come up with a crab and turtle clinging to their backs. Atticus and Patch winced a bit for Shaggy and Scooby.
"Like, quit tailgating, turtle!" Shaggy yelped.
"Yeow!" Scooby cried out.
"Look! It's Shaggy and Scooby!" Daphne pointed out.
"Quick, Valerie! Stop the engine!" Fred ordered.
Valerie then pulled the lever again as Shaggy and Scooby kept running on the wheel and soon splashed right into the water.
"I-I-I think our washing is all wet!" Shaggy told Scooby.
"Right on!" Scooby agreed.
"Come on, guys; that's enough chores for one day," Scrappy said, coming over to the two. "We gotta meet up with the others."
A LITTLE LATER...
"Well, gang, we did it," said Valerie.
"And it looks super!" Alan exclaimed.
"Just like brand-new," Josie smiled. "Won't Captain Cannaby be surprised!"
"I'm sure he will." Atticus smiled.
They soon heard a car coming as Patch turned around to see that someone was indeed coming.
"Maybe that's him coming with the sheriff now." Fred remarked.
"Alexander, come down from there!" Sabrina called out to the boy who was still painting with Sebastian.
"Yeah! We haven't got all day!" Alexandra added in impatience and annoyance.
"Relax, one last coat, and it's finished." Alexander told his sister as he had a paintbrush while with Sebastian.
Sebastian sneezed from the paintbrush while he sat with Alexander. Alexandra soon went to put on some lipstick and Sabrina hid a small smirk as she shot a blast of magic at the mean girl which soon made her lipstick go out of control and soon paint the black-haired girl's face all over as she couldn't control it.
"Ooh, that was just a little witchy." Salem whispered to Sabrina with a smirk.
"What can I say? it's in my blood." Sabrina shrugged with a smirk back.
The red car came to a stop nearby.
"It's Lance Goodwin!" Alan remarked.
"I wonder what he's doing here?" asked Valerie.
Lance got out of his car. "Ahoy, Captain Cannaby!" he called.
"Sorry, he's not aboard!" Josie replied.
"Yeah, uh, you'll have to come back later!" Atticus added.
"Oh, too bad!" Lance replied. "Then perhaps you'll relay my message!"
"And that would be?" Cherry prompted.
"I just brought the Dixie Queen mortgage papers from the bank!" Lance told the group before laughing, rather wickedly. "So, they'll come due in three days, then the board will be mine!"
"You're forgetting one thing!" Josie glared.
"What's that?" Lance glared back.
"We're gonna put on a big band show and earn money!" Josie replied.
"So we get the last laugh!" Melody giggled.
"And just who do you think to get an audience for a haunted boat?" Lance glared.
"Tourists probably!" Cherry replied with a small smirk. "You ever hear of a Tourist Trap? People would pay lots of money to visit somewhere that has ghosts!"
"So we don't give a hoot about any old ghosts!" Fred added.
"Don't give a hoot, eh?" asked Captain Scavenger before he honked the boat whistle.
Alexander and Sebastian soon gasped in surprise at what had happened.
"Young meddlers, you will pay for this!" Lance glared. "And for not leaving when ya had the chance!"
"Ha, ha, ha!" Velma mocked. "You don't scare us!"
"Hehehe, speak for yourself, my dear, but anyone who looks like a ghost is enough to scare me!" Shaggy chuckled nervously before he then yelped and soon went to hide.
"I'm starting to feel suspicious deep inside my detective instincts about this Lance Goodwin character." Atticus remarked to the others as he decided to add that to his notes.
"Anyone else notice that Shaggy called Velma 'my dear'?" Cherry commented in the background.
"Yeah, but it's probably not worth paying attention to." Lionel shrugged.
"Say, maybe Atticus has something," Velma commented logically. "Lance Goodwin... Captain Scavenger... Is it possible...?"
"Well, all right, Nancy, what do you think?" Cherry asked Atticus.
"It feels so simple," Atticus replied logically. "Lance Goodwin is the ghost of Captain Scavenger."
"And maybe Johnny isn't missing..." Daphne soon added. "He might just be in with those ghosts!"
"We'll find out tonight when we rig this entire boat with ghost traps!" Fred advised.
"And me here with those creepies won't stand a ghostly of a chance." Alexandra glowered bravely and toughly.
"Yeah, you can just scare them with your face." Cherry smirked.
"Why, you!" Alexandra glared, looking like she was going to punch Cherry.
"Don't even try it!" Lionel scowled, getting between them.
"Hmph! Spoilsport!" Alexandra complained as she crossed her arms.
"Thanks." Cherry said to Lionel, but she rolled her eyes. Not at him though of course.
"No problem." Lionel smiled.