Author's Note: As previously announced, this is a rewrite of the SDMI series premiere of the same name, albeit with a different take from the source material, as well as my Timeline One rewrite, which as one of the earliest stories I've written, certainly could use a storyline overhaul.

As such, while the source material's overall story arc will remain in place, expect some differences in the way it is presented.

I don't own Scooby-Doo. Hanna-Barbera Productions and Warner Bros. does.

Chapter 1: A Wax Phantom and a gruesome discovery

April 9, 2010

As Sheriff Bronson Stone, the Sheriff of Crystal Cove County, pulled up to the building that houses the KLMN television station and its studios in downtown Coolsville, he was wondering what could have possessed him to go with decaf earlier that afternoon.

The former Marine Scout Sniper didn't say a word as he got off his parked cruiser and walking towards the building, only nodding at the two deputies stationed at the entrance before an uniformed lieutenant joined him.

"Where are they, Lieutenant?" Stone sighed once he was in the building.

"In the main studio room, sir." The lieutenant replied as he led the way. His nametag read "Krieg".

As the sheriff followed him, Krieg continued, "I have to admit that I am still trying to process this whole affair, but let's just say that this television station will be changing management soon."

"Oh?" Stone raised an eyebrow as the lieutenant led him into the main studio room.

After opening the door to the main studio room, Krieg turned towards him and said, "Why don't you see for yourself, sir?"

Stone grunted as he entered, not surprised one bit when he saw Mystery Inc., comprising of Fred Jones, Jr., Velma Dinkley, Daphne Anne Blake, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, and the latter's Great Dane, Scooby Doo, in the room and wrapping up their statements with the attending deputies.

He was, however, surprised to see the television station's manager, Roger Stevens, with his hands behind his back and handcuffed.

"That your Wax Phantom?" Stone demanded as he pointed at the station's manager.

"Roger Stevens has been embezzling funds related to the construction of Funland, the KLMN-sponsored theme park at the Crystal Cove State Beach." Velma explained. "Specifically, the funds in question were pertaining to the erection of a wax museum in Funland."

"Max Grisby, who was the prime time host of KLMN-aired and produced documentaries and other news programs, has alleged that the funds for the wax museum has been embezzled." Fred said. "And when he uncovered evidence that implicated Mr. Stevens in the embezzlement, he confronted him on the matter and threatened to go to the press."

"The confrontation became heated and Grisby was stabbed." Shaggy spoke. "To dispose of Grisby's corpse, Stevens had him dumped into a vat of wax and conjured up the story behind the Wax Phantom to cover the theft and his tracks."

"As well as fleeing abroad with his embezzled money." Daphne added.

Detective Beau Neville nodded as he held up an evidence bag containing the bloody knife and said, "Our forensic accountant was able to trace the stolen money to an offshore bank account in the Bahamas under the alias of Steve Robertson with transactions from the shell companies matching the withdrawal amounts from the television station's account and his own personal account."

Stevens only scowled as he muttered, "Sure as h*ll wished you kids had minded your own business!"

"Whatever business you've got going is now our business, Mr. Stevens." Neville snapped as he nodded at the two escorting deputies and added, "You guys read him his rights?"

"We did." Deputy Finnigan nodded.

Neville nodded back, which was their signal to take Stevens away.

Once the disgraced ex-manager was taken away, Stone turned towards the gang with his hands on his hips. "I don't suppose it'll do you kids any good if I repeat my message about playing detective, eh?"

The gang all exchanged looks with each other and shrugged in a dismissive matter, prompting Stone to continued, "I'm serious, kids. It's not exactly normal for kids your age to be seeing all those dead bodies on a regular basis, not when the average rate of seeing a dead body puts you kids on par with your peers living under siege in a war zone."

"And what point are you trying to make, Sheriff?" Fred asked.

Sighing exasperatedly, the sheriff responded, "What I'm trying to say is that you leave the crime-fighting and solving crimes to my men and I."

Pointing to his badge, he added, "There's a reason why my men and I wear this badge."

When neither of the gang flinched, Stone exhaled as he waved his hand dismissively and said, "Anyway, it's getting late now. You kids better get home before your parents start bombarding me with calls or even file a missing person's report."

The gang all nodded before they headed out of the studio room, leaving Stone to place his hand back on his right hip.

He wouldn't admit it out loud, but truth be told, he felt good being able to see the gang doing what they're doing on a regular basis, even if he disapproved of their methods or their insistence of continuing to take the law into their own hands.

Also, it wasn't lost on him that it seemed wherever the gang goes, death is always not far behind.

Ever since Shaggy nearly drowned in the old swimming pool in the abandoned ruins of the old school underground nearly six months prior in what was the gang's first adventure, it has also become a regular occurrence for the gang to encounter danger whenever on their cases.

Whether be Fred and the girls coming close to drowning after getting themselves locked in a flooded cabin of a wrecked yacht, or Shaggy and Scooby almost getting themselves blown up by fireworks when trapped in a storeroom, the pattern of danger and close calls with death rears its head time and again.

It is as if Shaggy's deceased old man was keeping an eye on the gang from afar, which may certainly explain the gang's luck time and again when they were facing danger.

Or better yet, maybe it was the old man's way of enacting payback against him for all those years of him being a pain.

Stone snorted as he walked to Krieg, who could tell that he has been deep in thought since dismissing the gang.

"Another night, another flood of thoughts giving you grief as a result of those kids, sir?" Krieg asked.

"You can say that, Jonny." Stone shrugged. "They've got the right mind in their drive to solve those cases and help others..."

"However?" Krieg raised an eyebrow.

"It's just not healthy for them to be witnessing these gruesome scenes while they're still developing." Stone continued. "Not to mention taking the law in their own hands? They've been lucky so far neither of them had gotten themselves hurt badly or even killed, but at some point, they've gonna have to learn that cases like these are best left to the professionals to handle."

"Indeed, sir." Krieg nodded.

Glancing at his watch again, Stone said, "Anyhow, I'm off for the night, Jonny. Good night."

"'night, sir." Krieg waved his hand as the sheriff took his leave.

April 10, 2010

In spite of the fact that it was a Saturday morning, the streets feeding traffic into Main Street in downtown Coolsville was clogged as usual.

The clogged traffic was due to lane reductions on Main Street as the west half of the city's main north-south arterial throughfare, from the intersection with County Route 1 at the south to the intersection with Constitution Boulevard at the north, is dug up for infrastructure renewal with the installation of a new combined trunk sewer.

Given the rather-tight time frame for the works, it meant that construction activities were a constant 7 days a week, save for rainy days, and that Saturday wasn't any different with the tunnel-boring for where the new combined trunk sewer pipes will be laid.

As a means to future-proof the eventual separation of the sewers, the scope of the works included boring a new tunnel for the future installation of a separated storm sewer with the end goal of directing all sanitary wastewater discharge to the new combined trunk sewers.

Several blocks south of where the new combined trunk sewer pipes are being laid, with the works moving from north to south, a crew of construction workers were overseeing the tunnel-boring for the new combined trunk sewer.

A foreman was in the control room overseeing the boring progress, writing observations down on a clipboard, while a few workers were monitoring the progress from their stations.

One of them was enjoying some smoothie with a straw on a Fruitmeir's cup, which led to him becoming the focus of some glances from his colleagues and the foreman, who momentarily looked up from his clipboard and shook his head.

"Greg, can you lock up that smoothie in your locker, you know we're not allowed to have any food or drinks, except for water, at our stations." One of the workers urged.

"Sorry, Glenn." Greg said. "But you know that I couldn't finish it on time before the end of break, and you know how the smoothie needs to be refrigerated, don't you?"

"Yeah, but that's not to say that you should be having it at your station." Glenn responded. "Not when you risk damaging the equipment with a spill-"

Before Glenn could finish, there was some sudden shaking from behind, prompting the foreman to jump in.

"Woah!" The foreman exclaimed as everyone quickly turned their attention back to the equipment.

Once the shaking stopped and everyone at the stations confirmed that there were no anomalies in the boring machine's operations, the foreman said, "Glenn, Greg, you guys come with me and check what's going on."

"Right away, Gary." Glenn responded as he and Greg joined the foreman to investigate.

Not far north of where the boring machine had drilled, a section of wall had collapsed, creating a large hole.

"D*mn." Gary muttered as a few other nearby workers joined them in surveying the scene.

Turning towards the other workers that has joined them, the foreman continued, "Is everyone alright? What the h*ll just happened?"

As the other workers confirmed that they were all unharmed, one of them said, "I dunno, Gary, we were getting the reinforcements ready when the wall began to crack, must be the seepage from tunneling near the water table that's caused the collapse."

Gary merely grunted as he did a quick headcount. Once he was sure the workers that in the vicinity of the collapsed wall were accounted for, they next secure the scene and workplace health and safety and the county workplace inspectors were summoned.

While waiting for the workplace inspectors to arrive, the workers looked through the large hole created from the collapsed wall and were mesmerized to see what appeared to be an underground cave with a creek.

"D*mn, with the caves down here, it's any wonder a sinkhole hasn't opened up above." Gary remarked as they stepped through the hole and looked around.

As the workers surveyed the cave area near the hole, Glenn was amazed by the sight of the stalactites on the cave's ceiling that he did not see where he was going and ended up slipping into a hole.

His yelp of pain didn't went unnoticed, for Greg, Gary and a couple other workers heard him and stopped.

"Glenn?" Gary called out.

"Over here!" Glenn responded, prompting the quartet to rush over to the hole he's fallen into.

"Are you okay, Glenn?" Greg asked.

"Other than my butt being very sore from the hard landing, I think I'm..." Glenn was look around in the hole and trailed off when he saw that he wasn't alone in the hole.

When the quartet arrived, the third worker asked, "Glenn?"

Glenn looked rattled and he didn't say a word, prompting the fourth worker to ask, "Are you okay?"

"I think...I am." Glenn responded before pointing to his front, which was out of view of the others as they were standing on the edge leading to the side of the hole in front of him. "But I don't think...he is."

Kneeling down to take a look at what Glenn was pointing towards, Greg's eyes widened and the smoothie cup from Fuitmeir's slipped out of his hand.

Laying on the other side of the hole in front of Glenn was a body cocooned in what appeared to be lime green slime, and what appeared to be a stalactite cone from the ceiling had fallen off and pierced right through the cocoon and body.

"Blessed Mother of J**us." Gary muttered in horror at the gruesome sight.

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