Hex Riffs and Wardrobe Shifts

by Grumpydrawer

Just a fanfic about the Hex Girls' changes to their performance outfits over time, the reasons they happen and their and their fans' responses to these changes.

4. Chapter 4

Apologizes for this chapter being a bit long compared to the others. This was originally part of the prior chapter back when I'd planned for each chapter to be set at a different time, before it got a bit out of hand and effectively turned into a SDMI In Fear of the Phantom fanfic. Was going to cut this down further into two more chapters but no where felt natural to do so and as such I left it was it is.

---

The walk from the hotel back to the concert hall had been surprisingly uneventful so far. No one had recognised them except for two girls they'd encountered shortly after leaving the hotel, who they'd stopped by to sign autographs, take photographs with and have a brief chat. Which was a bit unusual, but Thorn put it down to not many people being out at this hour and her and Dusk's clothes.

Dusk was wearing a long green dress, green bracelets and sandals, not unlike her original performance outfit except for how it fully covered her legs and had no sleeves, and had her hair down from her usual pigtails. That combined with her lack of makeup made her look less like the goth rockstar people knew and more like some generic sweet looking blonde. Whilst Luna was wearing a simple blue dress and matching boots, it wasn't often she wore the colour but on occasion she did though given how often she wore purple in publicity photos Thorn doubted people would recognise the pianist as quickly.

Then again Thorn was wearing a red crop top, black pants, black fingerless gloves and red boots which when combined with her usual makeup she still looked very much like the Thorn people knew and loved. So might just be luck less people had recognised and approached them too.

Just then she stopped suddenly in front of what looked like an old house, however from the construction quality Thorn could quickly tell it was a recent building rather than a genuine old one. The building was effectively a simple caricature of a haunted house, blatantly built cheaply. A sign above the door read Crystal Cove Spook Museum.

"This is the museum with the book store the Mayor mentioned last night!" said Thorn excitedly.

"Looks like it." commented Luna with a disapproving look at the building. "Looks like a rather tacky place."

"I guess." replied Thorn with a shrug before heading towards the front door. "Let's go in."

"But we're already late." pointed out Dusk. "Gus is going to be pissed at us."

"Who cares." said Luna as she followed after Thorn. "He'll just have to wait." That argument obviously persuaded Dusk as she followed after them.

Thorn held the door open for the two of them as they entered the museum, her bandmates smiling their thanks to her for doing so.

The entrance of the museum was dark in colouration and purposefully poorly lit, giving it an intentionally creepy feel. Placed around the room were a few creepy curios and statutes of monsters. The poor lighting also helped draw the eye towards the better lit entrance to the museum proper and its ticket stand, along with the entrance to the gift shop. Or the Haunted Gift Shop and Coffee Bar as the sign above the entrance said.

Thorn headed in the direction of the gift shop, her fellow Hex Girls following close behind her.

The gift shop was a stark contrast the entrance. It was mainly made of wood which when combined with the torches which lit it gave it a far warmer and less creepy feeling. Directly ahead of the entrance was a counter, flanking the aisle leading up to it were a few cases and stands with various paranormal and occult curios and trinkets, mostly stuff for tourists but there was a stand of various herbs that caught Thorn's interest. She'd have to check it later as she'd run low on some of the herbs she needed for her herbal remedies over the course of this tour. Overall the shop had a mystic yet rather comforting feeling, she liked this place already.

They headed over to the counter where a middle aged woman with brown hair, save a bit of the fringe which was dyed white, wearing an orange top and pink glasses was standing. A motherly smile gracing her face as she noticed them.

"Hello dears, welcome to the Crystal Cove Spook Museum's gift shop and coffee bar." greeted the woman friendlily. "I'm Angie Dinkley, the curator of this museum."

"Hi Angie." replied Thorn as she walked over towards the owner whilst Dusk and Luna followed after her. Once they reached the counter Thorn asked. "Do you have any books on magic and occult stuff? Preferably older books."

"Of course I do dear, we are in Crystal Cove after all." answered the owner. She pointed off to a couple rows of bookshelves to the right of the aisle, behind the cases and tables with the trinkets. "About in the middle of those bookshelves is where you'll find the section with books like that. They're mostly newer ones I'm afraid, but amongst them there's a couple older books too dear."

"Thanks." replied Thorn before she rushed off to find that section. She always loved searching through odd bookshops like this; you never knew what you'd find.

Once she located the occult section of the bookshelves she immediately set to work looking through the books. Most were either books she'd already bought and read before or were just generic books aimed at tourists. There were a few older books which struck her interest, but they were on specific magical creatures like werewolves rather than magic in general and so she ignored them. Both because they weren't what she was looking for and she'd quickly learnt early on in her research that books like that were always a load of crap.

On the bright side amongst the occult and magic books she found some on paganism. Most were New Age stuff but there were also some early 20th century ones which immediately drew her interest. After looking through them she put a few aside for purchase, most were on herbal and natural healing methods but there was also a book on pre-Roman paganism in the British Isles too which had caught her interest.

"Find anything?" asked Luna suddenly, startling Thorn. She'd been so focused on looking through the books that she hadn't heard Luna approach.

"Yeah a few books on paganism." answered Thorn as she turned to look at Luna. "Nothing major though."

"About what I expected." replied Luna. "This place has loads of books, but few of them are actually worth picking up."

"Well some of the trinkets looked interesting." said Thorn, before thinking back of the herbs she'd seen for sale. "And I'll definitely be looking over the herbs they have on the way out, since you know I need to restock."

"Interesting sure, but they're a load of crap." said Luna, distaste clear in her voice. "Aside from the herbs the only other things of worth were the few fossils on display, and they're ridiculously overpriced."

Thorn was about to reply when Dusk rounded on the corner of one of the shelves and bounced over to them with a book in hand.

"What book did you find Dusk?" asked Thorn curiously, knowing Dusk wasn't much of a reader.

"This!" said Dusk excitedly as she held up black book with a picture of a purple humanoid figure with one eye for a head and a skeleton design on its body. Skeleton Men of the Bermuda Triangle was the book's title.

"Really Dusk?" said Thorn as she rolled her eyes at the book's title. It looked like the sort of thing you'd see on the History Channel nowadays.

"What? The title's catchy." said Dusk in defence of her choice of book.

"I'll never understand how you're into that sort of stuff." commented Luna with a shake of her head. "Cryptids, aliens and all that other stuff is made up Dusk."

"So? Cryptids are cool!" said Dusk defensively, frowning as she looked up at Luna.

"Dusk's got a point there Luna. Cryptids are pretty cool." agreed Thorn.

"As figments of people's imagination and the stories behind how they were made up, sure." said Luna in partial agreement. "As for believing they're real, which is what books Dusk buys like that advocate, that's ridiculous and outlandish."

"So are witches! And yet we know they're real." protested Dusk.

"And I don't see anyone writing books about those real witches." countered Luna as she put her hands on her hips. "Last I checked every book Thorn's bought on the subject of anything magic related has been completely made up."

Thorn was a little hurt by the comment, even though she knew it was true.

"And that's just mentioning cryptids and magic." continued Luna. "That's nothing compared to those ridiculous conspiracy theory books you buy Dusk."

"They're not ridiculous Luna." replied Dusk, annoyance clear in her voice.

"Luna has a point there Dusk." agreed Thorn, remembering some of the bizarre conspiracy theories Dusk had talked about in the past. "Some of those conspiracy theory books you buy are pretty wacky."

"Like what one?" asked Dusk.

"Like the one you were going on about a few months ago." began Luna. "You were saying there's an evil space squid secretly controlling people and making them commit crimes. Whilst at the same time it manipulates groups of four people and an animal to follow an ancient scavenger hunt in order to find and release it."

"I remember that, Gus was convinced you'd been using drugs." said Thorn with a giggle as she recalled the memory of their manager's reaction to Dusk rambling about the space squid. "Wasn't until we showed him the book he believed otherwise."

"Ok ok, that one was a bit silly." agreed Dusk, clearly a little embarrassed by the memory. "But not all of them are like that!"

"Give us one example which isn't like that Dusk." questioned Luna.

"Like that one about the secret underwater Nazi base." said Dusk as she crossed her arms.

"That one was silly Dusk." said Luna bluntly. "In fact it was outright ridiculous. Even putting aside how it was an underwater base in waters near the USA that conspiracy theory claimed the base had facilities to build Nazi robots of all things."

"No that one was believable!" protested Dusk. "I had a book on it with tons of supporting evidence!"

"You do realise that book was probably 95% made up crap." said Luna disapprovingly.

"Nuh uh the Nazis had a plan to establish bases on island near the USA. That's a confirmed fact." defended Dusk. "So why not build an underwater base too?"

"Yeah a plan, they had lots of plans Dusk." replied Luna who looked exasperated. "Most of which, including that one, were just that. Plans. Plans that they thankfully never realised."

"Well…" began Dusk as Thorn turned her attention back to the occult and magic bookshelf, blocking out her bandmates incoming debate. She looked over a few more books, none catching her interest until she knelt down to look at the bottom shelf where she spied an old large dark blue book. The title on its worn spine was only partially readable, but there was enough readable to excite the Wiccan.

Thorn immediately pulled out the dark blue book, gasping as she saw the fully readable title. Dark Secrets of the Forgotten Gods, by Alexander Levre. She'd been trying to find a copy of this book for ages, and now finally she had one!

"What'd you find?" asked Dusk curiously, snapping Thorn from the brief trance she'd gone into upon finding the book.

"This." said Thorn excitedly as she stood up and showed her fellow Hex Girls the book. "Dark Secrets of the Forgotten Gods!"

"So what about this book made you so excited about it?" asked Luna curiously.

"I've read a few excerpts and seen pictures from its sections about magic online, and some of those excerpts and pictures perfectly match the magic we saw the Ravencrofts both do." explained Thorn, so excited by her find that she didn't register how unsettled Luna looked when she mentioned the Ravencrofts. "It was only in print briefly in the 1910s and is super rare. I've been trying to find a copy of it for ages."

"So this book has real stuff in it on magic? Cool!" said Dusk excitedly.

"Yeah it does, hang on I'll find one of the pictures." said Thorn before flipping through the book carefully, not wishing to damage the old book. After a bit of searching she came across a page with a drawing of a man shooting green beams from his bands. Below it was a drawing of a woman holding a book, presumably a spellbook, as a beam of green energy shot out it and spiralled into the sky. She held up the book so her fellow musicians could see the pictures. "See?"

"Yeah that's just like what Ben did!" said Dusk excitedly.

"Yeah, it sure is." agreed Luna with a lot less enthusiasm than her fellow Hex Girl.

"This'll finally help me make some actual progress researching my magic!" said Thorn excitedly as she resumed flipping through the pages, not registering what her bandmates said next. It'd be nice to finally make some real tangible progress after so many dead ends. This book might have some fabrication and lies in it, but at the least it had some truth and that was good enough for her. The various accurate drawings of people using magic she saw as she flipped through the book were a testament to that.

A brown hand then was waved in front of her eyes, blocking her view of the pages and snapping her from the focused state she'd been in.

"Hey Thorn?" questioned Luna. "You still there?"

"Ummm yeah, sorry I phased out a bit." answered Thorn sheepishly as she looked up from the book. "Got a bit too focused on the book then."

"So I saw." replied Luna, looking briefly at the book warily before switching back to looking at the Wiccan. "Anyway me and Dusk were saying we're ready to leave now if you are."

"Yeah I am." replied Thorn as she knelt down and picked up the small pile of books she'd picked out to purchase earlier. "Though first I want to have a look at what herbs they had before we buy these books."

"Fine by me." said Luna as she turned to head back to the main area of the shop, Thorn and Dusk following after her.

---

"Sage, that'd be good for any headaches we have." said Thorn as Luna watched her pick another jar filled with herbs off the shelf, before depositing it in her arms.

"Thorn don't you think these are enough?" asked Luna, as she eyed the large precariously balanced pile of herb filled jars in her arms. It felt like her fellow Hex Girl had picked up at least one of every type of herb on sale already.

"Hmm maybe." said Thorn, though Luna could tell she wasn't really listening to her. "Oh we could use some thyme too, for many when we get colds."

Luna just sighed in response. Why was it when they went shopping did she have to always being the one who carried all Thorn's impulse buys?

Meanwhile Dusk was over at the front till talking with Mrs Dinkley about conspiracy theories, they'd started with the secret underwater Nazi base but by now Luna had lost track as to what conspiracy theory they were talking about. On the front counter in between them was the stack of books her bandmates had picked out, ready to be purchased.

"Oh St. John's Wort would be good to have on hand too." said Thorn eagerly.

"Didn't you pick out a jar of that earlier?" asked Luna as she recognised the name.

"Maybe." replied Thorn after a moments of consideration. "But no harm in getting more than one jar of it."

"Oh dears I just noticed the time." said Ms. Dinkley, startling Luna as she hadn't notice the museum owner walk over to them. "I have to go do my Crystal Cove Spook Tour, but an employee will be along to man the till shortly. I do hope that isn't too much of an inconvenience."

"It's no problem." replied Luna as she turned to face Ms. Dinkley, seeing that Dusk had followed her over from the till. "Thorn is going to take ages picking out herbs anyway."

"Ah good. Well enjoy the rest of your day dears." said Ms. Dinkley with a kind smile, before she turned and walked out of the bookstore.

"Got enough jars there Luna?" asked Dusk with an amused smirk on her face as she eyed the precariously balanced pile of jars in her arms.

"Apparently not according to Thorn." answered Luna in annoyance, causing Dusk to giggle.

"Hey! I need all these herbs for my herbal remedies, which we need to ensure our vocal cords don't get damaged by our singing." defended Thorn as she spun round to face them.

"But not all of them are for our after concert rituals." said Dusk as she pointed at one of the jars. "I don't remember you using that stuff after a concert."

"Because that's rosemary Dusk, that's for helping combat colds." replied Thorn as she put her hands on her hips. "We need that so we won't have colds preventing us from preforming."

"But what about…" began Dusk as she pointed to another jar.

"Dusk I..I mean we need these herbs." interupted Thorn in annoyance. "Got it?"

"Got it." replied Dusk after a brief moment, Luna thankfully her bandmate decided to not start an argument for once.

Then Luna noticed a guy come out of a side door and head over to stand behind the bookstore's till, presumably the employee Ms. Dinkley had mentioned. He was of a medium height with short brown hair, going by his tanned skin he was potentially Hispanic.

"Though maybe it is best we don't get any more herbs today Thorn." said Luna, careful not set off Thorn again. "After all we've spent long enough here and we don't want Gus to worry something else happened to us, given last night's events."

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot about Gus." said Thorn as she ran a hand through her black hair. "We should've called him to tell him we were here."

"How about whilst you pay for the herbs and I carry them over there Dusk calls Gus to tell him where we are." suggested Luna, trying to alleviate some of the guitarist's guilt. "Better late than never."

"Yeah that'd work!" agreed Thorn with a smile. "You ok with calling him Dusk?"

"Ugh sure." answered Dusk, obviously irritated at being the one to have to talk to their manager. "Just buy the stuff quick so Gus won't chew us out as much."

"Thanks Dusk." said Thorn as she gave the drummer a quick hug. She then walked over to the till, Luna following behind her.

"I assume these are your books?" asked the employee as he looked up from his phone as they reached the front counter.

"Yeah they are." answered Thorn as she began taking the jars of herbs from Luna's arms and placing them on the counter, one by one.

"As are these." said Luna, smirking in amusement at the employee's startled expression as he saw the pile of jars in her arms.

"Oh you're…umm quite the herb enthusiast then." said the employee as he began to tally up the cost of all the herbs jars and their books.

"Suppose I am." replied Thorn with a brief giggle.

Luna turned and looked over to where Dusk was standing near the front of the shop, well into a conversation with Gus on her phone. Judging by how her bandmate didn't look either annoyed or moody Gus wasn't too annoyed with them for not informing him about them stopping off at the Spook Museum.

"You know, you have beautiful eyes." said Thorn flirtatiously, snapping Luna from her thoughts. As she turned back to face her bandmate she noticed Thorn was now leaning over the counter slightly.

"Umm thank you." said the employee awkwardly, startled by the sudden comment.

Thorn just smiled back and giggled whilst Luna rolled her eyes as she realised what Thorn was doing.

"In total that'll be three hundred and forty dollars and 95 cents miss." said the employee as he finished tallying up the combined price of their purchases.

"Hmmm." said Thorn as she got out her purse. "Think you could give me a discount?"

"Well you see miss we don't do dis..." began the employee before being cut off by Thorn.

"Just a little discount for little old me." said Thorn sweetly as she twiddled a bit of her hair around her finger. "Say 10%."

"I don't know tha…that's a bit much." stuttered out the employee.

"I suppose that a bit unreasonable of me." said Thorn sweetly as she fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Maybe a 5% discount instead."

"As I said miss we…" began the employee before he lost his words as Thorn leaned over the counter slightly, his eyes being drawn to the slight bit of cleavage the guitarist's crop top didn't cover.

"Aww come on." interupted Thorn seductively, her voice practically a purr. She then reached over and stroked the employee's cheek as she continued speaking. "Just a tiny discount for me. It'll be our little secret."

"Umm yeah I gue…guess I co…could give you a dis…discount." stuttered out the employee as his face turned red as Thorn stroked his cheek.

"Aww thank you." said Thorn sweetly as she withdrew her hand from the employee's cheek and got out her purse. "You're too kind."

The employee looked like he was going to say something, before instead he just decreased the price on the till by 5%. Thorn smiled sweetly at him as she swiped her credit card and paid for their purchases.

"Ummm want some bags?" asked the employee, as he looked at the large stack of herb filled jars.

"Oh yeah, definitely need some bags." said Thorn with a giggle, Luna laughing alongside her.

"He…here you go." said the employee with a stutter as he handed them four bags.

"Thanks." said Thorn before she began placing the jars of herbs into one of the bags, Luna following suit with another bag. Once Thorn filled her bag she put the remaining jars in the third bag along with the books, with the exception of Dark Secrets of the Forgotten Gods.

The Wiccan then pocketed her purse and picked up one of the bags, then grabbed Dark Secrets of the Forgotten Gods with a spare hand. Thorn then smiled at the employee once more before she turned and began walking away towards Dusk, who'd since finished her phone call. Luna groaned in annoyance before picking up the two other bags and following after the guitarist.

"How'd Gus react to us failing to inform him where we are?" asked Thorn once they reached Dusk.

"He's too excited about a surprise he has for us to care." answered the blonde.

"A surprise?" questioned Thorn curiously.

"Wonder what that is." said Luna equally curious.

"I have no idea." said Dusk with a shrug.

"Guess we'll just have to find out when we get to the concert hall then." said Thorn, before walking out of the shop and towards the museum's exit. Before Dusk could follow her Luna shoved one of the bags into her bandmates' arms, eliciting a glare from her.

"Here, this bag has the book you got in it so you can carry it." said Luna bluntly. Dusk just groaned in response before picking up the bag, and then they turned and hurried after Thorn.

---

Upon arriving back at the concert hall they were met with the sight of Gus conversing with the Mayor about something, both men clearly excited by whatever they were talking about. However as the three Hex Girls approached them Gus caught sight of them and smiled in greeting.

"Ah darlings there you are, I hope you're little shopping trip went well." said Gus in greeting.

"Hi Gus." greeted Thorn with a smile. "It went well, found a book I've been trying to find a copy of for ages."

"And she bought way too many jars of herbs." grumbled Dusk irritably.

"Happy to hear a bit of retail therapy helped you get over last night's events." said Mayor Jones with a smile.

"Thanks for recommending us the Spook Museum." said Thorn to the Mayor, finding herself quickly warming to the man. "It was definitely our sort of thing."

"I'm glad it was." replied the Mayor with another smile.

"So did you find Daphne yet?" inquired Luna, making Thorn feel a pang of guilt she hadn't asked that question first instead of talking about their shopping.

"Alas not yet chicklet." answered Gus apologetically. "I should know, I was up most of the night helping for the poor dear."

"You seriously were up most of the night looking for her?" asked Dusk in disbelief. Thorn couldn't blame her, their manager wasn't one to care much about people who weren't part of or connected to his band.

"Of course darling, after all I owe it to her after how she helped out you three in Australia and Romania." answered Gus, clearly a bit offended by the accusation he could've been lying.

"Indeed Gus was. He was practically falling asleep when I meet with him this morning." defended the Mayor, before grinning and adding. "But some Crystal Cove coffee perked him right up."

"Well thanks Gus." said Thorn, ignoring the Mayor's advertising extra comment. "We really appreciate it."

"Yeah thanks." added Dusk and Luna at the same time, causing Dusk to giggle briefly.

"Well that's not the only thing you'll appreciate." said the Mayor excitedly. "Go on Gus; tell them about the surprise we arranged."

Thorn fixed her manager with a curious looked as he suddenly returned to his usual animated self.

"Ah yes darlings the surprise. Well you see me and Mayor handsome here got to talking last night, a tad bit before we told you about the hotel room yesterday, and came up with a fantastic idea." began Gus excitedly with a happy smile on his face. "Whilst I was searching for dear Daphne last night the Mayor set to work putting our idea into action."

"I admit I did put in a lot of work to bring our idea to fruition." said the Mayor, sounding full of himself. Thorn just rolled her eyes in response.

"Well you see darlings this fine little town has another venue for concert, Terrordome stadium. I didn't book it since I doubted you'd be able to fill all the seats due to the falling ticket sales trend the band is on currently." explained Gus, causing each Hex Girl to react differently to that comment. Thorn frowned at him, Dusk glared at him and Luna just looked disappointed.

"A trend which won't last." interupted Dusk irritably.

"Of course chicklet of course." said Gus quickly. "But don't let that thought ruin the tempo just yet chicklets. As whilst the phantom's attacks have been terrible they're also great free publicity, it's been all over the news and social media. Everyone's talking about it and subsequently you darlings."

"As such we arranged to have what would be tonight's concert rescheduled for tomorrow, and not here but instead at Terrordome stadium." said Mayor Jones excitedly. "Tickets for the newly available seats have selling out faster than a speeding armadillo."

"Wait really! That's great!" said Thorn excitedly, overjoyed at the thought of preforming to such a large crowd again. Would be a pleasant change from the smaller concerts they'd been recently doing.

"That's so cool!" said Dusk, practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

"At least we'll get something good from this phantom problem." said Luna happily.

"Ah I knew that'd get you gothic chicklets back to your usual groovy selves." said Gus with a smile.

"Thanks Mayor for doing this." said Thorn with a kind smile. "Between this and the free hotel room you've really helped us out. We appreciate it."

"Nonsense I should be thanking you three girls. You've brought a lot of money and attention to our little town." said the Mayor. "I think I speak for all citizens of Crystal Cove when I say thank you for doing that."

"Ah I'm so excited about this! Finally we get to play to a huge crowd again!" exclaimed Dusk excitedly with a grin.

"It will be a nice change from many of our recent concerts." agreed Luna.

"Believe me girls I share your excitement. Both you and our town will benefit massively from this. Spooky girls like you are perfect for our town's tourism image." replied the Mayor excitedly. "Shame you don't still wear you're old performance outfits though. The spooky vampire witch look would be even more perfect."

"Yeah it is a shame." said Thorn as she frowned at Gus, Luna joining in with an outright glare at their manager.

Gus smiled awkwardly back before quickly turning to look at Dusk instead of them, said drummer being too excited and hyper about their upcoming concert to even notice or react to the Mayor's remark.

"But it is what it is. It's still fantastic to have you three preforming in our town, even more so now that you're preforming our Terrordome stadium." said the Mayor with a grin, before quietly muttering to himself "Helps justify the cost of building it to the voters."

"Indeed it is fantastic!" agreed Gus excitedly, before frowning suddenly. "Though there was a tiny extra thing which ruined the tempo a bit last night."

"What tiny thing?" inquired Thorn, wondering what bad news their manager had for them now.

"Well you see darlings whilst we were searching for Daphne last night I had two of your friends, the hippy one and the dog, stay in our tour bus. To keep an eye on things." explained Gus. "Unfortunately they were attacked by the phantom, who ended up lighting the bus on fire when they hid from him. Which resulted in the tour bus exploding."

"It what?" asked Dusk angrily whilst Luna just looked shocked.

"Are Shaggy and Scooby ok?" asked Thorn quickly, her voice filled with worry.

"Oh yes darling they are. Escaped out a window before the tour bus blew up." answered Gus quickly.

"They're the ones who told us what happened." added the Mayor.

"Fortunately most of our equipment was unloaded at the time it was blown up, and your possessions were with you in your hotel room. So whilst we lost the tour bus it's not quite as bad as it could be chicklets." said Gus in an obvious attempt to be optimistic and recover the previous atmosphere.

"I suppose it could've been worse." said Luna half-heartedly.

"Exactly Luna." replied Gus quickly. "Besides I've already arranged for a new bus to be sent for us to use, so it shouldn't prove to be too big a setback."

"I guess." said Dusk with a frown, not entirely convinced.

"Anyway instead we should get to looking for your friend Daphne, whom I'm sure we'll find. Daniel is out looking for her now, who knows maybe he's already found her." said Gus optimistically, blatantly trying to shift their attention away from the previous topic. "Then once we find her we can pack up and head off to Terrordome Stadium."

"Alright!" replied Dusk, still clearly excited by the thought of the venue change.

"Sounds like a good course of action." replied Luna.

Thorn just nodded in response. She knew Gus was trying to reassure them that they would find Daphne, and for that she appreciated it, but it just made her feel guilty she hadn't been there to look for her friend last night.

"Well let's get to it then!" declared Gus before he turn on his heel and walked off towards the backstage area, with the Hex Girls soon following behind him.

---

The new tour bus wasn't quite up to Luna's standards currently, but that could be fixed when they this tour was finished. All it really need was some better decoration, as it was a bit bland and drab currently.

Though considering how little time Gus had to get a new tour bus sent over she couldn't complain much. Better to have a bland tour bus than no tour bus.

Dusk and Daphne were sat across from her, both happily chatting about tonight's concert. Next to her Thorn was reading her newly bought copy of Dark Secrets of the Forgotten Gods, completely engrossed in the contents of the old book.

"Won't having Daphne preform with us be cool Luna?" asked Dusk excitedly, for what felt like the third time.

Luna just nodded in response, she didn't share her bandmate's enthusiasm about the idea.

Shortly after they'd found Daphne, or rather after Daniel had found her, she'd insisted on preforming with them at tonight's concert. Luna couldn't exactly remember the reason why, something to do with her being annoyed at Fred or something.

Dusk was immediately excited by the idea and agreed to it. The drummer clearly spent not even a single second actually thinking the practicalities of the idea over, as usual.

Thorn was supportive of the idea but she did point the issues it threw up, like how they'd have to rework their usual stage setup and performance to incorporate another singer. Also though Thorn didn't say it Luna knew that she also didn't like the idea of sharing the spotlight of the main singer with another woman, given how vain Thorn was. However after voicing those issues Thorn had agreed to the idea of having Daphne preform with them, her reasoning being they owed the redhead after all she went through the night before when she got kidnapped whilst helping them out. That and Daphne had already performed with them before in Oakhaven and at Vampire Rock, alongside the rest of Mystery Inc., and as such they knew she could perform.

Luna was opposed to the idea. Aside from the aforementioned impracticalities of the idea it would detract from the band appearing as the main focus of the concert, they were the Hex Girls not Daphne and the Hex Girls. Usually Luna wouldn't have cared as much, after all it was just one concert, but this concert was important. It was their first big concert since their band's fall in popularity and thus a major chance to regain some of that lost popularity, partially by capitalising on the inadvertent publicity they'd got from the Phantom attacks.

Plus Daphne's choice of outfit made her look like, to put it rather bluntly, a slutty goth cheerleader and that was not an image Luna wanted their band to be associated with.

However wherever she liked it or not Daphne was preforming with them at tonight's concert, so she'd just have to suck it up and deal with it.

With that last thought Luna turned her attention back to her phone and resumed scrolling through their band's social media feed.

"Hey Luna, can we talk a sec?" asked Thorn suddenly.

"Sure." replied Luna as she looked up from her phone and over at her bandmate. "What is it?"

"I did some thinking last night when I had my bath." explained Thorn. "After the gang catch the Phantom I'm going to confront Gus about our performance outfits. And Daniel."

"About time." replied Luna, her tone coming off harsher than she intended it to.

"Yeah I've let this go on too long." agreed Thorn, sounding less confident than she usually did. "I just thought if I could stand up to Sarah Ravencroft, the Yowie Yahoo and the Phantom then there's no reason I can't stand up to Gus about it."

"You're right. If you stood up to them you can definitely stand up and confront Gus about the changes he made." said Luna encouragingly as she reached over and held Thorn's hand, bringing a smile to the Wiccan's face. "Gus isn't anything when compared to those three foes.

"Well I'm not comparing him to them exactly. Gus isn't exactly a villain." replied Thorn after a moment's thought. "He's no criminal mastermind."

"I don't know, I think Gus could pull off being a villain if he tried. I could see him as a cartoon-esc supervillain, he's fabulous enough to pull it off." joked Luna, smiling as Thorn giggled in response.

"He could definitely pull off being a wacky supervillain." said Thorn with a smile. "Which if he was one then we'd be his three henchmen."

"His three henchmen who were vastly more competent than he was." joked Luna. "It's always that way in cartoons."

"Naturally we would be." replied Thorn with a grin. "Gus could never take over the world by himself. With us though he'd have a chance."

"Back to what you originally said though, I think I'll talk to Gus about that too before the concert if I get a moment too." said Luna as she got the conversation back on track. "Should help with convincing him if he's heard more than one of our opinions on reverting the changes."

"That'd be great." replied Thorn with a smile. "Just don't be too harsh on Gus when you talk to him, since I that could cause him to have a negative reaction when I go to talk to him about reverting the changes."

"Why are you worried I'd be harsh on him?" asked Luna in confusion. She wasn't one to lose her temper or lash out at people, and Thorn knew that.

"Since you hate that pink wig so much." answered Thorn with a smirk as she reached out and poked said wig.

"Amongst other aspects of this outfit." replied Luna with a frown.

"Aww c'mon it's not that bad looking. You just don't like it since it's not got any purple in its colour scheme." defended Thorn.

"Exactly since as I remember you choose that colour scheme, not me." said Luna irritably. "If I'd have chosen it they'd not have been a single bit of red on this outfit, and probably not much if any white either."

"What's wrong with the colour red?" asked Thorn before pouting.

"It's just not my colour." answered Luna with a shrug. "Just because you like wearing it doesn't mean everyone does."

"Well they should. It's the best colour." replied Thorn with a grin. "Better than purple."

"Hardly." disagreed Luna.

"I guess we can agree to disagree there." said Thorn, before smirking. "Though I think we can both agree red and purple are definitely better colours than green."

"Hey green is a great colour!" yelled Dusk suddenly, startling her fellow Hex Girls. Before they both laughed at the drummer's outburst, Dusk joining in soon after.

---

Gus couldn't help but hum happily to himself as he scrolled through news articles about the Phantom attack. It was front page news in all the major American news outlets and even on a few foreign ones as well. Same for music news sites and blogs too. This was the most attention he'd seen his band getting in the press in nearly a year. What had initially been terrible now may as well be a miracle.

If he ever met this Phantom he'd have to thank him. Before of course yelling at him and attacking him for trying to kill Thorn of course.

"Umm Mr Boggs?" asked someone suddenly, startling Gus out of his thoughts.

"Yes?" acknowledged Gus as he spun around to face the speaker, being met with the two male members of Mystery Inc. and their dog. "Oh it's you darlings! What can I help you with?"

"Well you see Mr Boggs Shaggy and Scooby found this piece of fabric after they escaped the Hex Girls' tour bus yesterday." explained Fred. "And it seems to be the same as that worn by a former singer you were the manager for."

"That's a…interesting claim." responded Gus, keeping his usual upbeat tone. Even though internally he was irritated, as to him that sounded like the beginning of an accusation. "Though pray tell what proof do you have that this fabric is similar?"

Fred merely pointed to Shaggy as he turned a laptop round to show its screen to Gus, revealing a video screen with a still of a music video. Shaggy then hit play and Gus gasped in surprise as he immediately recognised the music video.

It was Dance in my Pants, by Fantzee Pants. The singer he'd managed before the Hex Girls.

The video was nostalgic, bringing him back to a different time. It was Fantzee's first song and had been a great success. He hadn't seen it in a couple years at least, not since he'd begun managing the Hex Girls at the latest. It was a lot more basic than most of the music videos he'd directed for the Hex Girls, but still had a certain charm to it.

It was a shame how things went down hill for Fantzee. Poor chap's first two albums were rather successful but his third sold miserably and combined with declining turnout to his concerts ended his career. Not that it was Fantzee's fault of course, that's just the way the music industry goes. Though he did on occasion wonder if Fantzee's career would've lasted longer if he'd taken a bit more involved with managing him, compared to the rather hands off management style he'd used then.

That aside he wondered what Fantzee was up to now. He hadn't seen him since they parted ways once Fantzee reluctantly gave up music, which was nearly ten years ago. Just before he discovered and began managing the Hex Girls. Hopefully he was alright and hadn't turned to drugs or other such similar things musicians often do when their careers fail…

Gus was then snapped from his reminiscing as Shaggy paused the music video, ending the familiar tune. The boy then held up a sparkling scrap of white fabric and handed it to him.

The fabric was both fabulous and rather familiar thought Gus as he examined it. It was similar to the fabric the Phantom's outfit looked like it was made from, yet it was also like the fabric Fantzee's outfits were made out of…hang on a second!

These kids were implying he was the Phantom, by virtue of a mere piece of fabric being similar to that of a singer he managed nearly a decade ago.

Anger over took him, how dare they imply he attacked his own band! How dare they imply he tried to injury if not kill Thorn! Admittedly he and his Hex Girls hadn't been getting on smoothly recently but that didn't mean he ever do something that preposterous and outrageous!

Besides he would never wear such a ridiculous looking get up. The Phantom had such a terrible lack of fashion sense, so tacky and so very unfabulous.

Gus was about to yell at the two kids before he took a deep breath and calmed himself. Yelling and losing his cool would do no good, if anything that'd incriminate him. He needed to play things cool and groovy.

"Pray think I'm the Phantom because I was Fantzee Pantz's manager?" inquired Gus before chuckling. He then waved his hand at them dismissively before continuing. "Groovy chicklets, Fantzee Pantz went down the rabbit hole after the record gods dumped him for the Hex Girls." He then changed his tone to a somber one. "Poor Fantzee, we knew him well."

With that rebuttal complete Gus spun on his heel and walked away out of the dressing room. He had better things to do on this day than accused of being some crazed costumed lunatic by some kids and a dog. Like checking on how the Hex Girls' rehearsal was going, since even Dusk wasn't as capable of irritating him as much as these three members of Mystery Inc. had just done.

---

"Luna, Dusk why don't you take five." said Thorn as she dismissed them.

Luna frowned back at the guitarist. She was about to protest when Thorn glared back at her and bared her fangs slightly. So instead she just rolled her eyes before following Dusk off the stage, though her frown didn't leave her face.

"What's bugging you?" asked Dusk curiously.

"Nothing's bothering me Dusk." answered Luna calmly.

"Nuh uh." disagreed Dusk childishly. "You've seemed annoyed since just before we got our new tour bus."

"Fine." replied Luna, having realised Dusk wasn't going to let this go. "I don't agree with having Daphne preform with us at tonight's concert."

"Why?" asked Dusk curiously. "She's preformed with us twice before."

"Those concerts weren't as important as this one is." answered Luna. "This concert is a big deal, it combined with the Phantom attacking us is loads of publicity and we need that right now Dusk. Daphne being there takes away from the focus on us. Instead of talking about us people will be wondering about who that mystery girl preforming with the Hex Girls was."

"I guess…" began Dusk before pausing as a thought came to her. Then a big grin came to her face as she continued excitedly. "Oh I know! I know why you're being like this!"

"Why am I then?" asked Luna, curious as to what conclusion her sister had come to.

"The combination of you already being annoyed about our new performance outfits, the Phantom attacks and now Daphne preforming with us has got you stressed out. So you're making a bigger deal out of Daphne preforming with us than you would otherwise." answered Dusk, her tone of voice and cocky grin showing she was proud of her long winded deduction.

"That makes sense." acknowledged Luna, surprised by hearing something like that from her sister. She then smirked. "Since when did you become a psychologist?"

Dusk just grinned in reply before sticking out her tongue. Luna just rolled her eyes in response before she pushed open the door to their dressing room.

The dressing room had a very Thorn colour scheme, red walls and a black tiled floor. There were several mirrors with tables beneath them for use by whoever was preforming, a few chairs placed around the room. There were two wardrobes for outfits and a couple shelves. It was a bland yet functional room.

The only at all notable detail was a windup drummer monkey which was designed to look like it was wearing a leather jacket, boots, spiked bracelets and had a mohawk. Presumably it had been accidently forgotten and left here by a previous performance act. It's dead eyed stare creeped Luna out a bit, so she ignored it and turned her attention back to Dusk.

"Though on the topic of performance outfits." said Luna "After the gang catch the Phantom Thorn is planning on confronting Gus about changing our performance outfits back to how they were."

"About time she does. She's been letting Gus boss us around for ages." said Dusk moodily as she went and sat on a nearby table.

"I won't disagree there." replied Luna as she lent up against a wall, letting out a sigh before continuing. "Though we haven't exactly put up much resistance to Gus bossing us around either. We should've at least protested more when he wanted to change our performance outfits, instead of relying on Thorn to do so."

"I suppose so." said Dusk as she shrugged. "At the time though they didn't seem that bad except for how the colour scheme is the same."

"Dusk they looked terrible. Our appeal was partially the witchy vampire look and gimmick, which these new outfits threw away. Along with how we looked distinct before whilst now we look similar."

"Yeah the old gimmick was better." agreed Dusk with a nod. "Though I don't think my new outfit looks too bad."

"Dusk you look like a Harley Quinn knockoff." disagreed Luna.

"I don't!" protested Dusk angrily.

"You do." replied Luna with a smirk, enjoying being the one to tease her sister for once rather than it being the other way around.

"Arghh well maybe a little bit." acknowledged Dusk irritably as she swung her legs back and forth. "But I still don't completely dislike this outfit. I like the short shorts and these platform boots rock."

"Yeah the platform boots are fine." agreed Luna, before smirking again. "Though I imagine the main reason you like them is since they make you not look so short."

"No it's because they look cool." disagreed Dusk quickly, a light blush coming to her face.

"Sure it is." replied Luna in amusement.

"Anyway I also liked Gus' idea of growing my hair out. Its way my style except for the bits he had me get dye red." continued Dusk as she ran a hand through one of her large pigtails, ignoring Luna's previous comment. "I think I'm going to keep my hair this way when we go back to our original outfits."

"I suppose they aren't too bad." agreed Luna with a smile. "Remove the parts dyed red and they'd suit you well."

"And now I have enough hair that it swishes around when I move when we preform like Thorn's and your's does!" added Dusk enthusiastically, before frowning. "Or you know did. Since that wig you have on stops it moving during a performance now."

"Ugh I hate this wig." said Luna as she pulled the wig in question off and dumped it on the table next to Dusk. "It's so ugly and just doesn't suit me."

"And its fake." added Dusk. "It seems cheap to wear a wig as a rockstar. It's so less authentic."

"That too." agreed Luna with a frown as she ran a hand through her orange hair. "I hate how it hides my actual hair. It's like its hiding me you know."

"Well it could be worse." pointed out Dusk. "At least you didn't agree to Gus' idea of dying your hair the pinkish white colour that wig is."

"There was no way I was ever going to agree to that." said Luna defiantly.

"I know. I remember you refused to do it before he even said the colour he wanted to have it dyed." replied Dusk with a laugh. "You shut him down so quick. It was awesome!"

"I wouldn't quite say awesome." replied Luna dismissively.

"Well I would." said Dusk as she grinned up at her, Luna giving a smile back.

"Outfits aside though that's not the only change which was forced on us." said Luna. "He did hire Daniel as our songwriter too."

"Ugh I hate that he did that." replied Dusk in annoyance. "I want to perform songs I made with you and Thorn, not songs someone else made for us. Especially since Daniel's lyrics are shit."

"Same. I'm still insulted Gus thought we needed a songwriter." agreed Luna irritably. "Only times I'd want to perform a song someone else wrote is when we do a cover of a song."

"Oooooh we should do another cover for our next album!" suggested Dusk excitedly. "It's been ages since we last did one."

"It's only been two albums since we did a cover Dusk." countered Luna.

"And? That's ages!" replied Dusk.

"A little over two years ago isn't ages." said Luna. "But let's say we did another one. What band's song would you want to do a cover of?"

Dusk looked at her boots for a few seconds as she pondered the question, before she looked back up at Luna with a grin on her face.

"A Siouxsie and the Banshees cover!" answered Dusk excitedly. "Since it's a challenge to do the drumming from their songs and I want a challenge. Plus then you can play bass for an album song again!"

"I admit that's tempting, since I would like to play my bass in a song for an album again. But it'd be repetitive since we've already done two covers of their songs before." replied Luna. "But we're getting off topic Dusk."

"Aww but talking about new songs we should cover is more fun than talking about Gus." replied Dusk.

Luna was about to reply when suddenly the other door to the dressing room was pushed open with a slam and Gus walked in with an uncharacteristic frown planted on his face.

"Speaking of which…" said Dusk in amusement.

"What's wrong Gus?" asked Luna curiously.

"Those friends of yours! They accused me of being the Phantom!" answered Gus angrily.

Luna gasped in response. Not so much at the idea Mystery Inc. had accused Gus of being the Phantom, but at the idea Gus could be the Phantom! It had never occurred to her the night before but Gus was also a potential suspect.

"Well are you?" asked Dusk curiously as she peered up at Gus.

"No of course I'm not Dusk." answered Gus irritably. "It's a preposterous accusation!"

"What evidence did they have for their accusation?" inquired Luna. The gang wouldn't accuse Gus of being the Phantom randomly, there must be a reason for doing so.

"Two of them found a piece of fabric which looked similar to the fabric of an outfit worn by Fantzee Pantz, the singer I managed before you darlings." answered Gus irritably whilst Dusk giggled at the mention of Fantzee Pantz's name. "That's all the evidence they had, if you can even call it evidence."

"Yeah…that's not exactly what I would call conclusive evidence." agreed Luna after considering her manager's response for a moment. "The fabric being similar isn't really enough evidence to conclusively say there is a connection."

"Exactly darling." replied Gus with a smile, clearly pleased Luna agreed with him." They were reaching for straws with that accusation."

"You managed a guy who seriously called himself Fantzee Pantz?" asked Dusk with an amused grin.

"Yes I did. About a year or two before I began managing you girls." answered Gus with an amused smile. "I assure you despite the name he was a good singer and performer."

"What happened to him?" asked Luna curiously.

"His first two albums sold well but his third sold miserably, which when combined with declining turnout to his concerts ended the poor dear's career." explained Gus. "Shame really."

"Well that's just how it goes." replied Dusk. "Not everyone can as great as us!"

"Indeed." agreed Gus a bit sorrowfully, then his tone turned regretful. "Though I do feel like I could've done more to avert it."

"How so?" asked Luna curiously.

"When it came to how I managed Fantzee Pantz I had a rather hands off style. When I saw his popularity dip I should've acted, but I trusted him to chance so I backed off." explained Gus regretfully. "Alas he didn't change. When the ratings continued plummeting I knew he was done." Their manager then signed almost mournfully before continuing. "Oh I wish I did more for poor Fantzee, but alas I did not and his career collapsed as a consequence." Gus then perked up and regained his usual more professional composure. "However I will not be making the same mistake with you girls."

"Oh so that's why you've been so controlling lately." said Dusk abruptly.

"I haven't been too controlling…have I?" asked Gus in confusion.

"Well you did force us to change our performance outfits." answered Luna irritably.

"Forced is a bit of a strong word to use there darling." replied Gus. "As I remember you did agree to the change."

"Only cause Thorn did." said Dusk as she swung her legs back and forth as she sat on the table. "And she said you were really pushy."

"And since at the time we were worried about how our how are record sales were dropping and less people were showing up to our concerts." added Luna with a frown. "We weren't in much of a decision to disagree then, since we were worried about the future of our band."

"I admit I may have been a bit too, as you say, pushy with Thorn." agreed Gus with the briefest of frowns. "However a change for the band was needed girls, unless you wanted to go the way of Fantzee Pantz. Changing outfits and the aesthetic of the band was an easy and effective way to do it."

"Well you could've at least kept the colour scheme the same." says Luna irritably as she crosses her arms. "Whilst black is my colour red and white certainly aren't. Purple is my colour."

"Yeah Luna's right. Red so isn't my colour, green is." agrees Dusk with a pout. "You didn't even put a single bit of green on my new performance outfit. It's like you don't know me at all."

"By design, the colour scheme for your performance outfits was based off Thorn's outfit's colour scheme. Since pardon me saying so girls, but she is the most popular Hex Girl. Hence presumably that colour scheme is more popular and as such it'd help boost profits if the whole band had that same colour scheme." explained Gus. "Or at least that's the logic I worked off of and the higher ups at Decade Records agreed with."

"So you're trying to make us look similar to Thorn." replied Luna with a frown. "You know the band is called the Hex Girls, not Thorn or Thorn and the Hex Girls."

"Yeah we're important to the band too!" added Dusk irritably.

"We styled our stage looks differently on purpose, we wanted to all look different and stand out from each other." continued Luna. "Each of us having fangs was the main similarity, playing into the vampire gimmick."

"I admit those are fair criticism." conceded Gus, pausing briefly to frown before continuing. "However you two do look different from Thorn when you're on stage still. As I specifically designed your new performance outfits to all be in a different goth style. Thorn's outfits style is a bit witchy yet casual, Dusk's outfit style is cybergoth whilst Luna's outfits style is Victorian goth."

"Only slightly, the similar colour scheme still makes us all blend together." disagreed Luna. "Besides it completely destroyed the unified gimmick and theme our band had. What was even the point in doing that?"

"The point darling was to widen the band's appeal, bring in a wider audience and thus bring in more popularity. In turn boosting the band's record sales, concert attendance and overall ratings back up." explained Gus.

"But that wouldn't work." pointed out Dusk as she swung her legs back and forth as she sat on the table. "Since even if my performance outfit looks cybergoth none of our music is techno or electronic dance music and other genres that the cybergoths subculture even likes."

"Plus I don't think the type of people who'd like the Victorian goth look would like our music much either, none of our songs fit with that." added Luna, before picking up the pinkish white wig off the table and holding it up. "Besides the fact that this wig really doesn't suit that goth style at all." She then dropped it back on the table distastefully.

Gus broke his hand to his chin, seeming to ponder the points they'd made for a moment.

"Fine fine, you make good points chicklets." replied Gus. "But pray tell if you hold such a negative few of these performance outfits, why then did you agree to changing to these outfits in the first place?"

"Because we hadn't seen the designs of the performance outfits before we agreed, duh." answered Dusk moodily.

"You what?" replied Gus in surprise and confusion. "You really agreed without first even seeing the designs, really chicklets?"

"Yes we did agree before first seeing the designs. In part because Thorn had already agreed and in part because as I said earlier we more focused and worried about how our how are record sales were dropping and on concerts were having low attendance." answered Luna. "Which I know was stupid of us to do; we should've seen the outfits first." She added before looking away from Gus, blushing slightly from the embarrassment at the admission.

"Indeed that was rather stu…a misguided decision to have made without first seeing the designs." agreed Gus, before pausing to let out a sigh. "Though in hindsight as your manager I should've made sure you'd seen the designs first before agreeing."

"Anyway what about you hiring Daniel as our songwriter?" asked Luna quickly, trying to shift the conversation away from the prior topic and avoid further embarrassment. "Or even hiring a songwriter in the first place for us, as we didn't need one then and don't need one now."

"Plus he's a crap songwriter." added Dusk as she fiddled with one of her pigtails. "I'm a better songwriter when I'm drunk than he is sober."

"That too, plus it's so insulting you think we even needed a songwriter in the first place." said Luna as she crossed her arms and frowned at Gus.

"Thorn mentioned similar complaints to me about that when I first proposed the idea of hiring a songwriter to her, just with more yelling." replied Gus, briefly cringing at the memory. His usually jolly composure disappearing. "And I…admit I was wrong there. Admittedly to be fair it was Decade Records' idea to hire a songwriter for you girls rather than my idea, but I did agree to go along with it."

Gus signs and looked away momentarily, before turning back to face Dusk and Luna.

"I…I apologise girls. I should've pushed back against Decade Records idea to hire a songwriter for the band, it…it was a mistake on my part." apologized Gus, sounding genuinely remorseful. "Whilst I do stand by a change to your performance outfits being necessary, hiring a songwriter was a step too far."

"You're really sorry?" inquired Luna, surprised as Gus was never normally one to admit fault.

"Indeed I am chicklet. Truthfully." answered Gus, before recomposing himself and smiling. "I promise you I shall put my foot down about this when I next speak to the executives at Decade Records."

"So that means you're firing Daniel?" asked Dusk excited as she grinned.

"Well not immediately, but eventually yes I am." answered Gus. "Your new songs will be going back to being written by you darlings, I'll see to that."

"Yay!" cheered Dusk excitedly as she hopped down from her previous perch sitting on the table. Luna couldn't help but smile too, her bandmate's positive attitude being infectious. "About time that happened!"

"So why did you hire Daniel as our songwriter anyway?" asked Luna curiously whilst Dusk calmed herself down. "I'm still confused why you hired him specifically, since he's terrible at song writing."

"Well the example songs Daniel included in his application were quite good chicklets, rather groovy." explained Gus. "And when I put out an advertisement for songwriters he was the first to contact me about it. Only person to actually, as he contacted me the same day I put it out and his example songs and references were both good that I closed applications soon after."

"Daniel applied for the position that quickly?" inquired Luna, to make sure she'd heard Gus right. Something about replying that quickly seemed a bit suspicious to her.

"Indeed he did, he seemed rather keen." answered Gus with a smile. "Also I admit I partially hired Daniel since I liked him, we got on well. Something seemed familiar about him."

"Oh." replied Luna, feeling a bit silly at having got suspicious. Gus was a good judge of character; better than her anyway. She'd trusted Ben Ravencroft after all.

"A shame I'll have to fire him, but it has to be done." said Gus sombrely, before perking up again. "Anyway back to the subject of your performance outfits. I admit you have made some fair points about your current performance outfits, and I confess that I've heard similar comments about them from your fans."

"And?" inquired Luna.

"I'll take the points you made about your current performance outfits into account, and design you darlings new performance outfits based off your criticism." answered Gus with a smile. "I already have an idea in mind, with a unified theme this time and different colour schemes."

"That's great Gus but…" began Luna, before she was suddenly interrupted by Daniel opening the door to the dressing room and peering inside.

"Hey Dusk and Luna. Thorn asked for you two." said Daniel with a small smile. "She and Daphne have come up with the lyrics for a new song they want to perform at tonight's concert. They need you two to work out the actual music for it."

"The darlings came up with a new song? Oh how delightful." said Gus enthusiastically. "The surprise premier of a song at tonight's concert will be a bonus for publicity."

"Cool! Let's go." said Dusk before she pushed past Daniel and rushed out of the room, amazing Luna by how quick so could move in platform boots.

Luna considered resuming the outfit conversation where it left off, before she let out a sigh as she decided against it. She picked up her pinkish white wig and turned to follow Dusk when suddenly she was startled by a sudden crash.

Luna quickly turned discovering the cause of the crash was the punk rock drummer monkey she'd noticed earlier falling off the shelf it was on. It twitched on the ground, its little arms loudly banging the drum it had with its drumsticks whilst its eyes blinked.

"What a curious little thing." said Gus as he bent down to pick up the drummer monkey, grimacing slightly at how loud the monkey banged its drum. "Amazing it can make so much noise."

"What made it fall off the shelf?" inquired Luna, a bit unnerved by the monkey's sudden movement.

"Dusk running off suddenly probably." suggested Daniel irritably, obviously annoyed at how Dusk shoved past him. "Ugh that thing makes so much noise. Turn it off Gus."

"How odd, it has no on off switch." observed Gus curiously.

"If it no switch to turn it on then how'd it turn on?" asked Luna suspiciously.

"Strange I wonder if…" began Gus before he put the punk rock drummer monkey back on the shelf it had originally been on, where suddenly it stopping drumming and blinking its eyes. "Aha I was right, putting it back where it came from stopped the little fellow from drumming."

"Anyway Luna, as I said Thorn…" began Daniel before swiftly being interrupted.

"Yes I know, Thorn asked for me." interrupted Luna divaishly before she walked past Daniel and out of the dressing room.

---

Thorn smiled as she finished applying her makeup. She admired herself in the mirror for a moment before she stood up and walked over to Dusk and Luna, her bandmates having finished finalizing their makeup not long before her.

"Ready to rock sisters?" asked Thorn as she smiled at them.

"Hell yeah!" answered Dusk excitedly, a big grin on her face.

"Sure." answered Luna, a smaller smile on her face. "It'll be wicked to preform before a large crowd again.

"You mean a huge crowd Luna. Gus said the whole stadium is filled!" corrected Dusk excitedly.

"Well let's go, we don't want to keep the crowd waiting." said Thorn before she turned and walked out of the dressing room, knowing Dusk and Luna would follow her lead. They always did.

The three rockstars were silent as they walked through the backstage hallways of Terrordome stadium, each lost in their own thoughts, before Luna suddenly spoke.

"I wonder what Gus thinks about the gang's plan to catch the Phantom." pondered Luna aloud.

"Who knows? Doesn't matter either way." said Thorn dismissively as she strode forwards confidently. "We'll go ahead with their plan regardless of what he thinks, it's our concert not his."

They rounded the corner and spotted Gus and Mystery Inc. engaged in conversation, whilst Tiny stood beside Gus silently.

"Absolutely not!" declared Gus angrily. "That is completely out of the question!"

"I guess that's a no." said Dusk in amusement as they walked towards the group.

"But Mr. Boggs it…" began Fred.

"They were already put in danger with your last, and might I say failed, attempt to catch that lunatic. I won't have you putting them in harm's way again." interupted Gus. "Besides Terrordome Stadium is locked down so tight that the Phantom won't be getting in here in the first place. I know as I oversaw the security arrangements personally."

Thorn couldn't help but smile at Gus' reaction to the gang's plan. Whilst counterproductive that he disagreed with it, it was nice to see him sounding so incredibly defensive about her and her bandmates like that.

"You did?" inquired Luna, alerting Gus to their presence. Their manager spun around to face them, quickly trying to regain his usual composure.

"I certainly did darling." answered Gus with a smile. "So there's no need to worry about the Phantom. Just focus on your performance chicklets."

"We'll do that." said Thorn, before she smiled confidently and put her hands on her hips. "No madman is going to tell the Hex Girls what we can and can't do!"

"That's right!" added Dusk with a smirk, whilst Mystery Inc. smiled at them.

"Indeed darlings. Just keep that attitude up!" encouraged Gus happily, clapping his hands. "That's the sort of tempo we need."

"What's your guys' plan to catch the Phantom?" asked Luna, looking past Gus at Mystery Inc.

"Luna you…" began Gus, before Velma and Fred interupted his dismissal.

"It's quite simple really. I predict the Phantom will strike again at the end of the concert, targeting the lead singer as he did during his prior attacks." explained Velma. "Which will mean Daphne is his target, given she's the lead singer for the final song of the concert."

"At the end of the concert when you preform the new song you and Daphne came up with, we'll quickly switch Daphne with a dummy. So when the Phantom goes to either attack or kidnap her, instead he'll grab the dummy which will trigger the trap." explained Fred enthusiastically, before adding sheepishly. "A net this time, in order to prevent any erm…well cage mishaps like last time."

"Won't the Phantom notice you switching Daphne with the dummy though?" asked Dusk, looking confused.

"And how do you know for certain he'll target Daphne instead of me?" asked Thorn with a frown, now not so eager about the idea after the mention of the Phantom targeting the lead singer in each of his attacks. Since Daphne was only the lead for the final song, whilst she was the lead for the rest of the concert.

Thorn did not want to repeat the speaker incident. Given magic or not she may not get so lucky a second time.

"Well you girls often use smoke effects in your performances. So at the end we'll have the smoke machines put out a large amount of smoke, acting as a smokescreen. The Phantom won't think of it as odd or suspicious due to how commonly you use such effects." explained Fred excitedly, his excitement causing Thorn to smile despite herself. "Then during the smokescreen we can switch Daphne with the dummy, whilst also allowing you girls to quickly exit the stage and hide out of sight."

---

"Hence the Phantom will target Daphne, given he'll be the only visible target at the end of the concert." explained Velma. "Besides I have a working theory that the Phantom is motivated by revenge. Which if I'm correct makes it only logically he'd try target Daphne again after how she foiled his attempt to kidnap Thorn by taking her place, along with how in part because of that she has a lead role in the final song of the concert."

"Revenge?" questioned Gus in confusion, Tiny frowning next to him.

"Who'd want revenge against us?" asked Thorn with a frown, before she remembered her discussion with Luna the night before and tried not to smirk. Hopefully if Velma was right and whoever wanted revenge on her...or well the band was someone who had an issue with her environmentalist stances.

"Yeah we haven't done anything bad to someone!" added Dusk, before appearing to ponder it. "I think."

"I have a theory as to why." answered Velma with a small smile. "However I…"

"Which me and Scoob contributed too!" interupted Shaggy proudly.

"Rhat's right Rhaggy!" added Scooby equally proudly. Thorn and Dusk both briefly giggling at their interruption whilst Luna just smiled.

"However I want to save that theory till after we catch and unmask the Phantom." said Velma with a smile. "So I can be sure I'm correct in my deduction on who the Phantom is."

"Yeah we don't want to accuse anyone falsely." added Daphne with a smile, Gus briefly frowning at Shaggy and Scooby as she said that.

"See Gus, the gang took my and the girls safety into account when making their plan." said Thorn as she looked over from Mystery Inc. to her manager. "So allow them to enact it so they can catch the Phantom already and end this." Her tone indicating it was an order not a request.

"Whilst you do make a good point chicklet…" began Gus, his tone causing Thorn to glare at him as she could just hear the dismissal of the idea coming.

"Ugh Gus just agree to it." interupted Luna irritably. Before Dusk suddenly got up in Gus' face, or at least as much as her platform boots assisted her in doing. Thorn noticed that for the briefest of moments Tiny had an amused expression on his face at that action, making her want to giggle though she restrained herself from doing so.

"Yeah agree Gus." said Dusk moodily, her hands on her hips. "We'd like to be able to do concerts without some weirdo attacking us!"

Gus took two steps back away from Dusk, frowning at her. He then sighed as he appeared to think over what each of them had said.

"Fine. Since you do seem set on it." agreed Gus, still sounding slightly reluctant. "But do be cautious girls."

"Thanks Gus." said Thorn, giving her manager a smile.

"Yeah thanks." said Dusk whilst she backed away from Gus and stood back beside Thorn.

"Don't worry Gus, we'll be cautious." said Luna as she put a hand on her hip. "And thanks."

Gus smiled a small smile back at them, before regaining his usual composure and spinning around to face the assembled Mystery Inc.

"Well then get to implementing your plan." ordered Gus. "Whilst you go do that I'll…go find Daniel. I haven't seen him around recently." Thorn almost wanted to smirk at the flimsy excuse.

"Shall I come with you Mr Boggs, or stay with the girls?" asked Tiny as he looked down at Gus.

"Go with Gus. We'll be fine Tiny." ordered Thorn, before giving the roadie a smile. Tiny smiled back briefly.

Gus looked for the briefest moments like he was going to disagree, before he simply waved his hand dismissively.

"Very well girls." said Gus before he spun on his heel and began walking further into the backstage, Tiny following behind him.

"So let's get started." said Thorn as she sharply turned to face Mystery Inc., her black hair swishing through the air as she did so.

"Will do." replied Fred with a smile. "You girls take care of putting on a show; we'll take care of catching the Phantom."

---

The crowd cheered as the Hex Girls finished up a performance of Who Do Voodoo. Thorn smiled and waved to the crowd before dramatically backing away into a cloud of smoke blown onto the stage at the end of the song, hiding the girls from the audience.

The guitarist then spun around to face her bandmates revealing a serious expression on her face checking they were ready for both the final song and the trapping of the Phantom.

Luna nodded in response whilst Dusk gave a thumbs up and in the process accidently dropped one of her drumsticks. Luna stifled a giggle as the drummer blushed in embarrassment before popping down beneath her drum kit to retrieve the drumstick.

Thorn sighed and tapped her foot irritably as she waited for Dusk to reappear. When she did Dusk gave a sheepish smile and another thumbs up, this time not dropping a drumstick.

Then Thorn turned and looked off stage towards Mystery Inc. was standing, giving them a brief nod to signal they were ready. She then headed back out towards the front of the stage, standing uncharacteristically off to one side of it instead of in the centre.

As the smoke began to fade away Luna refocused herself, placing her hands on her keyboard. Then she began to play the first notes of Trap of Love. Her keyboard alone was the only instrument heard for a few seconds before it was followed by Dusk plaything her drums, which in turn was swiftly followed by Thorn playing her guitar.

Daphne then proceeded to walk out onto the stage whilst she began to sing. She stopped walking once she stood beside Thorn near the front of the stage just before she got to singing the chorus.

Luna couldn't help but frown as she played her keyboard, her thoughts wandering. She definitely didn't like Trap of Love, it was a good song but it just sounded too pop for their band.

Though she was at least over having this song be the final song of this concert, given it ultimately had to be for the gang's plan to catch the Phantom to work. Didn't change though how Daphne was probably going to distract the crowd's attention though, wondering who she was and why she was preforming with the Hex Girl. Hopefully that didn't affect them capitalizing on the interest boost the Phantom had generated in the band…

Great now she was sounding like Gus.

Luna stifled a laugh, not wanting it to be caught by her microphone. During which she noticed Thorn seemed irritated by the song they were preforming too, going by her expression. The guitarist usually smiled during concerts yet currently Thorn had a look of annoyance on her face, seeming fed up.

No doubt it was due to how she wasn't the centrepiece of the final song, Daphne was instead. Whilst Thorn was off to the side. It was such a small thing, yet Luna knew it was doing a number on Thorn's ego. Given over the years their band had performed together Thorn had developed quite a vain streak from all the attention she got.

Luna was so lost in her thoughts that she messed up a few notes in a row, causing her to cringe in embarrassment at the screw up. Even if she didn't like the song, she was a professional so she shouldn't make a mistake like that. She needed to refocus.

Admittedly no one other than her, Thorn, Dusk and Daphne had heard Trap of Love before and so no one in the audience would notice her mistake at least. So it didn't matter really.

Thorn however evidently disagreed as shortly after Luna messed up those few notes Thorn span around to face her, without stopping playing her guitar for even a second. Thorn glared at Luna and bared her fangs at her.

Luna just rolled her eyes in response.

Thorn just span back around to face the crowd in response, drawing Lunas attention to it. Even if she didn't like Trap of Love much the audience appeared too, given they were cheering throughout it. Though then again it was the final song of the concert, so the crowd would be a bit hyped up by now.

Shortly after they played the final notes of the song as Daphne walked towards the back of the stage. Then as Daphne sung the final lyrics each Hex Girl crossed her arms over her chest one by one as four clouds of smoke emerged from the floor of the stage. The smoke hid the four of them from view dramatically as the curtain lowered across the stage, muffling the cheers of the crowd.

Then once she was fully hidden by the smoke Luna rushed off stage, following Thorn and Dusk to their designated position on the right side of the stage. Once there the three of them ducked down behind a stack of boxes, making sure they were out of sight.

Thorn instinctively put her arms round Dusk and Luna protectively as she hid behind the stack of boxes with them. She could tell her sisters were nervous, understandably so after how the Phantom had attacked their performances twice and blew up their tour bus.

"Hey its Tiny." whispered Dusk quietly, pointing towards some curtains in the backstage. Sure enough Tiny could be seen poking his head out from around the side of them, Gus right by him.

"Dusk shhhh." hissed Luna irritably.

Tiny gave them a thumbs up and Dusk did right back, whilst Thorn just smiled at Tiny. His presence nearby was reassuring. If this plan to catch the Phantom got messed up too, then they could rely on Tiny to kick its ass.

Thorn was then snapped from her thoughts as she heard a familiar ominous and synthesized voice.

"I warn you and you disobey." said the Phantom ominously from somewhere on the other side of the stage. Dusk went to poke her head round the crates to have a look but Thorn tightened her grip round the drummer's waist and pulled her back. They had to stay hidden. Dusk seemed to get the message and smiled at her sheepishly.

"So this will be, your dying day!" continued the Phantom, before Thorn heard him laugh manically. The laughter getting closer by the second, indicating he was moving towards their side of the stage quickly and causing Thorn to tense up.

Then suddenly she heard the Phantom stop laughing and make an "Erm?" noise followed by a startled "Oh!" before a hard thump and crack noise followed. She then heard the metallic sound of a pulley high above the stage followed by the Phantom going "Uh!" in surprise, another thump and the Phantom yelling "Grahh!"

"Gotcha!" Thorn then heard Fred yell, clearly indicating the Phantom had been caught. Well that and Gus and Tiny had come out from behind the curtain and were walking over to the stage.

Thorn released her arms from around Dusk and Luna and stood up, before walking out from behind the stack of creates and onto the stage. Her bandmates following closely behind her, with Gus and Tiny falling in behind them.

She saw the Phantom trapped under a weighed down net and on his knees whilst Fred ran out onto the stage to grab a hold of him.

Thorn smirked at the sight of the Phantom in his current pathetic position. That's what that bastard deserved.

As she walked with her bandmates over Fred helped the Phantom up to his feet, keeping a hand firmly holding onto his back afterwards, whilst Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby walked over to join him.

Then surprisingly Mayor Jones came out from the side of the stage she'd been hiding on, along with two policemen and Sheriff Stone. Thorn hadn't seen them when she hid there, though based off what she'd picked up about the Mayor he'd probably hid well out of harm's way till things were over.

"Bug eyed biscuits Fred. Couldn't you have waited until after the show to catch the Phantom?" asked Mayor Jones cheerfully.

Thorn was momentarily annoyed, given it seemed the Mayor had wanted a chance of the Phantom attacking their show. That is until she noticed it almost sounded in his tone like he was proud of Fred…in an indirect direction way.

"Not with Daphne and the Hex Girls in danger Dad." said Fred, before he reached down to pull off the Phantom's mask. "Let's see who the Phantom really is!"

With that Fred pulled off the Phantom's mask and revealed his identity to be…Daniel!

"Daniel Prezette!" declared all of Mystery Inc together.

"Daniel?" questioned Dusk in confusion.

"What, why?" questioned Luna in shock.

Thorn was just silent. She had not expected Daniel to be the Phantom at all, what reason would he have had to do all this. Sure she wasn't exactly close to the guy, given she never wanted to have him or anyone else as a songwriter in the first place, but she'd never have expected him to attack and try to injure her in the way he did! He'd seemed chill in all her interactions with him.

"Or should we call you Fantzee Pantz." said Shaggy sounding rather smug.

"Fantzee Pantz?" said all three Hex Girls at once questioningly. Thorn was utterly confused now, what did that absurd name have to do with Daniel?

Gus leaned down to look closely at Daniel, his eyes going wide in shock.

"Doth my eyeshadow deceive?" said Gus sounding startled, before he looked at Mystery Inc. "How did you know?"

"The Phantom had to be someone close to the Hex Girls to access the stage." explained Fred.

"And the Hex Girls equipment." added Shaggy.

"And their bus." added Scooby.

"And there was only one person who fit that criteria and had a grudge against the Hex Girls." explained Velma. "Daniel."

"But why would he do this?" asked Luna in confusion.

"Well he…" began Velma before being swiftly interupted by Daniel.

"Because Luna you and the other Hex Girls took my career! You had my manager, your success should've been mine." interupted Daniel irritably. He turned to look at the three Hex Girls, glaring at them. Dusk stuck her tongue out in return before Daniel turned back to staring straight ahead.

"I tried to get revenge by writing bad songs for them, but they can make anything a hit." continued Daniel, more to himself than anyone in particular. Thorn couldn't help but smile at that comment, running a hand through one of her bangs as she did so.

"Then I noticed that Gus was actually trying to take measures to keep the band's popularity up and stop the Hex Girls going down the drain like I did. Even if he blatantly ignored their views on the changes he'd made, it was so obvious they weren't happy with how Thorn's been getting moody for months and Luna's looked depressed." Daniel laughed, even more so when Thorn and Luna glared at him. Gus just fiddled with his hands and looked away, unused to being so directly called out.

"Unlike when he managed me and was so hands off that he let my career die!" continued Daniel angrily. "Heck merely getting some stubble and letting my hair go and grow out and be a mess and then suddenly Gus didn't even recognise me! That's how little he paid attention!"

"So I became the Phantom." explained Daniel, frowning. "Both in order to get revenge on the Hex Girls for taking my career and to get revenge on Gus by destroying his precious new band." His tone then became incredibly irritable. "And I do it again if it weren't for the uncanny boyband knowledge of you meddling brats!"

"C'mon let's go." said Sheriff Stone, clearly bored of Daniel's monologue. "You're coming with me down to the station Mr. Prezette." The two policemen with the sheriff then grabbed Daniel and Sheriff Stone turned to walk off stage, the two police keeping a hold of Daniel following close behind him.

It was then that Thorn took notice of how Gus was fiddling with his hands and looking at the ground, a distant look in his eyes. Seemingly Luna noticed the same as she gently asked "Hey Gus, you ok?"

"Oh umm yes. Uh of course chicklet." answered Gus quickly as he looked up at them, giving a blatantly fake smile.

"Ah cheer up Mr. Boggs! These things happen." said Mayor Jones as he put his arm round Gus and gave him a pat on the back. "Quite often in Crystal Cove actually…" he pondered briefly, continuing with a smile. "But you should focus on the positives. This concert was an amazing success, it's the first time Terrordome Stadium has had ever seat filled!"

"Wicked!" exclaimed Dusk excitedly.

Thorn smiled smugly as she put her hands on her hips. Of course they were the first act to fill every seat in this stadium. They were after all one of the best bands ever, with the best guitarist of course.

"It was?" asked Luna, a bit more sceptical.

"Of course it was Luna. We're the best band ever!" said Dusk with a grin. "Right Thorn?"

"That's right sister!" agreed Thorn, before high fiving Dusk.

"Of course you girls filled every seat. You girls are natural stars!" said Mayor Jones as he took his arm off Gus' shoulder and held his hand out to Thorn. "It was a sincere pleasure to have your band preform in our town."

"The pleasure was ours." replied Thorn politely as she shoke the Mayor's hand, he had a rather tight grip.

"No no it was mine I assure you. Now finally the taxpayers won't keep harassing me about using their taxes to build this stadium." said Mayor Jones, before seemingly realizing what he said aloud and continuing on quickly. "Tell you what, next time you're touring make Crystal Cove a stop and I'll give you half price booking on Terrordome Stadium. Considering it a way to make up for all this dreadful Phantom business which happened to you girls whilst you were here."

"Thanks Mayor, we'll take you up on that offer next time we tour." said Thorn with a smile. She knew Mayor Jones didn't actually view the Phantom as being dreadful at all, given how he had capitalized on it, but whatever he was sucking up to her and she liked that. Plus half price to a stadium this large was a good deal.

"Uh ummm yes we will indeed Mayor handsome." said Gus with a smile as he somewhat regained his usual composure. Though Thorn could see through it and that he was faking it this time. "And rest assured the Hex Girls will feel every seat once again."

"Excellent, just excellent." said Mayor Jones with a smile, before shaking hands with Gus. "Wonderful to have organised this with you Mr Boggs."

"Likewise darling." replied Gus, his smile seeming more genuine to Thorn this time.

"But anyways I must be going, have a meeting scheduled with the tourism board and then I'll have to arrange a press release so people know this Phantom business is over." Mayor Jones smiled at them again before turning and walking away, adding. "So I won't be back till late Fred."

"Ok Dad." replied Fred before turning to face the rest of Mystery Inc. "Well that's another mystery solved it gang!" Each of them then high fived each over in celebration.

"And we're very grateful that you solved it." said Thorn before running over and hugging Fred, eliciting a brief glare from Daphne. "Right girls?"

"Hell yeah!" said Dusk before she ran over and hugged Daphne, the impact almost knocking Daphne over.

"Thanks so much." said Luna as she ran over and hugged Shaggy, who smiled at her.

"Umm erm you're welcome." said Shaggy.

"Your our friends, of course we helped you." added Daphne.

"Besides we can't resist a mystery." added Velma.

Scooby then let out a whim, looking at the three musicians disappointedly.

"Awww we appreciate your help too Scooby." said Thorn before going over and stoking the dogs head.

"Yeah we do." said Dusk before leaning down and hugging Scooby's neck, whilst Luna merely stroked the dog's back. Scooby made some happy noises and smiled, enjoying the attention.

"And I am of course thankful for you chicklets helping out as well." said Gus as he shot Mystery Inc. a grateful look.

"Umm you're welcome Mr Boggs." said Fred.

"However we really must get going given we've stayed longer in Crystal Cove than originally intended, leaving less time to hang around as we do need to make good time on heading to the next concert." said Gus before turning his attention to the Hex Girls and clapping his hands. "So darlings if you'd please begin packing up your instruments it would be appreciated."

"Ugh." said Dusk moodily as she stood back up, before grinning at Mystery Inc. "Bye guys."

"Yeah bye." said Luna, giving them a smile before she and Dusk walked out onto the stage to begin packing away their keyboard and drum kit respectively.

"Hopefully the next time we meet will be the first time we meet you guys and some weirdo dressed as a monster doesn't try to mess with us." joked Thorn before giving Mystery Inc. a smile. "Bye guys."

In return Mystery Inc. said various goodbyes and then Thorn flashed her fangs at them playfully, before she turned on her heel causing her long black hair to swish behind her before she walked away from the group of mystery solvers.

"And Tiny would you…" began Gus before noticing Tiny had already moved to begin packing up some speakers and cables. Her manager smiled for a brief moment. "And I'll…go and check out back round the tour bus for any paparazzi, don't want any more harassment over this Phantom nonsense." said Gus quickly before turning on his heel and walking into the backstage.

Thorn saw right through her manager's lie, but she let it go as she walked over and picked up her cherished guitar. Gus clearly needed some time to process the revelation to Daniel having been the Phantom. Besides she needed to pack her guitar away, get out of her performance outfit, have a shower and then a nice long sleep on the tour bus.

---

Dusk snored loudly in the cot above Thorn, irritating her to no end. Between the excitement of having a huge concert for the first time in a while and the Phantom being caught she was already finding it hard to sleep initially. Combine that with how she wasn't used to being in this new tour bus and how her cot wasn't as comfy as her old one and she was really finding it hard to sleep. Now Dusk just had to start snoring again too.

Thorn frowned irritably as she bounced slightly in her cot as the tour bus went through a pot hole…and then another…and another.

"Ugh." Thorn groaned in annoyance, glaring up at the top of her cot as Dusk snored loudly once again.

"Screw this." Thorn muttered irritably as she swung her legs over and got out of her cot. She stretched her arms above her head as she turned around and glared at the sleeping form of Dusk, who just snored back at her.

Thorn just let out and annoyed "Hmph." in reply before she turned away from the drummer, her long black hair swishing through the air behind her. She then walked through the sleeping area of the bus, before reaching a thick blue curtain that she pushed aside as she entered the living room type area of their new tour bus.

The living room area of the bus was divided into two sections. One side had a couch set up against its wall with a table bolted to the floor in front of it and a TV was attached to the wall at one end of the couch. Across from that was a kitchenette, consisting of a fridge, stove, sink and a row of overhead cupboards.

It was fine, perfectly functional. There was just one problem, which could be said for the rest of this new tour bus's interior too.

The tour bus's interior was decorated in blue, beige and dark gray.

Sure Luna liked the blue but Thorn hated this colour scheme. Aside from being awful it didn't suit their band's aesthetic at all. Their old tour bus looked like a place the Hex Girls would live in, as stage personas and otherwise. This new tour bus looked like a coach which would transport groups of old people on a day out somewhere.

As soon as they got the tour bus back to Massachusetts she was having everything torn out and replaced so the tour bus had a red, black purple and grey colour scheme like their old tours bus had. Complete with various little gothic touches to its interior design. She'd happily pay the full cost for it herself to get rid of all this ugliness.

However Thorn pushed those thoughts aside as she noticed Gus was sat on the couch, an opened bottle of wine on the table in front of him him along with a wine glass that he had evidently been drinking from as it was partially full. He seemed troubled, staring off into space.

Thorn frowned briefly, as that was one of her bottles of wine he'd opened, before putting on a smile and going to sit near to Gus on the couch. He didn't react, clearly lost in his thoughts.

"Hey Gus." says Thorn softly, startling Gus out of his thoughts.

"Oh sorry Thorn, didn't notice you come over here." Gus said with a slight slur to his voice from the wine he'd drunk. He smiled at her, not an entirely fake smile like the ones he'd given her and the girls after the concert. Thorn guessed he was happy to have her distract him from what was troubling him. "Can't sleep too huh?"

"Yeah, the cot being unfamiliar and the bumpy road combined with Dusk snoring made it a bit hard to sleep." answered Thorn. "Mostly Dusk snoring."

Gus laughed at that, sounding quite amused.

"Yes she can snore quite loud for being such a small chicklet." he replied with a grin. Thorn simply smiled back at her manager for a moment.

"So what's on your mind?" asked Thorn gently.

"Nothing you need to concerns yourself about darling." replied Gus, looking away from her. "I'm quite fine, no need to worry."

"You're up late drinking wine by yourself staring off into space, so I doubt that." said Thorn unable to hide the annoyance in her tone at being dismissed like that, despite her best efforts. She then put a hand on Gus' shoulder and softened her tone. "I'm the lead singer and guitarist for the band you manage Gus, how you're doing is my concern." Thorn then smiled. "And even putting that aside, I still care about you."

Gus just sighed, before smiling slightly.

"Oh very well Thorn darling." said Gus before quickly finishing off what wine remained in his wine glass. "I've been thinking over the whole Phantom incident and how it's my fault really. I did after all hire Daniel, along with failing him as a manager in the first place which caused him to turn out like he did." Gus then poured himself another glass of wine, whilst adding with embarrassment clear in his voice. "Along with how I failed to recognize him in the first place." He then had a sip of the wine before continuing. "Hence it's in part my fault you got attacked by the Phantom, along with how you, Dusk and Luna got harassed by him."

"Gus it's not your fault." said Thorn gently whilst she smiled at Gus. "It was Daniel who chose to dress up as the Phantom and attacked me, along with harass Dusk and Luna. You didn't do any of that, so it isn't your fault."

"But I did hire…" began Gus before Thorn interupted him.

"Yeah sure you did, but you said nothing about Daniel had seemed suspicious when hiring him so you'd have never had expected him to do what he did." interupted Thorn. "Besides even if you had recognized Daniel it wouldn't have mattered, since I doubt you'd have ever considered the guy you previously managed to be a potential threat to the girls and I."

Gus seemed to consider her words, staring back at her for a moment before looking away and stroking his chin.

Whilst Gus seemed to mull her words over Thorn turned to her own thoughts. What she'd told her manage was true for the most part, she didn't blame him for what happened and neither had Dusk or Luna. However it was slightly his fault in at least how he hadn't recognized Daniel when he'd hired him as their songwriter, thus letting a vengeful Daniel get close to her and her fellow Hex Girls in the first place. Sure had Gus recognized him he'd might have hired him regardless, but that wasn't the point. It was that hiring someone without knowing their actual identity was a security risk, as had been clearly shown over the past few days.

However saying that to Gus would only put him in a worse state, so a little lie wouldn't hurt him. Besides it'd be best to move on from the Phantom incident instead of dwelling on it. Since after all it wasn't the first time the band had been attacked by some costumed creep before…though hopefully it'd be the last time. Since Thorn did not appreciate this becoming a habit.

"I see your point chicklet." said Gus suddenly, snapping Thorn from her thoughts. "I suppose it isn't quite all my fault…" Gus continued, his tone uncertain.

"Exactly so there's no point dwelling on it." interupted Thorn, trying to cut Gus off as he seemed like he was going to go on to blame himself more. "What happened already happened, so let's move on from it."

In response Gus simply smiled back at her.

"Right you are darling." said Gus, his tone sounding more confident again. "Better to regain the tempo instead of dance to a bad beat."

"Ummm yeah." replied Thorn with a small grin, trying to hide how she didn't exactly get that Gusism. "Though speaking of a bad beat. We need to talk about our performance outfits." continued Thorn, her tone more firm this time.

She'd promised Dusk and Luna that she was going to talk to Gus about their performance outfits, and this was a moment to do so. Besides it'd help distract Gus from dwelling on the Phantom incident more.

"Oh yes." replied Gus with a smile. "Dusk and Luna talked about that with me earlier. Based off of what those darlings said I came up with some new designs for your performance outfits!" Gus then clapped his hands and got up from the couch. "Be back in a second chicklet." With that he turned and headed off into the sleeping area of the tour bus.

Thorn frowned and crossed her arms. She'd been intending to get Gus to agree to revert their performance outfits not change to new ones.

However she supposed there wasn't any harm in at least seeing the new designs, on the off chance they were good. He did after all he did say he based the new designs off criticism Dusk and Luna had made. Though she doubted it, whilst Gus sometimes got their aesthetic down other times he completely missed it.

Gus then pushed aside the blue curtain separating sleeping area from the living room area of the bus as he came back, holding a sketchbook. Gus flipped through it till he got to a specific page and then sat down on the couch again beside Thorn.

"Dusk and Luna said that the issue with your current performance outfits is how the colour schemes are all the same yet the style of the outfits is different. Unlike your original performance outfits." explained Gus enthusiastically, before handing Thorn the sketchbook. "So I made these new designs based off that criticism, the colour schemes are all different yet the core style is the same."

Thorn examined the design for a new performance outfit for her, or at least she presumed it was for her as whilst the face wasn't well drawn the girl in the drawing did have black hair with red highlights. Gus could draw clothes well, less the people wearing them.

That aside the design was what she could only describe of a Day of the Dead goth style, since it had the makeup drawn like the styles people did in a Day of the Dead festival and the clothes seemed vaguely…well that. It wasn't the worse thing ever, but it wasn't her style or a Hex Girls style. Especially the makeup, it'd look so unflattering on her.

Thorn flipped the page over and there was a similar design for a performance outfit Dusk on the next page, just with a shorter skirt. This looked more Hex Girls like, though the outfit wasn't green enough to fit Dusk. Sure enough though as Gus had said the colour scheme was different from the outfit for her whilst the overall design scheme was the same, Day of the Dead goth style. Admittedly Thorn could see Dusk wearing an outfit like this, though it still didn't fit the Hex Girls style in her opinion.

Thorn flipped this over this page and on the next page there was a similar design for a performance outfit for Luna. Day of the Dead styled again, with the outfit not being purple enough to fit Luna. Though she could see Luna liking the blue eyeshadow, since on occasion the keyboardist did like that colour. On the other hand Luna would hate the rest of the Day of the Dead skull styled makeup, given it'd make her look white.

They weren't necessarily bad designs on their own, but they were bad designs for the Hex Girls and she was going to make that clear. It was time to put her foot down, like she'd promised Dusk and Luna.

"I see how you followed their criticism Gus, my criticism of our current new performance outfits is similar. However you didn't really get it." began Thorn gently as she put the sketchbook down on the table, before she shifted her tone to sound more stern. "These designs aren't bad per say, but they aren't the Hex Girls Gus. We had an aesthetic to our original performance outfits where they were all different, yet united by the same style of how both our outfits and ourselves looked overtly vampiric and slightly witchy. Emphasized by how we played both those things up by bearing our fangs and hissing at people along with pretending we were witches. Along with the lyrics of many of our songs quite outright with the name of our band."

Thorn paused for a moment to let all this sink in, before continuing in her original gentle tone.

"I get a new look may be needed to keep things fresh, but completely changing the look, theme and overall aesthetic of our performance outfits isn't how to do it." continued Thorn gently. "Especially when how I, Dusk and Luna looked on stage was a major reason for the success of our band in the first place."

Gus looked a bit stunned, clearly not expecting such a strong rejection of the designs from her. He then stroked his chin, clearly thinking her words over.

Thorn just smiled, she felt satisfied with herself. It felt good to finally put her foot down, she should've said all that months ago but about the new performance outfits which were their current ones.

"I…I see you're point Thorn." said Gus slowly, clearly carefully choosing his words. "I understand yours and the girls' issues with your current performance outfits, and yours for these new designs." Gus then sighed before continuing. "Clearly like with Daniel I've been a bit too distant and not involved with you darlings if I missed something this obvious, seeing your aesthetic as more of a general goth or spooky look then there being a specific appeal to it."

"Gus you haven't been distant…" began Thorn before Gus held up his hand to interrupt her.

"No no I have chicklet, and I apologise for that. I see where I've gone wrong now." continued Gus. He then paused for a moment, before perking up and smiling at her. "Yet I have the perfect solution to fix this little tiffy I've got the band in."

"What?" ask Thorn curiously, though her voice ended up sounding sterner than intended.

"You darlings shall design your new performance outfits yourselves. Given clearly you know your band's aesthetic better than anyone else and did such a good job it in the first place." answered Gus enthusiastically. "Whilst in the meanwhile we'll be returning to having you girls wear your original performance outfits."

"Oh that's…that's perfect." said Thorn simply, a smile coming to her face. She'd been intending to just return to their original performance outfits, but instead having her, Dusk and Luna make themselves new performance outfits never crossed her mind. "Thanks Gus. That's really is the perfect solution."

"I'm glad you're happy with it Thorn." said Gus as he smiled back her. He then picked up the sketchbook and shut it. "Forget about these other designs chicklet. They're discarded."

Thorn smiled at that, before a thought crossed her mind.

"You know they weren't completely awful designs necessarily…maybe get them made for us anyway." said Thorn. "You never know, they may come in handy for a performance someday."

"Oh." said Gus, surprised by this. "Very well chicklet. I'll have the outfits made after all, though a lower priority than it will be getting your proper new performance outfits made. Once you design them."

Gus then paused for a moment as he picked up the sketchbook.

"Are there any other concerns you have chicklet?" asked Gus, giving her a kind smile. "So we can get everything neatly ironed out now rather than later."

"Well I was also going to talk to you about getting rid of our songwriter…well that sort of happened on its own." said Thorn a bit awkwardly.

"Oh yes, no more of this songwriter nonsense!" agreed Gus immediately. "Next time I'm meeting with the executives at Decade Records I'm putting my foot down on this!"

"Great." replied Thorn with a grin. Clearly tonight's events had put Gus off their band having a songwriter ever again. "That's what I wanted to hear Gus."

"So that's everything chicklet, no other concerns?" inquired Gus, after calming himself down.

"Yeah I think so." replied Thorn, giving Gus a smile. "We're all good."

"Excellent." said Gus as he stood up from the couch. "Now you should go try get some sleep darling. I want you well rested for the next concert." Gus then smiled.

"I'll try Gus." said Thorn as she stood up from the couch and walked towards the curtain before spinning around and smirking, before putting her arms out and wiggling her fingers at Gus. "Bad dreams Gus."

"And to you as well chicklet." said Gus after a brief laugh, before Thorn pushed the curtain aside and entered the sleeping area of the bus.

---

So a few quick references nods to stuff to explain her right quick. The book Skeleton Men of the Bermuda Triangle is a reference to the Scooby Doo Show episode A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle. The space squid, secret underwater Nazi base and robots are references to Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated.

The book Dark Secrets of the Forgotten Gods, by Alexander Levre is from The Wandering Piney's fanfics Occult Nights and The Treasure of the Regal Hotel. The Wandering Piney is the whole reason this fanfic exists in the first place given a lot of it was come up with as of the results of messages I've had with him on here, and arguably its down to him I got back into writing fanfiction at all as he helped to break my writer's block. So had to put in a little reference as thanks there, plus its fun to tie various different fanfics together like that. Can't recommend his Hex Girls fanfics enough.

Finally the drummer monkey. This is arguably the most obscure reference in here. When Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated was airing this was an online Flash game for it called Crystal Cove Online, where each week a mission was added to it based off one of the episodes of the show that airred that week (only for the first season). There are generic enemies throughout these missions which are somewhat themed (though often vaguely in most cases) to the villain/monster for that episode, in the In Fear of the Phantom one the generic enemies were these punk-rock looking drummer monkeys. Years ago I and WildwindVampire (another author on here, recommend his Hex Girls fanfics too) were discussing this and one of us joked about the robot drummer monkey and called it the Robot Drummer Monkey of Doom. I said if I ever wrote a fanfic set in Crystal Cove I was going to have to reference them, and so here I did. Not the best way to include them necessarily as its a bit random, but odds are its the only time I'm writing a fanfic set here so I had to include them after all. If you want to play Crystal Cove Online you still can, look up the Flashpoint archive and it has the game in there along with tricking it to get around its site lock.