A few states over at the Hotel Spengler, one of the housekeeping staff was straightening up a room after its previous occupants had left.

Suddenly, there came a strange noise from around the room.

"Eh? What was that?" the housekeeper asked, looking around. As she did, the noise kept getting louder and louder.

"Whoever's there...come out already!" the housekeeper replied, her voice quavering.

"Room service~" A voice hissed behind her.

Quivering completely, the housekeeper slowly turned around. She saw a ghastly-looking spectre in a maid outfit screaming at her, her mouth massive!

"WAAAAAAUGH!" the housekeeper screamed as she sped down four flights of stairs.

"Consider this my two weeks' notice!" she exclaimed as she threw her stuff at the desk...stopped and got some water...and then raced out of the hotel.

The ghost maid laughed in victory as she disappeared in a flash of lightning.

[Fade out.]

[END OF COLD OPEN].

NEW INTRO!

Featured Music: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (Instrumental Mix) by Gary Lionelli and Bodie Chandler

NOTE: This intro is meant to be based on the one for X-Men: Evolution.

FADE IN on the Gang, getting into the Mystery Machine, which peels out and speeds off. A spooky shot of several monsters they'll most likely unmask—the Devil Bear, the Pterodactyl Ghost, the Dragon Beast, the Space Kook, and the Blue Scarab.

FRED

First up, the blonde himself. He tips backwards in a chair, opening a secret passageway. Next, a clip of him setting a trap.

VELMA

Next up, the brainy bespectacled brunette. She's typing on her laptop...and the next scene, she's carrying the others on her back while running.

DAPHNE

Third one up, the redhead. She briefly appears in her middle-school form, rattling off a text before she adjusts a cap on her head. Next clip has her in her current form, doing judo, before she slips and falls on her butt.

SHAGGY

Fourth, the scruffy-haired beatnik. He rolls an entire pizza (stuffed crust, naturally) like a burrito, and eats it whole! Next, he sees Chickenstein and makes a run for it, dropping a bucket of chicken as he leaves.

SCOOBY!

Last but not least, the Great Dane himself is shown running for his life...and then in another clip, we see him baring his teeth and growling...fiercely!

Next, we get shots of some monsters the gang will be encountering this and next season.

{Chickenstein, the Rock Demon, the Blue Scarab (as drawn by Zigwolf from Deviantart), Zen-Tuo, Pierre Ghoulash, the Swamp Witch and Zombie, the Paint Ghost, the Living Burger, and the Pumpkin Witch.}

The gang gets into the Mystery Machine, and drives off towards the screen as the headlights flood the camera.

And fade to a shot of the logo!

SCOOBY-DOO!
Tales of Crystal Cove

And then...FADE OUT!

Episode 11:
DOOM SERVICE!

[The original title was "Spook Central", but I realized it had nothing to do with hotels.]

Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby were out on the road and they were looking for a hotel to stop at for the night. They had been traveling during their school vacation and were pretty tired from their day.

"So this is day one of our break," said Fred. "I'd say it's turning out pretty nicely!"

"Indeed." Velma agreed. "We got in plenty of sightseeing and we even got a few souvenirs."

"Plus we took a lot of...yawn...neat photos," Daphne added.

"We're all getting pretty tired," Shaggy mentioned. "Any hotels nearby?"

"Checking the GPS as we speak!" Fred replied as he checked for hotels before he spotted one close by. "Huh...Hotel Spengler," he read on the sign. "Guess we found one already!"

"Spengler?" Daphne asked. "Interesting name for a hotel."

"I'll look into its history later." Velma advised as they drove towards said hotel. "Something about the name definitely sounds familiar."

"A vacancy, huh?" asked Shaggy. "Considering how creepy it looks...I can understand why!"

"Reah! Rreepy!" Scooby nodded.

"Well, we aren't exactly flush with options, guys, so we might as well make do," responded Fred. "Once we get settled in, we'll get dinner."

"...alright, ya talked me into it," relented Shaggy. "It's pretty troubling how easy it is for us to get talked into these things."

"Plus, it doesn't help that we're all hungry at this point," Daphne added; even she was hungry.

"Alright, then let's work fast!" said Fred.

And so, after getting their stuff out of the van and checking in, the Gang were about to go find a restaurant in town.

But before they could, Velma noticed that the hotel apparently offered meals with the rooms, and they decided to eat in.

"They actually have a nice selection of food," Velma admitted while looking at the menu.

"I actually recognize some of these dishes from the internet," Daphne revealed. "Also a little from home."

"Well, if we gotta room in spook central, at least it's got a good selection!" Shaggy shrugged.

"Mm-mm!" Scooby licked his chops. "Roh-boy-oh-boy!"

They picked out what they wanted, and ordered their food. As they did, they noticed the staff acting all jittery.

"Uh...is there something wrong?" Velma inquired.

"No, no, of course not," The staff member replied dismissively, as if trying to hide something.

Velma rubbed her chin, and squinted curiously. Something was definitely going on around here.

"I have a feeling that something is definitely going on," Daphne said.

"And here I thought I was the only one," said Velma.

"Then I guess that makes three of us," Fred added.

"I was trying to ignore it and hope it would go away!" Shaggy stated, halfheartedly.

"But rit ron't." Scooby admitted, in a sad tone.

"Okay, that settles it," said Fred. "We've got questions, and we need answers. That much is certain!"

"Agreed." The girls said together.

Shaggy sighed.

So after they finished eating, they went downstairs to talk to the manager, who was looking at some papers in the lobby with a frown.

"Excuse us, we've got a few questions we need to ask you," said Velma as she and the others came to the desk.

"Huh? Oh, what can I do for you?" The manager asked in surprise.

"We noticed that the staff are acting a little weird," said Velma. "And we'd like to know why."

"I guess it's unavoidable," The manager declared. "Recently there have been sightings of some sort of ghost maid that's been terrorizing the staff and guests."

"Ghost maid?" the gang exclaimed in unison.

"Like, I got a feeling she doesn't do windows!" Shaggy commented

"Oh, she does...by breaking them." The manager replied. "She's actually the main reason this place looks bad, because apparently she's been sabotaging and wrecking the place for a while longer than we've known about her."

"So when did this all start?" Daphne asked. "Is there at least some sort of backstory here?"

"You see, a couple decades ago, there was a very strict maid here that was very particular about being clean and professional that perished in an accident when the elevator cable snapped." The manager explained. "A few years ago, there was unexplained trouble in the same ways that are happening now, but it was taken care of and shouldn't be happening again."

"Then it looks like we've checked into another mystery," said Fred.

"Was that, like, meant to he a pun?" Shaggy asked.

"...yes," responded Fred.

"I'm going to call Dr. Spengler later and see if his equipment is still working." The manager said as he got up. "Excuse me please, I need to go check something else."

"Of course," nodded Velma. "...Dr. Spengler? He couldn't be talking about...could he?" she mused.

"Let's take a look around." Fred suggested. "We'll split up, look at different levels, and work our way to the middle."

"Yeah, that'll go over well," Shaggy remarked sarcastically.

"Ro doubt," Scooby agreed as he and Shaggy took the bottom while the others went topside.

"Reah, reah!" Scooby agreed as he got out a bunch of shrimps and started cooking them.

Soon they had prepared themselves a nice little feast.

"Maybe I'll forget about it after this," said Shaggy. "But in the meantime...CHOW DOWN!"

And he and Scooby began messily, hungrily scarfing down their feast, splattering food and liquids everywhere in a whirlwind of poultry, seafood, and other such things.

As they made their mess they failed to notice that the Spectre Maid arrived and saw the mess before spotting them.

"Bon dieu! Look at this mess!" she exclaimed, her voice echoing. "Comment deux mortels peuvent-ils être des salauds aussi inconsidérés? PERSONNE NE VOUS A ENSEIGNÉ LES MANIÈRES?!" (run that through the translator, if you could)

Shaggy and Scooby took a look and screamed in surprise and shock before running away.

The Spectre Maid immediately took off behind them in hot pursuit.

Scooby and Shaggy ran up five flights of stairs, before they came to a halt.

"Wait...this isn't our floor!" Shaggy said.

So he and Scooby found the elevator and stepped inside.

However, they didn't realize that the Spectre Maid was inside and once the doors closed they all just simply stood there, awkwardly.

Once the elevator reached the third floor and the doors opened, Scooby and Shaggy tore out of there, with the Spectre Maid right behind them.

Up and down the hallway they ran, trying to avoid her. They even started running in and out of various doors on the floor. This, of course, resulted in what few guests were there screaming in fear from the sudden intrusions of these people running in and out of their rooms.

Eventually, with no other options, Shaggy and Scooby opened up the laundry chute.

"Geronimo!" They both screamed as they went into the chute. However, the Spectre Maid didn't follow and instead backed away.

"In hindsight, this might've been a bad idea...!" Shaggy yelled as he and Scooby tumbled down, down, down into the laundry room.

"Retter here rhan rhere!" Scooby advised as they landed in some dirty laundry.

"Eeeeyuck..." Shaggy groaned as he pulled himself and Scooby out of the laundry hamper.

"I ron't even want ro row what was in rhere." Scooby said in disgust.

"Me neither," said Shaggy. "Let's just meet up with the others."

"Rand rhat about what we discussed earlier?" Scooby asked.

Shaggy hesitated for a minute. "...maybe later," he replied. "I don't wanna disrupt things."

"Alright." Scooby reluctantly agreed.

"If I don't say something...you have the right to," Shaggy said as they headed back upstairs to regroup.

Scooby nodded as they headed upstairs.

Soon, they had regrouped with the gang.

"So...did you guys find anything?" asked Shaggy.

"Nothing." Fred admitted. "You?"

"Scoob and I were getting another snack and we had a close encounter of the worst kind with that manic maid!" Shaggy exclaimed.

"That was genuinely bad luck, because we had heard her scare someone off the thirteenth floor and just missed her." Daphne explained.

"We only went up five floors," responded Shaggy. "But still, it was pretty terrifying! She was screamin' at us in French and whatnot, which you'd think wouldn't be very intimidating, but still!"

"Genuine French?" Velma asked with interest. "The profile on the maid that's supposed to be a ghost said that she couldn't speak French."

"Well, it was scattered French," responded Shaggy. "But once again, still!"

"It's a clue." Fred pointed out.

"So what's our next course of action?" asked Shaggy.

"It's getting late, so let's get to our rooms and try to get some rest." Daphne suggested.

"The Spectre Maid doesn't seem to do anything at night, so we should be safe, since that's how the security system depicted her pattern." Velma advised after checking with the security footage on her tablet.

"Well, alright," said Shaggy.

"Anything else?" Fred asked.

Shaggy was about to speak up, but he just sighed. "...no, it's fine," he said. "Nothing else so far."

Scooby shook his head, concerned.

"I'll tell them at breakfast tomorrow," said Shaggy as they headed to their rooms.

"You'd retter." Scooby advised as they went into their room. Fred came in a little later, and went to wash up before going to bed.

Shaggy and Scooby ended up fortifying themselves, for assurance, before going to sleep. Then again, they didn't do much sleeping.

The next day, everyone woke up and headed downstairs for breakfast.

However, Shaggy and Scooby were still tired as their fortifications had left them sleeping on the floor and it wasn't very comfortable. And being tired, it left them sleepy and irritable. Still, they went to eat at the hotel's breakfast buffet.

"Alright, so, before we get started on what to do next, does anyone have anything to say?" Fred asked.

"Actually...yes," Shaggy said, after eating his waffle. "And it's been bugging me for a while."

"Go for it," Fred advised. "The floor is yours, Shag."

"Alright," said Shaggy. "First off, I wanna say I'm definitely grateful to have you, Velma and Daphne as my pals."

So far, so good. Smiles all around.

"But that's what brings me around to my next point," Shaggy said. "I just wish we didn't have to get into all this crazy stuff. I mean, Scooby and I get picked to lure out the crazies in costumes, and who's to say they're not willing to kill?"

"Statistics based upon observations of our previous encounters," Velma advised. "Despite all the times we've been around these weirdos in costumes they'd rather commit crimes like fraud, stealing, and all that other stuff while avoiding the big stuff like murder."

"Yeah, but that's numbers. Who's to say they won't decide to make that leap to get 'those meddling kids' outta the way?" Shaggy asked. "I've only said it once so far, but I don't plan on dying young. I know we're sticking around because you're our friends, but this is getting dangerous."

"We're being as careful as we can," Daphne assured Shaggy. "Life is dangerous, even when we're not solving mysteries, but that shouldn't stop us from doing just about anything."

Shaggy sighed. "I guess that's a good point," he relented. "But next time someone has to be bait, it's gotta be someone else. I'm not budging on that."

"Even though you're the fastest and swingingest one of us, the entire school, and won the state track meet and managed to do an impossible gymnastics move?" Fred asked as he pointed out Shaggy's unique achievements.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm not sick of being picked," Shaggy responded. "It's like, maybe one of you guys should put yourselves out there, unless that's all Scoob and I are good for on this team."

"Try having everyone depend on me for a plan," Fred suggested.

"Or me somehow ending up as a damsel more often," Daphne added.

"It's not easy being smart and always spotting a mystery to solve." Velma admitted.

"We all have our spots on the team and, to be honest, we're all tired of them, but it's what we're good at and even if we did try to change that then there's a chance that someone will get hurt or worse." Fred explained in a serious tone.

Now Shaggy felt pretty low. "Guess I don't have any viable reason to complain," he responded.

"No, you can complain; it actually helps out more than you think." Velma assured him. "Letting out how you feel about it tends to help make you feel better."

"So then, like, why do I feel like a jerk?" Shaggy asked.

"It's because you kept your feelings bottled up for so long that you ignored everything and everyone else and how they felt," Daphne suggested. "I've been to therapy before, so I know how it feels."

"Oh," responded Shaggy.

"Now that you've finally let it out, don't you feel lighter?" Fred asked.

"I guess so," Shaggy nodded.

"Good to hear!" Fred declared.

"And it just so happens that the next place we're going for the mystery is the competing hotel." Velma pointed out.

"Alright, sure," said Shaggy. "...but first..."

And he and Scooby collapsed face-first into their food, exhausted and sleepy.

SPLUT!

After a few hours, the gang got up and went to the rival hotel a few miles down the road. Of course, it didn't take them long to find it. The place was bigger and looked more expensive.

"Whoa...this place is REALLY decked out," said Fred.

"That's how these places draw in the hefty spenders." Daphne admitted, since she'd seen plenty of hotels growing up.

"It does carry a certain air of trying to impress someone," noted Velma as they approached the doors.

"Reah," replied Scooby.

As they headed in, the desk manager glanced up. "Are you here for a reservation, or what?" she asked.

Just then, the hotel manager raced in and got behind the desk. He checked a large book, then looked up. "Ah...you must be Daphne Blake," he said. "Are you here on business?"

"Yes, but not the kind involving checking in," Daphne replied. "We're trying to figure out what's been happening over at Hotel Spengler."

"Oh...that heap," muttered the manager. "I hear it's being terrorized by a ghost. Bad for business, you know."

"Noted," Daphne replied, her tone icy. "Also, that so-called heap is at least honest, not overpriced and fake at least, so unless you want me to leave a no-star review you'll not only be quiet about Hotel Spengler, but you will also allow my friends and I to investigate in case somebody is up to foul play, even if you don't know about it."

The hotel manager blinked, utterly dumbstruck.

"...very well, then," he responded after a few minutes of silence. "Feel free to investigate."

"Thanks." Daphne said with a victory smile as she and the gang went in.

"Pret-ty impressive, Daph," commented Shaggy.

"I have my moments," Daphne replied with a smile.

"Alright, let's pair up and look for clues," said Fred.

"I thought it was split up," said Shaggy.

"Well, we've never been here before," replied Fred. "Partner up and we'll go searching."

"Sounds better than usual." Velma admitted.

"Ditto," nodded Shaggy. "I'll go with Daphne."

"And I'll go with Velma," Fred added.

"Ri'm ronna ro check something else." Scooby mentioned.

"Yeah?" asked Fred. "Like what?"

"Rhe pets center," Scooby pointed towards the area meant for pets. Shaggy shrugged, and as Scooby went his own way, the others did so as well.

They all went looking for any sort of information about any staff that could be up to shady dealings.

While searching around, Velma found a towel from Hotel Spengler. "Jinkies!" she declared. "Look what I found!"

"One of Hotel Spengler's towels." Fred said after checking it out.

"But then how did it get here?" asked Velma. "A former employee, perhaps?"

"We'll have to look at the employees and see what we can find." Fred suggested.

"Right," nodded Velma. "So let's get to it."

"Agreed," Fred said as they took the towel and left the room.

Meanwhile, Shaggy and Daphne were doing searching of their own.

"Like, nothing yet." Shaggy said as he hadn't found anything during their search.

"And that goes double for me," replied Daphne. "I bet Fred and Velma have dug up something."

"Like, no doubt." Shaggy agreed.

"Maybe we should go back and see if they found anything," Daphne suggested.

"Sure." Shaggy replied as they started heading back.

So, they met up with Fred and Velma downstairs, while the latter were in the middle of looking for employees to question.

"Find anything?" Daphne asked.

"Well, we found a towel from the other hotel," replied Velma as she showed the towel.

"Like, totally strange!" Shaggy declared in confusion.

"Plus, we were going to question some of the employees," added Fred. "See who's been hired and/or fired recently."

"No need." Velma replied. "Those details are all right here as well."

"...really?" asked Shaggy, as he and Daphne looked over.

"She's right." Fred confirmed after taking a look. "The system lets us search for those most recently hired and fired within a certain time range."

"Well, it's as good a solution as any," decided Daphne. "Let's give it a shot!"

"Already on it," Velma said as she checked the recently hired within three months.

So the gang each looked over her shoulders to see what she turned up.

Velma double-checked the maids, but three seemed rather strange. "This is odd for the maid staff," she said as she pulled up information on the three newest maids. "One was recently fired, but also rehired, one was recently hired, but had a shady background, and the third one was recently hired and has been a bit sketchy on how she handles people and some people complained about her behavior." She explained while going in depth on their backgrounds.

"So then, like, one of them has to be the ghost maid!" Shaggy exclaimed.

"It's a strong possibility." Fred agreed as Velma printed up their schedules. "We'll need to speak with them."

"Alright, we'll each talk to them," said Daphne.

"Oh; there's Scooby," Velma pointed out as he was spotted on a security camera while talking to another dog. "Looks like he's getting his own information."

"Here's hoping it's more than we got," said Shaggy as they gathered at the security camera.

Of course, since none of them spoke dog, they decided to go looking for the maids.

"Alright, so where exactly would the maids be?" Shaggy inquired.

"The first one, Jenny, is on the third floor; the second one, Mariah, is on break by the pool; and the third one, Sandra, is not in today." Daphne pointed out as she checked their schedules.

"Then first up, the pool," said Fred as they headed outside.

"You and Velma go to the pool," Daphne suggested. "Shaggy and I will go to the third floor."

"Consider it done," said Fred, as the group split up once more.

So, Shaggy and Daphne headed up to the third floor via the elevator, though Shaggy didn't hesitate to stop by the kitchen and grab some food on the way up.

Daphne didn't mind. She was well aware of his high metabolism and just let him snack away as they went up.

Eventually, they got out on the third floor and went looking around.

"Okay, so where could she be?" Shaggy wondered.

Suddenly, they saw Jenny walk out of a room.

"Excuse me, miss?" Daphne asked. "Could we ask you some questions?...Besides these, they don't count."

"What do you want to know?" Jenny asked.

"Well, for one, did you use to work for Hotel Spengler?" asked Daphne.

"I did." Jenny admitted. "But once all the spooky stuff started happening I used some contacts to get my job back here."

"Take anything with you as you left?" Shaggy inquired. "Any...towels, perhaps?"

"That would be illegal." Jenny replied. "I'm not interested in causing trouble."

"I see," nodded Shaggy. "Thanks for your time, you've been a great help."

"Okay." Jenny said as she went to another room to clean.

"I guess it's not her," said Daphne. "Maybe Fred and Velma made some progress."

"Let's, like, go find out," Shaggy suggested as they headed towards the elevator.

Meanwhile, Fred and Velma found the maid, Mariah, out by the pool during her break.

"Excuse me?" asked Velma. "We'd like to ask you some questions, and hopefully that's okay."

"Nope, break's up," Mariah said as she got up and walked off. "Besides, I've got better things to do."

"Awfully convenient timing," Fred murmured. "Bordering on suspicious."

"Well, she is the one with a supposed shady background," Velma mentioned. "Mostly allegations about things going missing while she was around, but were never proven true or false."

"So, what's our next course of action?" asked Fred as Mariah left the pool area.

"Find the others," Velma advised.

Fred nodded, and they both left the area.

And so, back inside, they met up with Shaggy and Daphne.

This time, Scooby came back. "Rid rou rind anything?" he asked.

"Not much," Daphne admitted. "What about you?"

"I found rhis raid outfit from rhe other hotel," Scooby revealed as he pulled out a Hotel Spengler maid uniform.

"And we found the towel!" Fred said as Velma pulled it out. "But Mariah wasn't exactly up for answering questions."

"And the third one, Sandra, wasn't here today," Daphne said as she held a picture of Sandra.

"Hey, I row her." Scooby revealed. "Rhe was at rhe dog renter earlier."

"Yeah?" asked the gang.

"So what happened?" inquired Daphne.

"She was sneaking around." Scooby replied. "Rhere's a secret door rehind rhe dog renter."

"If that's so, you might've found a break in the case," said Fred. "Good work, Scooby."

"Alright, gang, we'll go check behind the dog center," decided Fred. They all agreed and headed that way.

The dogs all remained quiet as they arrived, since Scooby had spoken to them earlier.

Carefully, they approached the door behind the dog center, and using one of Daphne's bobby pins, picked the lock to get it open.

Inside, they saw a computer system with all sorts of codes on it.

"Whoa..." Shaggy remarked. "Like, whaddya think THIS could be for?"

"Hmm, let me copy some data, and then I'll look it up while on the way back to Hotel Spengler." Velma advised as she used a USB drive to copy some data before leaving.

And so, with that part of the case finished, the gang returned to Hotel Spengler.

On the way there, Velma had discovered that the data was about stocks involving Hotel Spengler, the property it's on, and some future plans.

"Jinkies!" she exclaimed. "I think we might've gotten even more information than I expected!"

"No doubt." Daphne agreed.

"So, it might be Sandra who's behind all this!" Fred mused.

"Only one way to find out," Velma advised as she knew what time it was.

"Time to set a trap, then?" Fred asked.

"Exactly." Velma confirmed.

And so, the gang got started on planning out, then setting up their trap of the day.

Shaggy knew what was coming up for him, but after their talk this morning he actually felt a whole lot better about it, but was still scared. "Just because it's my part to play doesn't mean I have to like it," he said.

"Exactly!" The rest of the gang agreed.

Shaggy sighed. "Well...no sense putting it off any longer," he relented. "Alright, let's get this over with."

"I'm here with you, Raggy." Scooby assured him. "Whereever you go, I go." He promised.

Shaggy smiled at Scooby. "From now, until the end," he nodded as Fred and the others put their finishing touches on the trap.

"Okay, it's ready to go." Fred told them.

"Alrighty then," said Shaggy. "Time to head for the dining room."

"Roger-rilcoe!" Scooby nodded as they headed off.

"Good luck." Daphne said with a nod.

"Thanks," nodded Shaggy as they headed downstairs and went to the dining room...which, surprisingly, had been decked out with a buffet table.

"Well, at least if we're gonna run, we're getting a meal first!" Shaggy beamed.

"Reah!" Scooby agreed as they got some food.

Once their plates were filled, they sat down, and immediately started in on the food, gobbling and slurping loudly while eating and drinking.

Alas, the moment was fleeting, because soon, their discarded plates began to quiver and clatter as the lights each dimmed, one by one.

They both gulped as they just knew that the Spectre Maid was getting close.

Soon came the angry French muttering, and then the Spectre Maid materialized. "AGAIN?! You obnoxious slobs?! I thought I got rid of you!" she fumed, muttering in French some more.

Shaggy and Scooby made faces at her before bolting out of the room, with the Spectre Maid flying behind them.

Fortunately, the carbo-loading they'd done gave the boys a boost! And although the Spectre Maid was hot on their tails, she was getting a bit exhausted from having to keep up with them.

Shaggy and Scooby looked back to see her wobbling in the air a bit.

"Raggy! She's getting tired!" Scooby pointed out.

"Like, wow...that's never happened before!" Shaggy replied. "Then let's kick it up a notch, Scoob!"

"Rye-aye, Raggy!" Scooby gave a salute, and they sped up their running as the Spectre Maid kept trying to chase them. They led her up the stairs, up five more floors.

And with every few floors they ran up, the Spectre Maid grew more and more tired.

Soon, Shaggy and Scooby went past the trap and the rest of the gang got ready.

"Ready, guys?" asked Fred.

"Well, we are, but she might be a moment." Shaggy replied with a small grin as they waited.

After several minutes, the Spectre Maid came behind them, panting and wheezing as she did. Once she was in position, they sprung the trap and a simple net fell on top of her. She didn't struggle much, though.

"Alright...now let's unmask this maid," Fred declared.

After removing the mask, they found the face of Jenny, the maid that was fired and rehired at the other hotel.

"So it was Jenny!" commented Velma.

"But how, and why?" asked Daphne.

"Corporate espionage," Velma declared before she reached into one of Jenny's pockets and pulled out a disposable cellphone. "She came to work here so she could discover a series of secret passages that were originally sealed off for security reasons, and then used them to pull off being the Spectre Maid."

"And when she heard about the story of how that maid died, she decided to take on the identity of the Spectre Maid to scare people away," Fred added.

"And that explains why the sensors weren't triggered." The manager said as he came over.

Then suddenly Velma noticed a strange device in the corner of the room.

"Jeepers...what IS that?" asked Daphne, looking over.

"That's actually a sensor that Dr. Egon Spengler installed when he dealt with the previous Spectre Maid problem." The manager explained. "The hotel was renamed after him for how he took care of that problem."

"So it is named after him," Velma commented, awestruck.

"Who?" Fred and the others asked.

"Egon Spengler?" Velma responded. "You know, of the Ghostbusters!"

"Oh!" They all said in realization.

"We've heard a little bit about them, but we didn't know their names that well." Daphne admitted.

"Ah...well, fair enough, it was a long while back," Velma replied sheepishly.

"We'll look into him." Fred assured her.

"Like, yeah, he sounds like a cool guy," Shaggy agreed.

"Reah, reah!" Scooby said with a grin.

"Thanks," said Velma. "Now to deal with Jenny!"

"I called the police." The manager replied.

"Alright then," said Velma. "Although it feels like something is missing..."

"And I would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky kids and their dog," fumed Jenny.

"There it is," said Velma.

"Scooby-Dooby-Doooooo!" Scooby cried out in celebration.

And with the job done and paid for, the gang left Hotel Spengler.

However the manager gave them their money back and even added in a free stay if they ever came back. So that was a neat little bonus, too!

As the gang left they were all thinking about Egon Spengler and what all they would discover about him. But that was something for another time as they headed for home.

So yeah...I've been wanting to deal with this issue for a while. It's always been a curiosity to me as to WHY Scooby and Shaggy take part in being the bait, so I decided to do something that addresses that. The one time it was addressed was in Be Cool, and that just made Fred seem like an asshole. [Then again, he did make Shag and Scoob sign a contract that permanently bound them to keep solving mysteries with the gang forever, forbidding them from quitting...]

But yeah. Looks like friendship has won out and another crime has been solved. But the seeds for further adventures have been planted.