The Mystery Machine parked right in front of the Scooby Snack Factory. Mrs. McSnack, the factory's owner, had benefited from Mystery Inc.'s assistance in the past so when trouble began, she knew who to call. Scooby barreled out of the van and up to Mrs. McSnack, taking the threat to his favorite treat very seriously, the rest of the gang following close behind. "I appreciate you getting here so quickly; I am beside myself with what to do" replied Mrs. McSnack.
"We're happy to help Mrs. McSnack, what can you tell us about what's been going on?" Daphne asked.
"Well, it all started with strange noises, almost musical, but then the batter began behaving strangely almost as if the sound affected it. Then one of my employees must have called that silly television crew." Mrs. McSnack pointed to a TV production crew that was set up at the other end of the parking lot. The banner read 'Arggh!' "I'm giving my employees a holiday today, but I hope you can handle this for me quickly. We want to avoid another Scooby Snack shortage." Scooby adamantly nodded yes.
They were about to go inside when the filming crew from Arggh! burst from inside, fleeing in terror as the host Hunter Spector was trying to convince them to come back. "Come back you guys, this is gonna get us picked up for 3 more seasons" he cried. But the crew drove away leaving him and the equipment.
"Children let me introduce Mr. Spector, a professional ghosthunter on the tv" Mrs. McSnack explained.
Mr. Spector merely waved at the kids and then addressed Mrs. McSnack with his concerns. "This is a major infestation of ghost activity. That eerie ghost wearing the white clothes has a powerful hold over your factory. And with his music he is able to transform your snack batter into sentient sludge monsters."
"What can you tell us about the ghost wearing white?" Fred asked.
"At first it looked like he was a worker, wearing a hairnet and apron but the cloths were ratty, and he was glowing.
Shaggy had been looking around as Hunter spoke. He spotted a lanky figure on the roof that made him jump. He was indeed glowing but his hairnet and apron were actually a white surgeon's cap, and scrubs; he also wore gloves. "Like did he by any chance look like a mad doctor?" he asked.
"Yes, did you see him too?" asked Hunter.
"Like no but I see him now!" Shaggy pointed as everyone looked up to see the ghost of Dr. Coffin. The mad doctor appeared to recognize Mystery Inc and seemed to be mocking them as he was laughing. Scooby jumped into Shaggy's arms out of terror. Hunter Spector took off determined to find a way to get back inside and capture more footage.
"Jinkies, this makes no sense. What is Dr. Coffin's ghost doing in the Scooby Snack factory?" Velma said, perplexed. The ghost backed off the edge of the roof out of sight.
"I've got a theory but It's not a good one" Daphne pondered. "Scooby, who has the Chest of Demons right now, the Louds or Casagrandes?" Scooby thought for a second then shrugged because he couldn't remember.
"Better call them both," Fred said, pulling out his phone.
Inside the abandoned laboratory within the Scooby Snack factory. Dr. Coffin's ghost looked into the small test oven where the flames revealed a pair of eyes which stood out on the featureless dark face of his master. "They have come as expected, our revenge is finally at hand" he reported to Maldor.
"You have done well, but do not underestimate them. Now that they have seen you, they will no doubt summon those insufferable mortal children to use the Chest of Demons" Maldor replied.
Dr. Coffin laughed, "let them come Maldor, my power has never been stronger and revenge shall be sweet."
"Your confidence does you no favors. Do not contact me again until it is finished!" Maldor's face vanished as the flame flared and then subsided.
It was a four hour round trip driving through Royal Woods and Great Lakes City before Fred was heading back to the Scooby Snack Factory. He had Lincoln, Ronnie Anne, Lucy, Carlota, Lana, Lynn Sr. and Clyde McBride. "Thanks for letting me tag along guys and for letting me sit up front," Clyde said.
Lincoln laughed from the back seat. "Are you kidding buddy, it's a ghost hunt with one of our favorite TV shows filming at the scene. That would be like if there was a ghost at a fashion show and not bringing Leni and Carlota."
Carlota looked up from her phone at the mention of her name. She wondered if she would enjoy a fashion show even if there was a dangerous ghost running wild. She was sitting in the backseat of the Mystery Machine. Ronnie Anne and Lana were sitting in the Middle seats, and Lincoln was on the other edge seat.
"I'll be honest though, a mad ghost doctor doesn't really fit the vibe of the Scooby snack factory" Ronnie Anne added.
"To be fair we did deal with a cheese monster the first time the factory was haunted but Scooby ended up eating the costume" Fred replied as all the passengers said 'what?'.
"Uncle Lynn, you riding alright in the back?" Fred called back to Lynn Loud Sr. who was riding on the fold down bench in the back with Lucy, the Chest of Demons, and Vincent van Ghoul's crystal ball.
"We're doing alright, but I have to ask, was this mad doctor dangerous?" Lynn Sr. asked.
"I assure you any ghost that belongs in the Chest of Demons is dangerous," Vincent Van Ghoul. interrupted from his crystal ball.
"Dr. Coffin's dirtiest trick was using his pipe organ to command vicious guard dogs at the haunted sanitarium. That's why Scrappy stayed in Great Lakes City, and Scooby is currently wearing headphones" Fred explained.
When they arrived at the factory Scooby was listening to music playing air guitar.
"Like you guys missed dinner," Shaggy said, soft drink cup still in hand.
"Abuela packed us plenty of tamales so we're good!" Ronnie Anne replied as they got out of the van.
"The ghost hasn't shown his face again, but we can hear him playing on the organ from time to time" said Daphne. "We also saw that Hunter Spector guy trying to fly a drone camera into an open window."
"Hunter Spector?" Lincoln asked as he and Clyde got excited, "is he still here?"
"Sorry Lincoln, but we lost track of him after we went to grab supper" Velma answered.
"Well let's go in, and if we're lucky the factory floor will be clear enough for a trap," Fred added.
They headed inside with Lana guiding Scooby, who still had his headphones in. The vats of Scooby Snack batter were still filled and mixing, yet conveyor belts with empty boxes stayed still. "I wonder why some machines are working and others aren't?" Ronnie Anne pondered.
"Well it would be nice if they had turned the lights on" Carlota added; then suddenly the overhead fluorescent lights turned on. Then the organ music began playing over the loudspeakers. Lana pressed down over Scooby's headphones for added protection.
Lincoln held up his official Arggh! ghost detector. "Whoa, this detects spectral presence all around us!" The sensor on the toy spiked as he stuck them at the mixing vats. Looking up he noticed they were all starting to bubble.
"Like it's just like that Spector guy said, the music is doing something to the batter" Shaggy exclaimed. The mixture began running over the top of the vats. "
"Um, do Scooby Snacks have almonds in them? I'm allergic" Clyde said, jumping onto a table. Scooby shook his head, they did not have nuts. The overflowing mixture started consolidating into piles which grew into sentient batter blobs. Everyone gasped in fear.
"The ghost is using the music to create an army!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed.
"And now it's time to show them a classic army maneuver," Shaggy said, "like retreat!"
Everyone scattered across the factory floor dodging the attacks from the Scooby Snack sludge monsters. Lana, her Dad, Scooby, and Fred made it out the front door a half dozen of the sludge monsters following them into the parking lot. Daphne, Carlota and Lucy ducked into the executives elevator, and pushed the door closed before a sludge monster could grab them. That left Lincoln, Clyde, Ronnie Anne, Velma and Shaggy to deal with the remaining sludge monsters in the Factory floor. Shaggy was holding the Chest of Demons while Lincoln held Vincent Van Ghoul's crystal ball.
"We've got to get rid of these things!" Velma said as the globs began closing the distance.
"Maybe we can add a ton of cornstarch and make them too stiff to hurt us!" Clyde suggested; diving into his vast baking knowledge. Too bad he did not see an industrial size sack of the ingredient. He scanned the storage shelf until the water pipe leading to the fire sprinklers. "Or new plan, we make them so runny that they can't stay together!"
"Great thinking Clyde," Lincoln said. The biggest problem was the globs standing between them and the valve to turn on the sprinklers. "How do we get past them?" Shaggy grabbed a mop and smacked the closest glob but it wedged itself into its gooey torso. That was not going to work.
Ronnie Anne wished she had remembered her skateboard. She spotted a hand truck and wondered if it would work. Grabbing it she backed up to get a running start. "Cover me!" she cried before starting it rolling at full speed riding it like her board. She dodged the first glob with great ease, and dodged the one with a stuck mop by utilizing the handle. She made it to the valve and began twisting it. One glob hurled a ball of snackbatter which hit her like a dodgeball as the sprinklers started their downpour. The globs started to melt and dripped down into the drains built into the floor of the factory.
"That takes care of them for now, but if the mad doctor starts playing that organ again they could come back" Velma said as she rang out her soaked turtleneck.
Lincoln was not paying attention, he ran to Ronnie Anne and checked on her as she wiped off the batter that had hit her. He waited for her to say she was ok. The batter washed away as the sprinklers finished raining on them. "Anyone got a towel" she said, making Lincoln and the others laugh.
Meanwhile, Daphne, Carlota and Lucy found themselves at the top floor via the elevator. Exiting, they found a fully stocked room with chemicals, jars, instruments, and an operating table. "Jeepers this must be Dr. Coffin's laboratory" Daphne deduced.
"B-but where is he?" Carlota said, looking around in case the ghost was waiting for them.
"Be careful, he could come back any moment, let's get back downstairs and tell the others." Daphne replied.
The two of them looked around and saw Lucy had been drawn to a shelf. "Horror of horrors!" she said, with genuine fear in her tone. She turned holding up an empty jar that had been labeled 'Scooby Doo: Brain'. "It looks like the mad doctor has a horrific plan for Scooby Doo!" They looked at the shelves and saw more empty jars for Shaggy, Daphne and Scrappy's brains.
"It must be connected to the fact that we were the last ones to recapture the demons" Daphne deduced.
They froze as they heard someone laughing and they turned to see Dr. Coffin's ghost leaning against the elevator door with his hands steepled. "How very clever Miss Blake; you see Maldor the Malevolent will reward me handsomely for ending your threat. He knew that by threatening this factory, the owner would turn to you for help, and now you have played right into my trap!" The mad doctor began laughing again.
"No way, nobody is removing any brains today!" Carlota interjected angrily.
"You are in no position to negotiate young lady, but there are so many different experiments which I might try on you! Tell me how you would feel about being turned into a frog?" Dr Coffin grinned. The girls' faces turned to worry.
At this point Scooby had led the rest of the snack batter sludge monsters on a merry chase through the parking lot. Fred came up with the idea to set up a tripwire and instructed Scooby and Lana to lead them around the perimeter of the factory. As he saw them dart past a few minutes later he and Lynn Sr. pulled the rope on either end and as the monsters ran into it they split down the middle with their top halves sloshing to the ground behind their feet still running. "That's kind of disturbing" Lynn Sr. commented at the sight of the halves of the globs moving independently.
"Woohoo! Alright Dad!" Lana cheered.
Scooby was dodging the stubby scooby snack blobs all the while wondering what they would taste like. "Scooby I know what you're thinking, one they're raw, two they're on the pavement, and three they're sort of cursed!" Fred named the reasons for Scooby. Scooby didn't hear because the music was still in his ears, but as the organ ceased, the globs reduced to piles of batter. Fred then removed the headphones and repeated, "now is not the time for snacking."
They headed back in to find the others soaking wet and trying to get the elevator to come back down. "We've gotta get up there! Carlota, Daphne, and Lucy went up to get away from the globs. They never came back down and now the elevator won't come back for us to follow!" Ronnie Anne explained.
"Then we need to find another way up!" Fred declared. "Let's get outside and climb the fire escape" In order to reach the bottom of the fire escape, Lincoln had to stand on Shaggy's shoulders. He grabbed the bottom rung and brought the ladder down. They climbed up slowly one and at a time and then stealthily moved to the upper floors. They looked into the first window on the third floor.
"Look!" Clyde pointed to a table with a sheet draped over it. Somebody or something was wriggling on the table, making muffled grunting noises. "M-maybe it's a monster."
"Or one of the girls," Fred added, "we need to check it out."
"I've got a Scooby Snack for the brave soul who will go in a jerk that sheet off" Velma declared. Scooby decided he would hold out for three, but Lana jumped at the one.
"Thanks Velma I haven't eaten since lunch," she said. "Come on Hops" her pet frog poked out from the pocket of her overalls. They popped into the room, and after accepting a snack of his own, Scooby followed inside, bringing the crystal ball.
"Great scott, that table is not all we have found, look!" Vincent Van Ghoul exclaimed, and they turned to see a massive pipe organ in the corner hooked up to the factory's speaker system. "The spirit of the doctor has used this cursed instrument to bewitch the batter."
"Um, Mr. Van Ghoul, you sound like one of Lucy's poetry books," Lana commented. "Wait, Lucy, we need to find her! Scooby, is that her under the sheet."
Scooby hesitated, afraid of what he might find under the sheet. "Scooby Doo, no is not the time for cowardice! Just lift the sheet!" Vincent Van Ghoul ordered.
Scooby obeyed lifting it at one end and then exclaiming "Yikes! Rit's a man!" he said as he yanked the sheet off. Hunter Spector was strapped to the table and gagged.
"Whoa! The mad doctor got Hunter Spector!" Lincoln said as he and Clyde climbed into the room followed by Velma. They pulled off his gag, and the tv host began gasping for breath. "Mr. Spector, are you ok!"
Spector caught his breath and answered, "I'm fine," panting "I'm better than fine, all that footage from my drone! I'm gonna get an Emmy for this!" He remembered something then held his excitement, "unless that ghost comes back and operates. Get me out of here!" he finally screamed.
Lincoln, Clyde and Velma undid the restraints and asked if he had seen their friends. He sadly had not but that the doctor had stopped short of opening him up when he heard the elevator arrive. "We've got to keep looking!" Velma exclaimed.
"You can, I've got to get the film from my drone and get it to the studio!" Spector replied as he dashed for the fire escape.
"Don't leave just yet Mr. Spector! I think you'll enjoy filming what happens to the ghost of Dr. Coffin!" Clyde added as the tv host continued out the window and down the stairs.
"Now while the others check out the roof, we had best check the room next door!" Vincent Van Ghoul added. Everyone looked at the door leading out of the makeshift operating room. Velma bravely approached and opened it. As everyone else looked from behind her.
"Rucy!" Scooby exclaimed. Lucy was tied up in a bowl of batter being mixed but a larger churning device. She was spinning to the point of nausea.
Lincoln dashed to the control on the side of the mixing machine. "Which one is it?" he asked, pulling the largest lever. It did not stop spinning but it did raise up the mixer, sending batter flying in every direction. He then pressed a red button which finally stopped the machine. He looked into the bowl and pulled his younger sister out, her black dress covered in batter. "Lucy, are you alright?"
Lucy coughed, "better now" her face was starting to look less green. "The mad doctor said he was sick of my questions about being a ghost so he threw me into that bowl." Lincoln and Lana refrained from hugging her until her stomach was settled.
"Where's Daphne and Carlota?" Velma asked. Lucy recounted Dr. Coffin's threats, claiming he would turn Carlota into a frog, and the empty jars reserved for Mystery Inc brains. Scooby ducked behind Lana in fear.
"You had best keep looking for them at once, but could someone take me back to the organ, I have a theory to test," Vincent Van Ghoul said from inside his crystal ball. Velma and Lucy took him back to the other room, while the others resumed the search.
"Ronnie Anne, we've found Lucy. She's going to be combing dough out of her hair for a week but she's ok. Any luck on your end?" Lincoln called into his walkie talkie.
"We hit a dead end; the rooftop door is locked. We tried to send Shaggy in through an exhaust pipe but it wasn't wide enough and he's stuck, it's like he's missing his bottom half. Fred and your Dad are trying to get him out" she reported. Suddenly Fred and Lynn Sr. pulled so hard they pulled the exhaust pipe up with Shaggy he rolled across the room and smashed into the door, the wait of the pipe knocking it down. "Actually, never mind, we'll be down there soon!" She jumped over Shaggy and ran downstairs ahead of the others.
Meanwhile in the laboratory, Daphne was hanging upside down with her ankles tied with a chain dangling from the ceiling. Since Carlota was capable of sending the ghosts the Chest of Demons, it was determined she would go first. Carlota was strapped to a table while the Dr. Coffin was mixing chemicals. He laughed, "I haven't turned anyone into a frog since," he paused to think. "Come to think of it, I've never turned someone into a frog. Who knows what this is gonna do, ah but what can you do, medicine's not a science."
"Um yes it is," Carlota said as she squirmed trying to get free. "Daphne, are you still good?"
"Just a minute, and done" Daphne whispered, she had freed her hands and had now set to work undoing her her ankles, which were much more secure. ""Don't fret Carlota, I'm almost done, and I'm sure the other will be here soon!"
As if on queue, Ronnie Anne burst through the door that came from upstairs. "Carlota! Daphne!" said excitedly. Daphne directed her to help Carlota as Dr. Coffin neared the table with a hypodermic needle. She grabbed the table, which was on wheels, and pulled it away from Dr. Coffin. He began chasing them, Daphne swung herself like a wrecking ball and crashed into him making him drop the needle. Dr. Coffin looked at her but before he could shout Ronnine Anne rammed the table into him. The three of them rode the operating table down the hall where the others were coming towards the sound of the comotion.
"Gang way!" Carlota screamed as everybody dodged either left or right. Unfortunately Scooby was too slow choosing which side to jump towards and the cart rammed into him.
"Get off of me you meddling mutt," growled the mad doctor as Scooby held onto him as the table crashed down the stairs. They jarred after the last stair, throwing all four passengers.
"Whoa, what a ride!" Ronnie Anne said. Scooby was next to her, his head still spinning. She looked and saw Carlota who had been broken free from the restraints of the operating table. "Carlota! Are you ok?" She ran over and helped her cousin up before hugging her.
"I've had enough of your shenanigans!" Dr. Coffin shouted as he got to his feet and gave chase to them. They passed the window where Hunter Spector had set up his camera. Scooby smiled at it. As they ran around the factory they heard the organ music playing again.
"Oh no, not more sludge monsters!" Ronnie Anne cried. She looked at the ghost of Dr. Coffin who seemed alarmed.
"Who's playing my organ!" he demanded. The batter monsters formed all around him, grabbing and hoisting him into the air. The ghost struggled trying to get loose. "Unhand me!"
Suddenly Lincoln and Clyde burst in with Lincoln clutching the Chest of Demons. "A special melody courtesy of Vincent Van Ghoul!" Lincoln announced. "Clyde, please do the honors!"
Clyde nodded, "Hocus pocus, spirit rest, return oh return to the Demon chest!" The chest began to glow and the globs took him to them and as Lincoln opened the chest, they threw him in. With the ghost imprisoned the scooby snack monsters hardened into 8 foot scooby snacks.
Everyone cheered. "Nice job guys! But how did you get the monsters to betray the doctor?" Carlota asked.
"They were only loyal to the music and by changing the tune they helped us!" Velma explained, as she and Lucy arrived in the elevator with Daphne who was holding the crystal ball. "And that piece was played by our own Lucy Loud!" Lucy took a bow.
"That's five ghosts recaptured, we are on a roll!" Lana cheered.
"Yeah, and I can't wait to watch it all on Arggh!" Clyde declared, accidentally hit a button. The test oven roared into life and Maldor's blank face appeared in the flame.
"Your victory is fleeting mortals! We will meet again soon!" he roared before the smoke dissipated. Everyone freaked out, even those who had seen Maldor before. Scooby began stress eating the baked Scooby Snack monster. The group soon regained the courage, Maldor could be stopped, but first they had to find him.