Post by wileyk209 on Aug 25, 2020 20:54:47 GMT -5
Here's one I have been thinking of writing for a while, inspired a lot by when I was in high school (which was during the time "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" was first run). I attended a pretty old high school with a lot of outdated and obsolete technologies and features, including an obsolete (and very LOUD) fire alarm system and no fire sprinklers. And there have been a few fires during my time at the school, a few intentionally started by students! But this story has the arsonist be a spooky phantom arsonist that kind of resembles the Phantom Puppeteer from "The Backstage Rage" (one of my favorite "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" episodes), and the gang is still attending high school in this story, like they have in some of the shows. But this is different from Crystal Cove High in "Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated"; I instead partly based Coolsville High School in this story off my high school and from that "High School Ghoul" comic story from DC's Scooby-Doo Issue #28 (complete with featuring the same principal from that comic!) Well, enjoy!
SCOOBY-DOO ALL FIRED UP!
By WileE2005
It was a cool, misty night in Coolsville. But over at Coolsville High School things were jumping, with a school dance going on in the gymnasium building. A live band made up of students was performing on a makeshift stage, and Mystery Incorporated was having fun at the dance, grooving to the rock music. Fred and Daphne were dancing together, as usual, and Shaggy and Velma were also having a good time boogieing to the music. Shaggy’s Great Dane Scooby-Doo was also dancing nearby.
But of course, after a bit of dancing, Shaggy felt his stomach and said, “Velma, please excuse me, but, like, me and Scooby need to refuel!”
“Of course,” Velma sighed.
As they headed over to the buffet table, Scooby noticed a feeling as well. “Rardon me, Raggy,” he said in his dog voice. “Ri need to use ra restroom.”
“OK,” Shaggy said, “but hurry back, otherwise there may not be much left at the table!” He let out his usual chuckle.
Scooby-Doo trotted over to the men’s restroom that was located along one side of the gymnasium, but as he got closer, he smelled smoke. He saw a strange looking someone running towards an exit. He appeared to be wearing a long black cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. “Rhuh?” Scooby asked in his usual perplexed fashion. Then he noticed he could see smoke wafting from the restroom door. He opened the door and took a quick peek, only to discover a fire burning in the restroom! The blaze was largely in a trash receptacle, and it was spreading a bit. With a yelp, Scooby quickly shut the restroom door and made a run for the nearest exit.
A little after that, Daphne could smell the odor as well. She sniffed the air and asked, “Fred, what’s that smell?”
Just after saying that, the fire alarm began blaring loudly through the building. The noise was so loud in there Fred and Daphne had to cover their ears. Fred said, “Uh-oh, it’s the fire alarm. I think something’s burning in this building. We’d better find the others and get out!”
Sure enough, they found Velma fairly quickly, and Shaggy was standing near the buffet table, shaking in fear and also covering his ears as well.
“Like, where’s Scoob?!” he cried out in a panicked voice. “He hates fire alarms about as much as I do!”
“No time to look,” Fred instructed Shaggy. “We have to get outside. I think it’s a real fire.”
“ZOINKS!!! A real fire?!” Shaggy jumped in terror, even more afraid now.
“Come on,” Velma said as she grabbed Shaggy’s arm and they quickly walked towards the closest exit, as others were also doing. The band members also stopped playing to evacuate the building. Many were acting calmly, but some were also terrified like Shaggy.
The gang made it outside. Now Shaggy began to take off from Fred, Daphne and Velma.
“Where are you going, Shaggy?” Daphne asked.
“Like, I gotta find Scoob,” Shaggy explained. “I hope he’s OK!” He ran around a bit until he came across Principal Weathers, who came out of the main building’s administration area to see what was going on.
“Shaggy, calm down,” Weathers told Shaggy. “I know you don’t like fires or anything like this, but everything will be under control.”
“It’s not that,” Shaggy said in his usual freaked-out tone. “Like, Scooby’s missing and I gotta find him!” After saying that, a distant siren could be heard; the fire department was on its’ way. “Scooby-Doo?!” Shaggy called out into the dark foggy parking lot area. “Scooby-Doo, where are you?!”
“Rover here…” Scooby’s voice faintly rose from the other side of the entrance road.
“Like, I’m comin’, Scoob!” Shaggy said as he started to run off, but Principal Weathers held him back.
“Stop!” Weathers calmly ordered. “It’s not safe to cross that road yet, especially on a night like this. Can’t you hear the fire truck coming?”
Shaggy gulped. “I guess you’re right,” he said.
So Shaggy, Principal Weathers and the rest of Mystery Inc. watched as a couple of fire trucks pulled up, along with the fire chief in his car, the firefighters connected their pumper truck to the nearest fire hydrant, brought the hose from the truck into the school building and extinguished the blaze in the men’s restroom.
As the firefighters were at work inside the gymnasium building, Shaggy and the rest of Mystery Inc. heard a familiar voice calling out, “Raggy!”
Shaggy turned towards the direction of the sound. “Scooby-Doo!” he cried out. “Is that you?!”
Sure enough, Scooby-Doo came running out of the fog towards the gang. He jumped up to Shaggy, licked his face and gave him a big hug.
“Scooby old buddy!” Shaggy exclaimed as he hugged his loyal dog friend. “Like, I’m so glad you’re safe!”
“Ranks, Raggy,” Scooby said. “Ri saw the fire!”
Daphne let out a soft gasp. “Jeepers! You actually saw the fire?”
“Where was it?” Fred asked.
“Rin the men’s room!” Scooby replied. “Rand a rysterious ranger!”
“You saw a mysterious stranger, too?” Shaggy asked.
“Ruh-huh, ruh-huh!” Scooby nodded.
“Jinkies,” Velma realized. “I’m betting whoever it was had something to do with the fire.”
…
A little while later, everyone gathered inside the cafeteria of the main building. Principal Weathers had it opened up since it was still cool and foggy outside, and the gymnasium still wasn’t completely safe to re-enter yet, as it was fairly smoky inside, and the firefighters were still investigating the area.
Daphne asked Velma, “So you think the fire may have been set intentionally?”
Velma nodded and explained, “According to Scooby, the mysterious stranger was dressed up in some kind of disguise, a cloak and hat of some kind. And in most cases, there wouldn’t really be anything in a restroom to cause an accidental fire. The fire chief said that the blaze began in a wastebasket, and usually when that happens it’s because somebody threw something burning inside, especially if the wastebasket is full of combustibles like paper towels.”
The fire chief overheard Velma and walked over to her and patted her shoulder. “That’s pretty good detective work, miss,” he said. “My crew did notice that it looked suspicious. We found a burnt match inside the trash can and had traced the cause of the fire to that.”
Velma smiled. “Jinkies,” she exclaimed. “Then I was right!”
“And,” the fire chief added, “arson is a very serious crime. If whoever started the fire was intending to harm anyone, he failed, because luckily no one was hurt.”
“I guess you did the right thing, Scoob,” Shaggy said as he petted the top of Scooby’s head, “running for it when you saw that fire.”
“Raw, shucks,” Scooby said as he blushed a bit.
“That’s right,” the fire chief said. “Whenever there’s a sure sign of fire, whether you see smoke or flames, or if you even just hear the fire alarm, you get out of the building right away.”
Fred, Daphne and Velma all gave Shaggy a look, whom chuckled nervously. “Like, I’m glad Scooby was safe all along,” Shaggy said, attempting to brush it off.
Daphne then turned back to Fred and the fire chief and asked, “But why would someone want to set fire to the school?”
“Well, gang,” Fred announced as he excitedly rubbed his palms, “it looks like we’ve got a mystery on our hands!”
“What?” the fire chief asked, a little surprised.
“Solving mysteries is a specialty of ours,” Velma told the chief. “Especially since we know that it was a mysterious cloaked stranger who supposedly started the fire. We think if we can get to the bottom of this mystery, we can save the school.”
“Whoa, there,” the fire chief warned the gang. “Like I said, arson is very dangerous. I don’t want any of you getting hurt. Besides, me and my crew at the Coolsville fire department can try to figure this out.”
“But if you give us a chance,” Daphne explained, “we might be able to get the job done more efficiently. After all, we are students here.”
“But what would you do if there was another fire?” the fire chief asked.
“Well,” Fred said as he felt self-confident, “we call you guys to come and put it out.”
“Uh, Fred,” Velma reminded him, “the school’s fire alarm system is designed so that when it’s set off, either from an automatic detector or a manual pull station, it will automatically contact the fire department when set off.”
“She’s right,” the fire chief added. “In this day and age, automation can be very useful in saving lives from a fire.”
“So, like, what do we do?” Shaggy asked his friends.
“We start looking around when we get the chance,” Fred told Shaggy. But then he eyed a red-haired teenage boy wearing a white tight T-shirt with a green vest over it and dark jeans. “Hold the phone,” Fred said to the others. “I think I found our suspect!”
Sure enough, he ran over to Red Herring and immediately accused him, “OK, Red, start talking! Where were you when the fire broke out in the gymnasium?!”
Red sighed and explained, “I was in the gymnasium lobby trying to get candy from the vending machine. I wasn’t too crazy about the refreshments being offered at the dance.”
“WHAT?!” Shaggy and Scooby-Doo both cried out in shock.
“Then I heard the fire alarm go off and I went right out the front entrance,” Red continued. “It WASN’T me who started the fire, Jones!”
“OK,” Fred said cautiously, “but we’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
What they didn’t realize was that near the doorway to the school kitchen, the mysterious cloaked stranger was watching. His face was a pale green color with glowing yellow eyes, and a smirk on his face.
…
Sometime later, when school was in session, Mystery Inc. was attending a U.S. History class together. Scooby-Doo had even accompanied them to the class! As the teacher was collecting homework, having just finished with the gang’s, Fred softly said to them, “During the study period we all have in a little bit we’ll look for clues.”
“Shhh, class!” the teacher reminded them. The gang went back to their work, sans Scooby, who just sat there watching.
…
Later, the study period arrived, and the gang walked over to the main lobby near the office. They had gotten hall passes so they could get to the bottom of the mystery.
Among arriving at the lobby, Fred turned to the gang and said, “All right gang, let’s split up and look for clues. Daphne, Velma and I will check out the cafeteria and then the gymnasium building. Shaggy, Scooby, you two check the rest of these classroom wings and the fine arts building.”
Shaggy and Scooby gulped. “Like, no way,” Shaggy said as he waved his hands. “We always have to split up this way, and I don’t think it’s going to work in a place like this.”
“Ruh-uh!” Scooby agreed, shaking his head.
Velma pulled a box of Scooby Snacks out from her backpack and said, “Would you two do it for a couple of Scooby Snacks?”
Shaggy sighed and told Scooby, “They know us too well. Scooby Snacks are too good to resist!”
“Ryou said it,” Scooby agreed as he nodded.
And with that, Velma tossed the four Scooby Snacks into the air, with Shaggy and Scooby each catching two in their mouths.
“Come on, Scoob,” Shaggy told his dog. “Let’s go look for something, like that creepy arsonist.”
…
So, Fred, Daphne and Velma were checking through the gymnasium, careful not to disturb the students partaking in gym class at that moment. They began to try and sneak under the yellow tape blocking off the door to the men’s’ restroom, until an elderly custodian approached them.
“Hey, what are you kids doing there?” the custodian asked. “This is off-limits to students until I clean it up.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Kenneth,” Fred explained. “We’re trying to look for clues involving that fire last night. Solving mysteries is our thing.”
“Well, this area is still closed off for the time being,” Mr. Kenneth told the gang, “at least until after I clean it up and that Dr. Weathers and the fire department say it’s safe to reopen.”
“But by then it’ll be too late to find clues in there,” Velma tried to explain.
“So?” Mr. Kenneth said, not that amused. “This entire school is fairly old and in rough shape. There should be plenty of clues to find involving the arsonist! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going in there to clean up.” The gang got out of Mr. Kenneth’s way as he temporarily removed the tape and entered the restroom with his custodial equipment cart.
“Something was up with him,” Daphne noted. “I don’t think he is very fond of the arsonist’s doings, since he’s a janitor and all.”
“You mean custodian!” Mr. Kenneth corrected from inside the restroom.
“Come on,” Fred told the girls. “Let’s split up and check out the locker rooms.”
“But didn’t we already split up a while ago?” Velma pointed out, narrowing her eyes at Fred.
“Yes,” Fred admitted, “but because of our genders, I’ll check out the men’s locker room, and you two can check out the women’s locker room.”
“Oh, I get it now,” Daphne realized. “I wonder if Shaggy and Scooby are having any luck?”
…
A while later, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy were still looking through the halls of the fine arts building. “This isn’t easy,” Shaggy told his dog. “Like, many of the rooms still have classes going on, and we found NOTHING in the auditorium. I think this is nothing but, like, a wild goose chase!”
“Ryeah,” Scooby said in a dejected tone.
Shaggy and Scooby went down the stairs to the first floor, to which Shaggy said, “Hey, at least there’s nothing going on in the wood shop right now. Maybe we’ll get lucky!”
They entered the wood shop classroom and started looking around, since the room was full of potential combustibles. But when Scooby-Doo turned back to look at Shaggy, he noticed the mysterious green-faced phantom approaching behind Shaggy in his cloak and wide-brimmed hat.
“Rikes!” Scooby said and began shivering.
“Scoob,” Shaggy asked, “what’s got you spooked?”
Scooby pointed and moaned, “Rehind you!”
“Huh?” Shaggy turned around and found himself face-to-face with the phantom arsonist, who let out a sinister laugh! “ZOINKS!” Shaggy shrieked. “It’s the arsonist!”
And with that, Scooby and Shaggy ran out a side door that took them into the metal shop, also currently not being used. The phantom pursued them through the room and back out into the corridor.
After a bit, the phantom appeared to have lost Shaggy and Scooby, stopped in the hallway and scanned the area to try and catch sight of them. Sure enough, Scooby and Shaggy approached the phantom wearing hall monitor uniforms.
“Like, hold it right there,” Shaggy said to the phantom. “Do you have a hall pass? As hall monitors, we can’t just let you wander the school without a reason!”
“Uh…” the phantom said, looking perplexed.
“Come on now,” Shaggy demanded as he put his hand out. “Show us your hall pass!”
“Ryeah,” Scooby added as he held his paw out. “Show us!”
“Uhh, I haven’t got one,” the phantom admitted.
“Too bad,” Shaggy said, handing the phantom a detention slip. “See you in detention this afternoon! Now get back to class!” He and Scooby ran off again.
The chase took them to a hallway with several classroom doors. Shaggy and Scooby tried to enter one, but saw a class going on in process. “Zoinks! Like, sorry,” Shaggy quickly apologized and closed the door.
As he did that, the phantom opened a door on the other side of the hallway, and the teacher and students all shrieked at his appearance. “I’m sorry,” the phantom quickly said and shut the door.
Shaggy rubbed the back of his neck and sheepishly said, “I forgot we can’t do the door thing here when classes are going on.”
It was right after saying that when the time tone sounded over the P.A. system; an electronic signal serving as the “bell” to let students know when classes start or end. As all the doors opened and teens began pouring out of the rooms, the phantom ran for it.
“Aw, man,” Shaggy moaned. “Like, no way we can easily follow him in this crowd. Come on, Scoob, let’s go to our next class.”
…
Shortly after, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo made it to their math class, where they reunited with Fred, Daphne and Velma. “Like, we saw the phantom arsonist,” Shaggy was softly saying to Fred at the desk next to him. “But he got away before we could follow him.”
“And we didn’t find any clues,” Fred glumly added.
A little into the class, the teacher was going over the lesson when all of a sudden, the deafening buzz of the fire alarm interrupted her. Some of the students, anxious about the arsonist, screamed at the loud sudden noise, including Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, of course, as Scooby leaped into Shaggy’s arms.
Velma sniffed the air and said loud enough to be heard over the fire alarm horns, “Oh no… I think I can smell smoke again!”
“OK,” the teacher instructed her class, “let’s all quickly and quietly line up in single file and leave the building. No need to panic.”
So they did. As the Mystery Inc. gang accompanied the rest of the class out of the room and through the hallways towards a stairwell, covering their ears from the ear-splitting alarm, Daphne pointed towards another end of the hall and said, “Look!”
They all saw smoke coming out from said end of the hallway, and the phantom arsonist running from the source of the smoke and down the stairwell on the opposite end from where the gang was.
“No time to go after him now,” Fred quickly said. “We have to evacuate!”
And so, among going down the stairs to the first floor and leaving the main building, the gang accompanied their class to the large front parking lot where other classes stood, some of them unaware that it was another actual fire and assuming it was another drill. At least until the fire trucks arrived again with their sirens wailing.
…
Sometime later after the evacuation, when everyone was allowed to reenter the building, the fire chief and Principal Weathers let Mystery Inc. see the damage done by this fire. This time it was in a classroom that was vacant during the period the fire was started. The area was still a little smoky, so Fred got some protective masks out of the Mystery Machine parked in the school’s lot for the gang and Principal Weathers to wear when surveying the site.
The top of one of the desks was all scorched, and some other desks and chairs and the rug were all sooty. A window was broken to try and get the smoke outside.
“Look at this classroom!” Weathers angrily exclaimed. “Look at this desk! Look at the rug! Look at this mess! This fire is definitely the work of that same arsonist that started the fire in that restroom last night!”
“And not only that,” the fire chief added, “another teacher had to be taken to the hospital due to smoke inhalation! This is getting really serious now.”
“Jeepers!” Daphne sadly exclaimed. “Why is someone trying to burn down our school?”
“I wish I knew,” Velma glumly answered. “But I don’t see any decent evidence in this room, aside from the remains of the match we found that was used to start the fire.”
“But we did see the mysterious phantom arsonist run from this area while we were evacuating,” Fred pointed out.
“But who could this phantom arsonist be?!” Weathers demanded.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Daphne said.
The fire chief noted, “Dr. Weathers and I reviewed the security camera footage from last night in the area where that men’s room is, and we saw this cloaked arsonist walk in there, and then in less than a minute he fled the room as a bit of smoke came out. And then Scooby came in, peeked into the room and ran off.”
“Ryeah,” Scooby agreed. “Ri saw the rantom!”
“There is the possibility it could be one of the students here,” Velma said, “as I know some of them have the tendency to misbehave. But arson? That’s going too far!”
“Yeah,” Red Herring added as he walked up to the gang, Principal Weathers and the fire chief. “And it definitely wasn’t me!”
“Yeah, sure,” Fred said as he rolled his eyes. “But knowing your history, Red, you’re still a suspect this time.”
“Red Herring,” Principal Weathers demanded, “what are you doing out of class?”
“Going to the restroom,” Red explained. “Then I heard the Scoobys talking and wanted to see what was up.”
Exasperated, Weathers put her hand to her forehead and ordered, “Go to the restroom, Red, and then go right back to class.”
“Yes, Dr. Weathers,” Red meekly said as he started running off.
“And no running in the halls!” Weathers called out to him.
Red slowed down and grumbled to himself as he started walking. Then he turned to the Scooby gang and called out to them, “That’s NOT very funny!”
“We weren’t laughing,” Shaggy countered.
“Nor were we smiling,” Daphne added. “It must be these masks covering our mouths that confused him. What a geek…”
…
A while later, it was the gang’s lunch period. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo were pigging out on cafeteria food as usual, while the rest of the gang ate small lunches fairly quickly so they could use the period to look for more clues or maybe even catch the arsonist.
Shaggy noticed that the cafeteria was a bit quieter than usual. Several students were nervous among learning that the reason the fire alarm went off earlier was because that arsonist from the night before had struck again.
“Like, Scooby,” Shaggy noted, “this phantom is now starting to get the whole school nervous. Even just hearing Principal Weathers angrily talk about it over the loudspeaker was enough to put everyone on edge.”
“Ryeah,” Scooby nodded nervously. “Ron edge!”
…
Meanwhile, Fred and Daphne and Velma were approaching the office of Mr. Kenneth, the custodian. They noticed the office was empty and the door was open.
“I guess Mr. Kenneth is cleaning up that burnt classroom,” Daphne figured.
“Whatever the case,” Fred said, “we can use this opportunity to check in here for clues.”
They went in. As Fred and Daphne checked a bit on the shelves and spare custodial equipment, Velma looked on Mr. Kenneth’s desk and noticed some handwritten papers stapled together. What caught her attention was the heading on the top: “COOLSVILLE HIGH VIOLATIONS.” She picked up the notes and quickly flipped through the pages. “‘Possible asbestos in floor tiles and ceiling’,” she said as she quickly read through the papers. “‘No air-conditioning in kitchen, dated and worn interior materials, unused and decommissioned drinking fountains, dated restroom plumbing fixtures, non-ADA-compliant door hardware…’ Jinkies! Look at this!”
“What is it, Velma?” Daphne asked as she and Fred walked over to see what Velma found.
“It’s a list of building violations for our school, showing all the antiquate, obsolete and non-compliant findings. And look what the list starts out with: ‘Sparse placement of ABC fire extinguishers, no fire sprinkler system, fire alarm system is obsolete and has no strobe lights, no battery backup, no smoke detectors, sparse placement of heat detectors…”
“Jeepers,” Daphne realized. “At the top of this list are the fire hazards!”
“Not only is this our first clue,” Fred said as he, Daphne and Velma started leaving the custodial office with the papers, “it’s perhaps our most important one. Let’s go find Shaggy and Scooby in the cafeteria and…”
Suddenly, the creepy phantom arsonist leaped out at them. “And it’ll be your last clue!” he said in his most threatening, taunting voice. “Give me those papers!”
“RUN!” Fred ordered, and he, Daphne and Velma took off with the phantom pursuing them. During the chase, Velma quickly put the violation papers into her backpack, and they ran through several halls, trying to lose the phantom. But again, once they came up to a corridor with many classroom doors, Velma, Daphne and Fred each found that quite a few of the classrooms were still being used.
“Sorry,” Daphne said to one class. “Force of habit.”
They quickly closed the doors and continued running down the hall, but as they got closer to the cafeteria, Daphne noticed one of the floor teachers keeping an eye out for trouble. She called out loud enough for the phantom to hear, “Look, it’s Mr. Willis, one of the floor teachers!”
Sure enough, the phantom made an uncertain noise, turned around and ran away in the opposite direction, not wanting Mr. Willis to notice him.
Mr. Willis approached the three teens and asked, “What are you three doing right now?”
“We found an important clue,” Velma explained as she held up her backpack. “One that may put an end to the arsonist’s meddling!”
“OK,” Mr. Willis said. “But just remember not to run in the halls.”
“Sure thing,” Fred told the floor teacher, and they walked into the cafeteria where they saw Shaggy and Scooby-Doo just finishing the last of their food. “Guess what, guys?” Fred said to the two. “It looks like this afternoon we might be able to capture the phantom arsonist!”
Shaggy gulped. “And I bet you have a plan that involves us as the bait.”
“Now that you mention it…” Fred said as he gave a mischievous grin…
…
Later, after classes were dismissed for the day, the phantom arsonist crept out of a small utility closet, sneered and let out an evil chuckle, and started to slink around. But then suddenly he heard something like a siren wailing! “Huh?” he asked as he turned to the direction of the sound, and saw Scooby-Doo wearing a police light helmet and holding an electronic bullhorn with a siren generator built in. With him was Shaggy, wearing a policeman’s hat.
“Hold it right there,” Shaggy ordered to the phantom. “Like, no haunting after school hours! I’ll have to turn you in!”
The phantom let out a snarl and began chasing Shaggy and Scooby-Doo. Of course, this was to lead the phantom into a trap. Scooby and Shaggy began to run over to near the custodial office, where Fred was twirling a long extension cord like a lasso rope
“Here they come,” Fred announced, turning to Daphne and Velma with a custodial equipment cart.
Sure enough, Shaggy and Scooby ran up to the gang and their trap and got out of the way for Fred to lasso the phantom arsonist, coiling him up in the cord just as he told the girls, “Now!” Daphne and Velma pushed the cart forward, and Fred managed to lasso the bound phantom into the trash can on the cart.
“We got him!” Daphne exclaimed.
“It worked!” Shaggy said as he and Scooby-Doo ran back towards the rest of the gang.
“Curses!” the phantom arsonist exclaimed.
After that, the gang wheeled the phantom up to the main office, presenting him to Principal Weathers, the floor teacher Mr. Willis and the fire chief. “Dr. Weathers, Mr. Willis, and the fire chief,” Fred announced, “we have captured your arsonist.”
“But who is he really?” Weathers asked.
“Well, it’s not me!” Red Herring said as he walked up to them.
“There goes that theory,” Fred sighed as he rolled his eyes.
“Well, I figured out who he is,” Velma said as she took off the arsonist’s wide-brimmed hat to reveal his full bald green phantom head. “Fred, if you will,” she said as she gestured to Fred.
“With pleasure,” Fred said. He grabbed the phantom’s scalp and pulled off his rubber mask to reveal…
“Mr. Kenneth?!” the gang, Principal Weathers and Mr. Willis all exclaimed in unison.
“The old janitor?!” Shaggy and Scooby-Doo added.
“Custodian!” Mr. Kenneth corrected them.
“But… why?” Weathers asked, in a concerned tone. “Why were you setting the school on fire?”
Mr. Kenneth growled and confessed, “OK, I admit it! I hate this old school campus! It’s barely been updated or renovated over the years. I’ve been working as custodian here for such a long time and have seen other staff members and students come and go, but the building never changed! You won’t believe all the things I found wrong with it!”
“He’s right,” Velma explained, taking the stapled-together papers out of her backpack with the list of violations. “Coolsville High has barely had any upgrades or renovations since it was built in 1969. We found this list in Mr. Kenneth’s office of what he found wrong, and right at the top were potential fire hazards!”
“Just look!” Mr. Kenneth said. “NO sprinkler system, an obsolete fire alarm system…”
“One that’s, like, super loud!” Shaggy added.
“Don’t interrupt!” Mr. Kenneth scolded Shaggy. Then he continued, “No smoke detectors, sparse placement of fire extinguishers, not all of which are ABC-type, non-opening windows in most classrooms, some faulty exit doors, and that’s not all! Decommissioned drinking fountains, antiquated restroom plumbing, non-ADA-compliant entrances and exits, no air-conditioning in the kitchen, and more! This place is an ancient dump!”
“Well,” Principal Weathers explained, “we do legally comply with the grandfather clauses, meaning we can still use these for the time being until we’ve raised up enough money to go through with the repairs and upgrades we’ll eventually get to.”
“I thought that these fires would show how out of date this building is and convince the city to tear it down and build a newer, more modern and safer school.” Mr. Kenneth continued. “THAT’S why I started those fires! And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids and dog, and the fire department!”
“Come with me, Mr. Kenneth,” Principal Weathers said as he pulled the bound old custodian out of his trash can. “You and I are going to have a very long talk about what you did.”
Shaggy shook his head. “Why does it always have to be the old janitor?”
“CUSTODIAN!” Mr. Kenneth called back to them.
…
A while later, the fire chief and a couple other firefighters were talking with Mystery Inc., standing outside the Mystery Machine and a fire truck.
“Thanks for helping catch the arsonist, kids,” the fire chief said. “You’d all possibly make great candidates for our fire department.”
“Like, no thanks, chief,” Shaggy said. “Just going around solving spooky mysteries like that one is good enough for us.”
Daphne chuckled and pointed at Scooby-Doo with one of the firefighters. “Scooby begs to differ…”
“Even if he’s not a Dalmatian,” the firefighter said as he removed his red helmet, “Scooby-Doo here might make for a good fire dog.” He placed the heavy helmet on Scooby’s head, causing him to collapse on the ground. Everybody else laughed at the goofy sight.
Then Scooby-Doo joined in the laughter and said, “Scooby-dooby-dooooooooooo!”
END
SCOOBY-DOO ALL FIRED UP!
By WileE2005
It was a cool, misty night in Coolsville. But over at Coolsville High School things were jumping, with a school dance going on in the gymnasium building. A live band made up of students was performing on a makeshift stage, and Mystery Incorporated was having fun at the dance, grooving to the rock music. Fred and Daphne were dancing together, as usual, and Shaggy and Velma were also having a good time boogieing to the music. Shaggy’s Great Dane Scooby-Doo was also dancing nearby.
But of course, after a bit of dancing, Shaggy felt his stomach and said, “Velma, please excuse me, but, like, me and Scooby need to refuel!”
“Of course,” Velma sighed.
As they headed over to the buffet table, Scooby noticed a feeling as well. “Rardon me, Raggy,” he said in his dog voice. “Ri need to use ra restroom.”
“OK,” Shaggy said, “but hurry back, otherwise there may not be much left at the table!” He let out his usual chuckle.
Scooby-Doo trotted over to the men’s restroom that was located along one side of the gymnasium, but as he got closer, he smelled smoke. He saw a strange looking someone running towards an exit. He appeared to be wearing a long black cloak and a wide-brimmed hat. “Rhuh?” Scooby asked in his usual perplexed fashion. Then he noticed he could see smoke wafting from the restroom door. He opened the door and took a quick peek, only to discover a fire burning in the restroom! The blaze was largely in a trash receptacle, and it was spreading a bit. With a yelp, Scooby quickly shut the restroom door and made a run for the nearest exit.
A little after that, Daphne could smell the odor as well. She sniffed the air and asked, “Fred, what’s that smell?”
Just after saying that, the fire alarm began blaring loudly through the building. The noise was so loud in there Fred and Daphne had to cover their ears. Fred said, “Uh-oh, it’s the fire alarm. I think something’s burning in this building. We’d better find the others and get out!”
Sure enough, they found Velma fairly quickly, and Shaggy was standing near the buffet table, shaking in fear and also covering his ears as well.
“Like, where’s Scoob?!” he cried out in a panicked voice. “He hates fire alarms about as much as I do!”
“No time to look,” Fred instructed Shaggy. “We have to get outside. I think it’s a real fire.”
“ZOINKS!!! A real fire?!” Shaggy jumped in terror, even more afraid now.
“Come on,” Velma said as she grabbed Shaggy’s arm and they quickly walked towards the closest exit, as others were also doing. The band members also stopped playing to evacuate the building. Many were acting calmly, but some were also terrified like Shaggy.
The gang made it outside. Now Shaggy began to take off from Fred, Daphne and Velma.
“Where are you going, Shaggy?” Daphne asked.
“Like, I gotta find Scoob,” Shaggy explained. “I hope he’s OK!” He ran around a bit until he came across Principal Weathers, who came out of the main building’s administration area to see what was going on.
“Shaggy, calm down,” Weathers told Shaggy. “I know you don’t like fires or anything like this, but everything will be under control.”
“It’s not that,” Shaggy said in his usual freaked-out tone. “Like, Scooby’s missing and I gotta find him!” After saying that, a distant siren could be heard; the fire department was on its’ way. “Scooby-Doo?!” Shaggy called out into the dark foggy parking lot area. “Scooby-Doo, where are you?!”
“Rover here…” Scooby’s voice faintly rose from the other side of the entrance road.
“Like, I’m comin’, Scoob!” Shaggy said as he started to run off, but Principal Weathers held him back.
“Stop!” Weathers calmly ordered. “It’s not safe to cross that road yet, especially on a night like this. Can’t you hear the fire truck coming?”
Shaggy gulped. “I guess you’re right,” he said.
So Shaggy, Principal Weathers and the rest of Mystery Inc. watched as a couple of fire trucks pulled up, along with the fire chief in his car, the firefighters connected their pumper truck to the nearest fire hydrant, brought the hose from the truck into the school building and extinguished the blaze in the men’s restroom.
As the firefighters were at work inside the gymnasium building, Shaggy and the rest of Mystery Inc. heard a familiar voice calling out, “Raggy!”
Shaggy turned towards the direction of the sound. “Scooby-Doo!” he cried out. “Is that you?!”
Sure enough, Scooby-Doo came running out of the fog towards the gang. He jumped up to Shaggy, licked his face and gave him a big hug.
“Scooby old buddy!” Shaggy exclaimed as he hugged his loyal dog friend. “Like, I’m so glad you’re safe!”
“Ranks, Raggy,” Scooby said. “Ri saw the fire!”
Daphne let out a soft gasp. “Jeepers! You actually saw the fire?”
“Where was it?” Fred asked.
“Rin the men’s room!” Scooby replied. “Rand a rysterious ranger!”
“You saw a mysterious stranger, too?” Shaggy asked.
“Ruh-huh, ruh-huh!” Scooby nodded.
“Jinkies,” Velma realized. “I’m betting whoever it was had something to do with the fire.”
…
A little while later, everyone gathered inside the cafeteria of the main building. Principal Weathers had it opened up since it was still cool and foggy outside, and the gymnasium still wasn’t completely safe to re-enter yet, as it was fairly smoky inside, and the firefighters were still investigating the area.
Daphne asked Velma, “So you think the fire may have been set intentionally?”
Velma nodded and explained, “According to Scooby, the mysterious stranger was dressed up in some kind of disguise, a cloak and hat of some kind. And in most cases, there wouldn’t really be anything in a restroom to cause an accidental fire. The fire chief said that the blaze began in a wastebasket, and usually when that happens it’s because somebody threw something burning inside, especially if the wastebasket is full of combustibles like paper towels.”
The fire chief overheard Velma and walked over to her and patted her shoulder. “That’s pretty good detective work, miss,” he said. “My crew did notice that it looked suspicious. We found a burnt match inside the trash can and had traced the cause of the fire to that.”
Velma smiled. “Jinkies,” she exclaimed. “Then I was right!”
“And,” the fire chief added, “arson is a very serious crime. If whoever started the fire was intending to harm anyone, he failed, because luckily no one was hurt.”
“I guess you did the right thing, Scoob,” Shaggy said as he petted the top of Scooby’s head, “running for it when you saw that fire.”
“Raw, shucks,” Scooby said as he blushed a bit.
“That’s right,” the fire chief said. “Whenever there’s a sure sign of fire, whether you see smoke or flames, or if you even just hear the fire alarm, you get out of the building right away.”
Fred, Daphne and Velma all gave Shaggy a look, whom chuckled nervously. “Like, I’m glad Scooby was safe all along,” Shaggy said, attempting to brush it off.
Daphne then turned back to Fred and the fire chief and asked, “But why would someone want to set fire to the school?”
“Well, gang,” Fred announced as he excitedly rubbed his palms, “it looks like we’ve got a mystery on our hands!”
“What?” the fire chief asked, a little surprised.
“Solving mysteries is a specialty of ours,” Velma told the chief. “Especially since we know that it was a mysterious cloaked stranger who supposedly started the fire. We think if we can get to the bottom of this mystery, we can save the school.”
“Whoa, there,” the fire chief warned the gang. “Like I said, arson is very dangerous. I don’t want any of you getting hurt. Besides, me and my crew at the Coolsville fire department can try to figure this out.”
“But if you give us a chance,” Daphne explained, “we might be able to get the job done more efficiently. After all, we are students here.”
“But what would you do if there was another fire?” the fire chief asked.
“Well,” Fred said as he felt self-confident, “we call you guys to come and put it out.”
“Uh, Fred,” Velma reminded him, “the school’s fire alarm system is designed so that when it’s set off, either from an automatic detector or a manual pull station, it will automatically contact the fire department when set off.”
“She’s right,” the fire chief added. “In this day and age, automation can be very useful in saving lives from a fire.”
“So, like, what do we do?” Shaggy asked his friends.
“We start looking around when we get the chance,” Fred told Shaggy. But then he eyed a red-haired teenage boy wearing a white tight T-shirt with a green vest over it and dark jeans. “Hold the phone,” Fred said to the others. “I think I found our suspect!”
Sure enough, he ran over to Red Herring and immediately accused him, “OK, Red, start talking! Where were you when the fire broke out in the gymnasium?!”
Red sighed and explained, “I was in the gymnasium lobby trying to get candy from the vending machine. I wasn’t too crazy about the refreshments being offered at the dance.”
“WHAT?!” Shaggy and Scooby-Doo both cried out in shock.
“Then I heard the fire alarm go off and I went right out the front entrance,” Red continued. “It WASN’T me who started the fire, Jones!”
“OK,” Fred said cautiously, “but we’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
What they didn’t realize was that near the doorway to the school kitchen, the mysterious cloaked stranger was watching. His face was a pale green color with glowing yellow eyes, and a smirk on his face.
…
Sometime later, when school was in session, Mystery Inc. was attending a U.S. History class together. Scooby-Doo had even accompanied them to the class! As the teacher was collecting homework, having just finished with the gang’s, Fred softly said to them, “During the study period we all have in a little bit we’ll look for clues.”
“Shhh, class!” the teacher reminded them. The gang went back to their work, sans Scooby, who just sat there watching.
…
Later, the study period arrived, and the gang walked over to the main lobby near the office. They had gotten hall passes so they could get to the bottom of the mystery.
Among arriving at the lobby, Fred turned to the gang and said, “All right gang, let’s split up and look for clues. Daphne, Velma and I will check out the cafeteria and then the gymnasium building. Shaggy, Scooby, you two check the rest of these classroom wings and the fine arts building.”
Shaggy and Scooby gulped. “Like, no way,” Shaggy said as he waved his hands. “We always have to split up this way, and I don’t think it’s going to work in a place like this.”
“Ruh-uh!” Scooby agreed, shaking his head.
Velma pulled a box of Scooby Snacks out from her backpack and said, “Would you two do it for a couple of Scooby Snacks?”
Shaggy sighed and told Scooby, “They know us too well. Scooby Snacks are too good to resist!”
“Ryou said it,” Scooby agreed as he nodded.
And with that, Velma tossed the four Scooby Snacks into the air, with Shaggy and Scooby each catching two in their mouths.
“Come on, Scoob,” Shaggy told his dog. “Let’s go look for something, like that creepy arsonist.”
…
So, Fred, Daphne and Velma were checking through the gymnasium, careful not to disturb the students partaking in gym class at that moment. They began to try and sneak under the yellow tape blocking off the door to the men’s’ restroom, until an elderly custodian approached them.
“Hey, what are you kids doing there?” the custodian asked. “This is off-limits to students until I clean it up.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Kenneth,” Fred explained. “We’re trying to look for clues involving that fire last night. Solving mysteries is our thing.”
“Well, this area is still closed off for the time being,” Mr. Kenneth told the gang, “at least until after I clean it up and that Dr. Weathers and the fire department say it’s safe to reopen.”
“But by then it’ll be too late to find clues in there,” Velma tried to explain.
“So?” Mr. Kenneth said, not that amused. “This entire school is fairly old and in rough shape. There should be plenty of clues to find involving the arsonist! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going in there to clean up.” The gang got out of Mr. Kenneth’s way as he temporarily removed the tape and entered the restroom with his custodial equipment cart.
“Something was up with him,” Daphne noted. “I don’t think he is very fond of the arsonist’s doings, since he’s a janitor and all.”
“You mean custodian!” Mr. Kenneth corrected from inside the restroom.
“Come on,” Fred told the girls. “Let’s split up and check out the locker rooms.”
“But didn’t we already split up a while ago?” Velma pointed out, narrowing her eyes at Fred.
“Yes,” Fred admitted, “but because of our genders, I’ll check out the men’s locker room, and you two can check out the women’s locker room.”
“Oh, I get it now,” Daphne realized. “I wonder if Shaggy and Scooby are having any luck?”
…
A while later, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy were still looking through the halls of the fine arts building. “This isn’t easy,” Shaggy told his dog. “Like, many of the rooms still have classes going on, and we found NOTHING in the auditorium. I think this is nothing but, like, a wild goose chase!”
“Ryeah,” Scooby said in a dejected tone.
Shaggy and Scooby went down the stairs to the first floor, to which Shaggy said, “Hey, at least there’s nothing going on in the wood shop right now. Maybe we’ll get lucky!”
They entered the wood shop classroom and started looking around, since the room was full of potential combustibles. But when Scooby-Doo turned back to look at Shaggy, he noticed the mysterious green-faced phantom approaching behind Shaggy in his cloak and wide-brimmed hat.
“Rikes!” Scooby said and began shivering.
“Scoob,” Shaggy asked, “what’s got you spooked?”
Scooby pointed and moaned, “Rehind you!”
“Huh?” Shaggy turned around and found himself face-to-face with the phantom arsonist, who let out a sinister laugh! “ZOINKS!” Shaggy shrieked. “It’s the arsonist!”
And with that, Scooby and Shaggy ran out a side door that took them into the metal shop, also currently not being used. The phantom pursued them through the room and back out into the corridor.
After a bit, the phantom appeared to have lost Shaggy and Scooby, stopped in the hallway and scanned the area to try and catch sight of them. Sure enough, Scooby and Shaggy approached the phantom wearing hall monitor uniforms.
“Like, hold it right there,” Shaggy said to the phantom. “Do you have a hall pass? As hall monitors, we can’t just let you wander the school without a reason!”
“Uh…” the phantom said, looking perplexed.
“Come on now,” Shaggy demanded as he put his hand out. “Show us your hall pass!”
“Ryeah,” Scooby added as he held his paw out. “Show us!”
“Uhh, I haven’t got one,” the phantom admitted.
“Too bad,” Shaggy said, handing the phantom a detention slip. “See you in detention this afternoon! Now get back to class!” He and Scooby ran off again.
The chase took them to a hallway with several classroom doors. Shaggy and Scooby tried to enter one, but saw a class going on in process. “Zoinks! Like, sorry,” Shaggy quickly apologized and closed the door.
As he did that, the phantom opened a door on the other side of the hallway, and the teacher and students all shrieked at his appearance. “I’m sorry,” the phantom quickly said and shut the door.
Shaggy rubbed the back of his neck and sheepishly said, “I forgot we can’t do the door thing here when classes are going on.”
It was right after saying that when the time tone sounded over the P.A. system; an electronic signal serving as the “bell” to let students know when classes start or end. As all the doors opened and teens began pouring out of the rooms, the phantom ran for it.
“Aw, man,” Shaggy moaned. “Like, no way we can easily follow him in this crowd. Come on, Scoob, let’s go to our next class.”
…
Shortly after, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo made it to their math class, where they reunited with Fred, Daphne and Velma. “Like, we saw the phantom arsonist,” Shaggy was softly saying to Fred at the desk next to him. “But he got away before we could follow him.”
“And we didn’t find any clues,” Fred glumly added.
A little into the class, the teacher was going over the lesson when all of a sudden, the deafening buzz of the fire alarm interrupted her. Some of the students, anxious about the arsonist, screamed at the loud sudden noise, including Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, of course, as Scooby leaped into Shaggy’s arms.
Velma sniffed the air and said loud enough to be heard over the fire alarm horns, “Oh no… I think I can smell smoke again!”
“OK,” the teacher instructed her class, “let’s all quickly and quietly line up in single file and leave the building. No need to panic.”
So they did. As the Mystery Inc. gang accompanied the rest of the class out of the room and through the hallways towards a stairwell, covering their ears from the ear-splitting alarm, Daphne pointed towards another end of the hall and said, “Look!”
They all saw smoke coming out from said end of the hallway, and the phantom arsonist running from the source of the smoke and down the stairwell on the opposite end from where the gang was.
“No time to go after him now,” Fred quickly said. “We have to evacuate!”
And so, among going down the stairs to the first floor and leaving the main building, the gang accompanied their class to the large front parking lot where other classes stood, some of them unaware that it was another actual fire and assuming it was another drill. At least until the fire trucks arrived again with their sirens wailing.
…
Sometime later after the evacuation, when everyone was allowed to reenter the building, the fire chief and Principal Weathers let Mystery Inc. see the damage done by this fire. This time it was in a classroom that was vacant during the period the fire was started. The area was still a little smoky, so Fred got some protective masks out of the Mystery Machine parked in the school’s lot for the gang and Principal Weathers to wear when surveying the site.
The top of one of the desks was all scorched, and some other desks and chairs and the rug were all sooty. A window was broken to try and get the smoke outside.
“Look at this classroom!” Weathers angrily exclaimed. “Look at this desk! Look at the rug! Look at this mess! This fire is definitely the work of that same arsonist that started the fire in that restroom last night!”
“And not only that,” the fire chief added, “another teacher had to be taken to the hospital due to smoke inhalation! This is getting really serious now.”
“Jeepers!” Daphne sadly exclaimed. “Why is someone trying to burn down our school?”
“I wish I knew,” Velma glumly answered. “But I don’t see any decent evidence in this room, aside from the remains of the match we found that was used to start the fire.”
“But we did see the mysterious phantom arsonist run from this area while we were evacuating,” Fred pointed out.
“But who could this phantom arsonist be?!” Weathers demanded.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Daphne said.
The fire chief noted, “Dr. Weathers and I reviewed the security camera footage from last night in the area where that men’s room is, and we saw this cloaked arsonist walk in there, and then in less than a minute he fled the room as a bit of smoke came out. And then Scooby came in, peeked into the room and ran off.”
“Ryeah,” Scooby agreed. “Ri saw the rantom!”
“There is the possibility it could be one of the students here,” Velma said, “as I know some of them have the tendency to misbehave. But arson? That’s going too far!”
“Yeah,” Red Herring added as he walked up to the gang, Principal Weathers and the fire chief. “And it definitely wasn’t me!”
“Yeah, sure,” Fred said as he rolled his eyes. “But knowing your history, Red, you’re still a suspect this time.”
“Red Herring,” Principal Weathers demanded, “what are you doing out of class?”
“Going to the restroom,” Red explained. “Then I heard the Scoobys talking and wanted to see what was up.”
Exasperated, Weathers put her hand to her forehead and ordered, “Go to the restroom, Red, and then go right back to class.”
“Yes, Dr. Weathers,” Red meekly said as he started running off.
“And no running in the halls!” Weathers called out to him.
Red slowed down and grumbled to himself as he started walking. Then he turned to the Scooby gang and called out to them, “That’s NOT very funny!”
“We weren’t laughing,” Shaggy countered.
“Nor were we smiling,” Daphne added. “It must be these masks covering our mouths that confused him. What a geek…”
…
A while later, it was the gang’s lunch period. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo were pigging out on cafeteria food as usual, while the rest of the gang ate small lunches fairly quickly so they could use the period to look for more clues or maybe even catch the arsonist.
Shaggy noticed that the cafeteria was a bit quieter than usual. Several students were nervous among learning that the reason the fire alarm went off earlier was because that arsonist from the night before had struck again.
“Like, Scooby,” Shaggy noted, “this phantom is now starting to get the whole school nervous. Even just hearing Principal Weathers angrily talk about it over the loudspeaker was enough to put everyone on edge.”
“Ryeah,” Scooby nodded nervously. “Ron edge!”
…
Meanwhile, Fred and Daphne and Velma were approaching the office of Mr. Kenneth, the custodian. They noticed the office was empty and the door was open.
“I guess Mr. Kenneth is cleaning up that burnt classroom,” Daphne figured.
“Whatever the case,” Fred said, “we can use this opportunity to check in here for clues.”
They went in. As Fred and Daphne checked a bit on the shelves and spare custodial equipment, Velma looked on Mr. Kenneth’s desk and noticed some handwritten papers stapled together. What caught her attention was the heading on the top: “COOLSVILLE HIGH VIOLATIONS.” She picked up the notes and quickly flipped through the pages. “‘Possible asbestos in floor tiles and ceiling’,” she said as she quickly read through the papers. “‘No air-conditioning in kitchen, dated and worn interior materials, unused and decommissioned drinking fountains, dated restroom plumbing fixtures, non-ADA-compliant door hardware…’ Jinkies! Look at this!”
“What is it, Velma?” Daphne asked as she and Fred walked over to see what Velma found.
“It’s a list of building violations for our school, showing all the antiquate, obsolete and non-compliant findings. And look what the list starts out with: ‘Sparse placement of ABC fire extinguishers, no fire sprinkler system, fire alarm system is obsolete and has no strobe lights, no battery backup, no smoke detectors, sparse placement of heat detectors…”
“Jeepers,” Daphne realized. “At the top of this list are the fire hazards!”
“Not only is this our first clue,” Fred said as he, Daphne and Velma started leaving the custodial office with the papers, “it’s perhaps our most important one. Let’s go find Shaggy and Scooby in the cafeteria and…”
Suddenly, the creepy phantom arsonist leaped out at them. “And it’ll be your last clue!” he said in his most threatening, taunting voice. “Give me those papers!”
“RUN!” Fred ordered, and he, Daphne and Velma took off with the phantom pursuing them. During the chase, Velma quickly put the violation papers into her backpack, and they ran through several halls, trying to lose the phantom. But again, once they came up to a corridor with many classroom doors, Velma, Daphne and Fred each found that quite a few of the classrooms were still being used.
“Sorry,” Daphne said to one class. “Force of habit.”
They quickly closed the doors and continued running down the hall, but as they got closer to the cafeteria, Daphne noticed one of the floor teachers keeping an eye out for trouble. She called out loud enough for the phantom to hear, “Look, it’s Mr. Willis, one of the floor teachers!”
Sure enough, the phantom made an uncertain noise, turned around and ran away in the opposite direction, not wanting Mr. Willis to notice him.
Mr. Willis approached the three teens and asked, “What are you three doing right now?”
“We found an important clue,” Velma explained as she held up her backpack. “One that may put an end to the arsonist’s meddling!”
“OK,” Mr. Willis said. “But just remember not to run in the halls.”
“Sure thing,” Fred told the floor teacher, and they walked into the cafeteria where they saw Shaggy and Scooby-Doo just finishing the last of their food. “Guess what, guys?” Fred said to the two. “It looks like this afternoon we might be able to capture the phantom arsonist!”
Shaggy gulped. “And I bet you have a plan that involves us as the bait.”
“Now that you mention it…” Fred said as he gave a mischievous grin…
…
Later, after classes were dismissed for the day, the phantom arsonist crept out of a small utility closet, sneered and let out an evil chuckle, and started to slink around. But then suddenly he heard something like a siren wailing! “Huh?” he asked as he turned to the direction of the sound, and saw Scooby-Doo wearing a police light helmet and holding an electronic bullhorn with a siren generator built in. With him was Shaggy, wearing a policeman’s hat.
“Hold it right there,” Shaggy ordered to the phantom. “Like, no haunting after school hours! I’ll have to turn you in!”
The phantom let out a snarl and began chasing Shaggy and Scooby-Doo. Of course, this was to lead the phantom into a trap. Scooby and Shaggy began to run over to near the custodial office, where Fred was twirling a long extension cord like a lasso rope
“Here they come,” Fred announced, turning to Daphne and Velma with a custodial equipment cart.
Sure enough, Shaggy and Scooby ran up to the gang and their trap and got out of the way for Fred to lasso the phantom arsonist, coiling him up in the cord just as he told the girls, “Now!” Daphne and Velma pushed the cart forward, and Fred managed to lasso the bound phantom into the trash can on the cart.
“We got him!” Daphne exclaimed.
“It worked!” Shaggy said as he and Scooby-Doo ran back towards the rest of the gang.
“Curses!” the phantom arsonist exclaimed.
After that, the gang wheeled the phantom up to the main office, presenting him to Principal Weathers, the floor teacher Mr. Willis and the fire chief. “Dr. Weathers, Mr. Willis, and the fire chief,” Fred announced, “we have captured your arsonist.”
“But who is he really?” Weathers asked.
“Well, it’s not me!” Red Herring said as he walked up to them.
“There goes that theory,” Fred sighed as he rolled his eyes.
“Well, I figured out who he is,” Velma said as she took off the arsonist’s wide-brimmed hat to reveal his full bald green phantom head. “Fred, if you will,” she said as she gestured to Fred.
“With pleasure,” Fred said. He grabbed the phantom’s scalp and pulled off his rubber mask to reveal…
“Mr. Kenneth?!” the gang, Principal Weathers and Mr. Willis all exclaimed in unison.
“The old janitor?!” Shaggy and Scooby-Doo added.
“Custodian!” Mr. Kenneth corrected them.
“But… why?” Weathers asked, in a concerned tone. “Why were you setting the school on fire?”
Mr. Kenneth growled and confessed, “OK, I admit it! I hate this old school campus! It’s barely been updated or renovated over the years. I’ve been working as custodian here for such a long time and have seen other staff members and students come and go, but the building never changed! You won’t believe all the things I found wrong with it!”
“He’s right,” Velma explained, taking the stapled-together papers out of her backpack with the list of violations. “Coolsville High has barely had any upgrades or renovations since it was built in 1969. We found this list in Mr. Kenneth’s office of what he found wrong, and right at the top were potential fire hazards!”
“Just look!” Mr. Kenneth said. “NO sprinkler system, an obsolete fire alarm system…”
“One that’s, like, super loud!” Shaggy added.
“Don’t interrupt!” Mr. Kenneth scolded Shaggy. Then he continued, “No smoke detectors, sparse placement of fire extinguishers, not all of which are ABC-type, non-opening windows in most classrooms, some faulty exit doors, and that’s not all! Decommissioned drinking fountains, antiquated restroom plumbing, non-ADA-compliant entrances and exits, no air-conditioning in the kitchen, and more! This place is an ancient dump!”
“Well,” Principal Weathers explained, “we do legally comply with the grandfather clauses, meaning we can still use these for the time being until we’ve raised up enough money to go through with the repairs and upgrades we’ll eventually get to.”
“I thought that these fires would show how out of date this building is and convince the city to tear it down and build a newer, more modern and safer school.” Mr. Kenneth continued. “THAT’S why I started those fires! And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids and dog, and the fire department!”
“Come with me, Mr. Kenneth,” Principal Weathers said as he pulled the bound old custodian out of his trash can. “You and I are going to have a very long talk about what you did.”
Shaggy shook his head. “Why does it always have to be the old janitor?”
“CUSTODIAN!” Mr. Kenneth called back to them.
…
A while later, the fire chief and a couple other firefighters were talking with Mystery Inc., standing outside the Mystery Machine and a fire truck.
“Thanks for helping catch the arsonist, kids,” the fire chief said. “You’d all possibly make great candidates for our fire department.”
“Like, no thanks, chief,” Shaggy said. “Just going around solving spooky mysteries like that one is good enough for us.”
Daphne chuckled and pointed at Scooby-Doo with one of the firefighters. “Scooby begs to differ…”
“Even if he’s not a Dalmatian,” the firefighter said as he removed his red helmet, “Scooby-Doo here might make for a good fire dog.” He placed the heavy helmet on Scooby’s head, causing him to collapse on the ground. Everybody else laughed at the goofy sight.
Then Scooby-Doo joined in the laughter and said, “Scooby-dooby-dooooooooooo!”
END
