Post by wileyk209 on Oct 17, 2023 21:42:14 GMT -5
A little fanfic I wrote for Scoobtober! In this story, Scooby-Doo comes to my private toon detective fox fursona, Sam Valentino, to try and find the crooks that have been impersonating his human friends and clear Mystery Inc.'s name, in yet another Hanna-Barbera frame-up plot. This takes place in a "Roger Rabbit"/"Rescue Rangers movie"-esque Toontown universe, so while Sam Valentino and the Scooby gang are the stars, a few other toon characters also make small appearances, and it's loosely based on the DC Comics Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! story "Twin Dilemma" from issue #64.
SAM VALENTINO AND THE TWIN MYSTERY INC. CAPER
By Sam
It was another dark and stormy evening in the part of Toontown my office is in. I'm Sam Valentino, a private detective. I was reading one of my comics as the rain was pouring outside, accompanied by the flickers of a nearby neon sign and occasional flashes of lightning, when there was a knock at my door.
"Come in," I said, as I slowly began to open my desk drawer containing my Smith & Wesson 625JM revolver just in case it was an assassin.
Fortunately, it wasn't. The Dane walked into my room... a Great Dane. In fact, you might know him. Scooby-Doo, the dog "mascot" of Mystery Incorporated. A fellow anthro toon detective, though he and his human partners' detective work was generally different from mine. They usually went after ghosts and monsters that turned out to be crooks in disguise, often some kind of real-estate or robbery scheme. But this time, Scooby-Doo had a case that only I could solve.
"Mister Ralentino," Scooby began, sounding afraid, as usual. "The gang is rocked up! They robbed a bank, but they didn't do it. Rhaggy shcent me to you, to shcee if you can shcolve re case and clear their names."
Scooby-Doo does have the ability to talk more fluently, usually when the rest of the gang is not around, but since early the last decade, they've often been having Scooby speak as such in his newer shows and movies. I'm still not used to hearing Scooby talk that way, after decades of him often just speaking short sentences or fragments, usually when asking or agreeing with another member of the gang.
"Another frame-up case, huh?" I asked. "Shouldn't be a problem. You've come to the right fellow canine detective toon, Scooby." I patted his head. "Let's go visit the gang first. Where are they locked up?"
"The rnearby rolice shctation," Scooby said.
"I'll drive us there," I told him, fetching my car keys, my magnifying glass, my notepad and pen, and my Smart phone. (I usually have it powered off when I'm in my office, as I prefer to have potential clients call me on my landline phone – a classic black candlestick telephone that's traditional of private detectives like me.) Then I pulled on my trenchcoat (I already had my fedora on), and we stepped out into my old BMW, to drive down the rainy streets to the police station...
***
At the nearby Toontown Police Station, Chief Quimby of Inspector Gadget greeted me. "Ah, Sam Valentino," he said. "Long time, no see. And I also see you brought a friend."
"Indeed, I did, Quimby," I replied. "Scooby-Doo here told me that his human-solving pals were locked up here."
"And he wants you to figure out why they were arrested?" Quimby guessed.
"You're right on the ball, Chief," I answered with a wink.
Chief Quimby chuckled a bit. "The gang robbed some of the banks across Toontown. I saw the surveillance footage, but I am somewhat baffled by Scooby not accompanying them on the robberies. Come with me," he said, and Scoob and I followed him to the jail cells.
Sure enough, in one of the cells, I saw Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers locked up. They were wearing their usual outfits, and Sheriff Bronson Stone was outside their cell.
"I still don't understand why you've arrested us," Fred was saying. "I thought you knew us all too well to know we'd never commit an armed robbery!"
"Sorry," Sheriff Stone said. "But armed robbery is a crime we take seriously."
"Look!" Shaggy cried out, sounding semi-hysterical as I expected him to do. "Scoob! You brought in Sam Valentino! Good boy."
Scooby-Doo bounded to the cell and licked Shaggy's face.
"Hello there, Mr. Valentino," Stone greeted me. "It seems your mystery-solving friends here got caught robbing some of Toontown's banks and businesses."
I got out my notepad and pen, asking, "Do you have any proof of these so-called robberies?"
Officer Lou from Springfield of The Simpsons stepped up with a laptop computer. "Indeed, we do," he said as he opened up the lid and began typing something. "We've had reports of multiple robberies across Toontown. Here's some security footage from today, at Pamela's Clothing & Apparel."
We all looked. Indeed, the surveillance footage showed what appeared to be the Mystery Inc. humans themselves. Fred had a gun, Shaggy had a crowbar, Velma had a thin metal pipe, and Daphne had a metal club. I noticed Scooby-Doo was indeed not with them.
"Zoinks!" Shaggy let out his usual exclamation. "Like, it's US!"
"How is that possible?" Daphne asked. "We were at the campground all day, wrapping up the mystery of the Totem Pole ghost!"
"Yes, we had brought him in before you kids," Stone commented.
"Daphne has a point," Fred added. "How can we be in two places at once?"
"That's not for me to decide," Stone said. "The court system will. You may want to call your lawyer."
I cleared my throat. "That may not be necessary, Sheriff," I told him. "This sounds like another good old-fashioned frame-up plot, the kind Hanna-Barbera characters tend to fall victim too. That's why Scooby-Doo here came to me."
"Ha," Sheriff Stone scoffed. "They aren't Hanna-Barbera characters anymore."
"Like, what are you talking about?" Shaggy asked. "We're just as much Hanna-Barbera characters as the Flintstones!" He did his usual chuckle.
"I'm confident I can solve this case and clear the names of these fellow toon detectives," I assured everyone.
"Thank you so much, Sam," Velma said.
"Like, take Scooby with you," Shaggy added. "He can be your partner on your case... just like he was with us." He shed a tear. "Scooby-Doo, I'll miss you!"
"Rye, Rhaggy," Scooby glumly said as he and Shaggy hugged through the jail bars.
I sniffled a bit. "I hate to see a mystery-solving hippie and his big dog cry," I said softly.
***
So me and my temporary mystery-solving partner, Scooby-Doo, returned to my office, but not before picking up a few boxes of Scooby Snacks along the way. Once at my office, I got down to business. "So, Scooby," I began, "you and the gang were at a campground all of today solving another mystery?"
"Ryeah," Scooby said as he quickly nodded. "Ra totem pole ghost!" He stood up on his hind legs, began walking in a wooden manner and made spooky moaning sounds.
"Heh, that definitely sounds genuine," I commented. "Also, I seem to recall Mystery Inc. been framed by evil impostors before. Is that true?"
"Ryeah, ryeah!" Scooby replied. "Ra few times. Ran they also rimpersonated me then!"
"But this time, the evil doppelgangers do not have an impostor Scooby-Doo with them..." I noted. "This may be a difficult case to crack, but I'm sure you and I can pull it off. I would need to know any possible suspects. Who has previously impersonated the gang before?"
"Rwell," Scooby began. "Ra group of shkilled thieves rthat fhhaked mysteries to shteal valuables, rwith an attack dog made up rlike me... rand teen sshinger J.C. Chasez disguised ras me rith four extras as the others to kidnap Lovers' Lane couples ron Valentine's Day... Dick Rastardly once disguised as Fred, rand the Ape Man and Chameleon have both disguised as me... rand when Big Bob Oakley and two fhriends robbed banks disguised as Shaggy, Rdaphne and me!" (NOTE: This is a call-back to one of my older Scooby-Doo fanfics, "Scooby Double Doo!")
"That is a lot," I commented as I jotted down the key words in my notepad. "Of course, a bunch of Hanna-Barbera characters have been subject to being framed by impostors. It happened to Super Snooper, Ricochet Rabbit, Breezly and Sneezly, Hong Kong Phooey, Don Coyote..."
"Rand Yogi Bear, rand Captain Caveman, and Richie Rich!" Scooby added.
I nodded. "But in those cases, they were impersonated by random one-off thieves, spies and criminals," I pointed out. "I'm not sure who would want to frame Mystery Inc. for robberies right now..."
"Ri don't know either," Scooby agreed and yawned.
"Yeah, it's getting late," I said as I began slipping out of my trenchcoat. "We may as well hit the hay and start working on this case in the morning."
***
Sure enough, the next morning, Scooby-Doo and I got to work, but not before we had our breakfast at a nearby diner. That mutt sure can eat. Back at the office, I scanned through my scrapbooks and looked things up on my computer, but I couldn't find any potential suspects on who would want to pose as the Mystery Inc. humans and make them patsies. We decided to go directly to the scene of the crime... at least one of them.
Unfortunately at Pamela's Clothing & Apparel, our clue hunt was dust. We couldn't find any evidence. Things didn't especially help when Scooby accidentally knocked over a mannequin, setting off a domino effect of knocking other nearby mannequins and a display.
"Get out of here, you stupid mutt!" a toon human security guard said as he showed Scooby the way out. I followed.
But once we were back on the street, we happened to be right near the 13th National Bank. A red hatchback automobile had parked in front of it, and to my surprise, I saw what appeared to be the Mystery Inc. humans step out of the vehicle!
Scooby was surprised, too. He darted across the street (but thankfully not in front of oncoming traffic) and called out "Shaggy! Shaggy!"
I looked both ways and crossed over to where Scooby-Doo and "the gang" were.
"Beat it, mutt!" Shaggy snarled in a very different voice.
Scooby gave one of his usual puzzled looks. I softly said to him, "I think we found our perpetrators. Better watch from the window."
We observed as the fake Mystery Inc. gang stepped inside the bank and pulled out the same weapons they had used before.
"Hands up, everyone!" "Fred" announced, his voice also startlingly different. "This is a stick-up!"
"Like, it's no ‘mystery' why we're here!" the Shaggy impostor added, now doing a shoddy attempt at imitating the hippie's voice. "We're robbing this place!"
"Everyone where we can see you!" the Velma clone barked. "No hiding!"
"Hmm, a bank robbery," I said to Scooby. "The number-one frame-up crime those impostors and doppelgangers often go for. How unoriginal..."
"Ruh-roh!" Scooby-Doo said and began his usual nervous shivering. Meanwhile, I snapped a couple of photos on my Smartphone... my own evidence.
After nabbing enough money, the Daphne impostor said "We got the loot! Let's blow!" and they started for the front entrance.
"We'd better hide," I told Scooby, and started for the alley right next to the bank. But Scooby stayed, watching the action in disbelief. "Scooby, come on!"
But Scooby-Doo was still too awestruck and scared seeing the Mystery Inc. impostors robbing the bank to follow. I ducked into the alley and watched as the phony Scooby gang started to leave the bank, but as they did, their money bags exploded with a bluish-purple dye that got all over their clothes. Yes, even in Toontown, the banks nowadays rig their cash with exploding dye packs in case of a robbery.
"You nincompoop!" the Fred impostor said to the Shaggy impostor. "Why didn't you check for exploding dye packs?!"
"Why didn't YOU look?" the phony Shaggy countered.
"That's YOUR job!" the fake Fred argued. "I was watching the customers!"
I snapped yet another picture on my phone, but I had the volume up, and so the crooks heard the clicking noise.
"Go ahead, you defective detective," the Shaggy doppelganger said as he approached me, forming a fist and getting his arm ready to fight. "Take a picture. It'll last longer!"
Scooby-Doo saw what was going on and he bit the fake Shaggy's shirt in his teeth.
"What?! You again?" the crook asked, as a distant siren could be heard.
The Fred, Daphne and Velma impostors had just gotten into their hatchback. "Just get in!" the Velma double called to her partner. "The cops are coming!"
"All right!" the Shaggy impostor said, giving a firm tug and literally tearing away from Scooby's grip, leaving a piece of the shirt in his teeth. Then he leaped into the car, and they lammed off with the squeal of burning rubber.
A little later, Sheriff Stone had arrived with another toon cop I was unfamiliar with, asking the bank customers what they saw during the rubbery.
"You already know who they are," the bank manager was telling Stone. "All of Toontown does! They were always so nice before. What changed?"
That was my cue to tip my mitt. "Excuse me," I began, flashing my badge. "Sam Valentino, private toon detective. Allow me to present photos I took of the robbery." I whipped out my phone and showed Sheriff Stone.
Stone gasped. "If those were the robbers, then we've locked up... oh my! We've locked up the wrong gang."
"It's just like I said, Sheriff," feeling proud of myself. "A classic Hanna-Barbera frame-up plot."
***
Scooby-Doo and I headed back to the police station, arriving at the same time as Sheriff Stone did. As he unlocked the Mystery Inc. humans' jail cell, Stone told them, "Your alibi checked out. You're all free to go. I'm terribly sorry."
"Nothing to apologize about, Sheriff," Fred said. "We're just as confused as you are. Who would dress like us to commit these crimes? Like it's never happened before, either."
"It's a real puzzler," I added. "Whenever something like this has happened in the past, it's usually some one-off criminals. But I think Scooby-Doo here found a clue."
Sheriff Stone saw the green torn fabric still in Scooby's mouth. "Looks like part of the shirt Scooby tore off the robber."
"Gimme that!" Velma exclaimed, snatching it out of Scooby's maw. "Jinkies! There's a serial tag still attached, with a costume I.D. number. And I recognize where it came from... the Diablo Costume Company!"
"You're right on the ball, toots," I complimented Velma with a wink.
Velma chuckle and blushed. "Thanks, Mr. Valentino. Most of the crooks we've foiled got their disguises from there."
"Indeed," I agreed. "They're one of the go-to costume companies for redhots needing a disguise, along with the ACME costume company."
"And this is definitely not an ACME costume I.D. tag," Velma pointed out. "Sam, the Mystery Machine is still at the Happy Camper Campground. You think you can give us a lift to the Diablo Costume Company?"
"Sure thing, sister," I said. I knew Velma enjoys it when I talk to her like that.
***
So we all crammed into my BMW and headed to the Diablo Costume Company. Currently they operate in a big old mansion that had been rumored to be haunted, exactly the kind of environment the Scooby-Doo gang would feel right at home at. Even though the original owner of the company has since been locked up, many of the crooks the gang has caught still get their disguises from here, but the company is on good terms with Mystery Inc.
Inside, Fred was presenting the ripped fabric to the current owner, a slightly overweight older toon human male with glasses and balding gray hair. "Can you help identify this, Mister... um..."
"Basil," the owner told Fred.
"Any relation to Basil of Baker Street?" Shaggy joked, letting out his usual chuckle.
"Heh, good one, Shaggy," I complimented the hippie.
"As the current owner of Diablo Costumes," Mr. Basil said, "I'd better be able to. That I.D. number indeed appears to be one of ours. But you may want to check with Rick Weasel, one of our lead costume designers and special-effect makeup artists, just to be sure. The only problem is, Rick hasn't been to work for the past couple of days. I don't know where he is."
As Mr. Basil spoke, we spotted Scooby-Doo striking a pointer poser at a closet door. We could faintly hear muffled pleas, along with someone banging on the door from the inside. Scooby ran over to the closet and called, "Rover here!"
"Right behind you, Scooby!" I replied as I led the rest of Mystery Inc., along with Mr. Basil, to the closet door.
Mr. Basil unlocked it, and we gasped among seeing Rick Weasel bound and gagged in there. "It's Rick!" Mr. Basil cried out. Rick is known as one of Toontown's greatest special-effects makeup artists. He had designed masks and full-body suits for numerous cartoons over the decades, worked for ACME's costume division for a while, and was later hired to work for the Diablo Costume Company. The problem was that crooks often took advantage of his skills and tricked them into making custom-designed costumes and masks for their evil doings. And this is what most likely happened.
Fred and I untied Rick from his ropes and removed the handkerchief gagged into his mouth. "Thanks, Sam," he panted. "I've been locked up here all weekend!"
"What happened?" I asked as I got my notepad out, ready to jot down any information.
"A group of toon teens broke in while I was working late and tied me up, forced me to create lifelike latex masks of the Mystery Inc. humans, and dress them up to look like them," Rick explained. "They took some prop weapons as well. I'm afraid I didn't get a good look at them, but they did appear to also be Hanna-Barbera characters."
"Like, how will we find them now?" Shaggy asked. "They could be anywhere, and anyone!"
"Maybe not," Velma pointed out. "Rick did mention they resembled Hanna-Barbera characters like us, so that limits the number of suspects, somewhat."
"But how can we be sure?" Daphne asked. "In the seventies, Hanna-Barbera made a bunch of cartoon shows starring teen mystery solvers like us!"
"Actually," I said, "I've got a wild hunch the impostors will be coming back here."
"Jinkies!" Velma exclaimed. "You're right, Mr. Valentino. They've never shied away from the surveillance cameras during their robberies. They WANT to be seen as us."
"And with their costumes ruined," I added, "they'll need to get them fixed, or swap them out for new ones."
"Which means we'll set our trap HERE!" Fred said.
"And," I continued, "don't forget that I, too, am a master of disguise! I will go undercover, to try and gain the trust of those hoods that call themselves ‘Mystery Inc.' Then when they least expect it, it's trapping time!"
"Uh, that's actually kind of my catchphrase," Fred pointed out. "But that's a great idea, Mr. Valentino. And we'll disguise ourselves, too! We'll all return here at sundown to prepare for our doppelgangers' return. But we still need to get our Mystery Machine back."
"No problem," I said. "I'll drive you all to the campground. Then I need to get my disguise back at my office anyways."
***
That evening, I re-met with the Scooby gang outside the old mansion Diablo Costumes was housed in. My BMW and their Mystery Machine were parked in the back, so nobody would get suspicious. I was already dressed up in much of my Scooby-Doo costume. "You see," I told the gang, "My plan is to greet the Mystery Inc. impostors and see if I can join their little ‘gang', since people may soon get suspicious on why Scooby-Doo's not with them. By pretending to be an anonymous mug disguised as Scooby, if all goes well, I can then lead them into your trap." As I spoke, I held up the full-head latex Scooby-Doo mask, complete with dog collar and tag, that would complete my ensemble.
"Like, that's so cool!" Shaggy exclaimed. "That makes two of us with our own Scooby-Doo costumes!"
"Roh, brother," Scooby said as he rolled his eyes.
"Don't worry, Scooby," I said to the real deal. "Unlike those impostors that do it for greed and evil, my impersonation is to save you all."
But Scooby-Doo wasn't buying it. "Ruh-uh, RUH-UH." I guess he'd had enough impostors for one mystery.
"Oh, I think I know what this is," I said, reaching into a body pocket on my body costume. "Would you go along with this for a Scooby Snack?" I pulled out a box of Scooby Snacks I brought along, just in case.
Scooby thought. "Three Scooby Snacks?"
"Like, me too," Shaggy added.
I chuckled. "OK, three Scooby Snacks it is, for each of you." I tossed them to Scooby and Shaggy, and they quickly ate them. "You know what, I think I'll have a few myself. But first..." I put the Scooby Snacks box on the ground and slipped my rubbery Scooby-Doo mask over my head. Thanks to cartoon logic, the rubber dog head was able to even conceal my fedora on my true foxy head. I smoothed the snug-fitting mask on my head and made sure the eyeholes were oriented with my own eyes, tucked the mask's neck into the suit's collar, picked up the box and ate a few Scooby Snacks myself. "Scooby-dooby-doooooooo!" I said, doing my best Scooby-Doo imitation.
"Jeepers," Daphne said. "I didn't think you'd be willing to eat Scooby Snacks."
"Just getting in character," I told the gang in my normal voice as I stuffed the Scooby Snacks box back into the costume's body pocket. "A little method acting never helps. Now you all take your places." As the four mystery-solving teens and the real Scooby-Doo entered the mansion, I did my impression of Scooby's laugh. "eeHEEheeheeheeheeheeheehee!"
A little while later, I continued hanging outside the mansion, waiting for the crooks to arrive. I had started sweating a bit in my rubber Scooby mask and ate a couple more Scooby Snacks to pass the time and stay in character. Eventually, I saw car headlights coming up the road to the mansion, and when I saw it was indeed the thieves' hatchback, I said to myself, "Showtime." I sat down on all fours like the real Scooby-Doo usually does.
The red car pulled up and powered down, and the doors opened. The crooks were still in their full Mystery Inc. disguises, with dye pack stains still on their clothes and holding their weapon props. "What, you again?" the Shaggy impersonator asked when he saw me.
I started in my Scooby-Doo voice, "Rello."
"Can't that dumb mutt tell we are NOT his human friends?" the fake Velma said.
"Ruh, ractually, ri am one of you!" I said, standing up on my hind legs. "Ri am impersonating Scooby." I grasped the black rubbery nose on my Scooby-Doo mask and stretched it out a bit, and even from inside I could see the dog face distort as I pulled it outward. Then I snapped it back into place and sang, "Ta-dah!"
"You know what?" the Fred impostor told his "gang". "I think he'll be useful in our little charade. People may eventually get suspicious seeing the Scooby gang without Scooby committing these robberies." Then he turned to me and said, "OK, you're in."
"Roh boy!" I exclaimed in my best Scooby-Doo impression, dancing excitedly a little before getting down on all fours.
We entered the costume mansion. The doors were already unlocked, and luckily the impostors didn't question why.
"These stains aren't coming out," the fake Fred said. "They're permanent."
"And sticky!" the Velma impersonator added.
"Get me out of these things," the Daphne double complained.
"No!" the Shaggy simp snarled. "We need to look like this again. That's why we're doing this, right?!"
We headed over to the closet they had bound and gagged Rick Weasel in. But they sure got a surprise when they opened the door...
"Look! He's gone!" the Fred impostor gasped.
"I TOLD you to tie his ropes tighter!" the phony Shaggy said.
"Oh, so this is my fault, too?!" the faux Fred argued.
"Change of plans," the Velma doppelganger said. "We're ditching these costumes and getting out of here."
The Shaggy impostor turned to me and said, "Sorry, ‘Scoob', but I guess we don't..."
But before he could finish an eerie costumed figure leaped from a nearby hallway. I recognized it; the Tiki Witch Doctor, from one of the gang's original mysteries on the Hawaiian Islands.
As the Witch Doctor let out a scary laugh, the fake Daphne shrieked, "AAAGH! Where'd he come from?!"
I ran alongside the "gang" as the Witch Doctor chased us. But when we approached another doorway, another past foe of Mystery Inc. – the Creeper – jumped out at us.
"Oh no!" the Velma impostor cried out. "Not another one!"
"Creeper!" the green-skinned Creeper moaned as he lurched towards us. "Creeper!"
Then a huge white furry creature, the Snow Ghost from that time the gang went on a ski vacation, came from behind us and let out a scary howl.
Unable to resist the urge to stay in character, I yelped, "Ruh-roh!"
"Hit them!" the fake Fred ordered.
But the Snow Ghost easily grabbed "Shaggy"'s crowbar and tossed it aside.
"It didn't work!" the Shaggy impostor cried out. "They're just fake props!"
A ghostly-looking old man with a long gray beard – the Miner ‘49er that haunted Ghost City during the gang's time there – easily broke the fake metal pipe and club with his pickaxe. Then as the four supernatural characters surrounded the fake Mystery Inc., I was able to quickly slip away without the impostors noticing. "They can't be real!" the Fred doppelganger said, his voice now shaky. "How is this happening?"
I approached the real Scooby-Doo, standing a short distance away next to a lever mechanism the real Fred had installed. "Rnow!" I said, still in my Scooby voice.
Scooby grabbed the lever in his teeth and pulled it down. Sure enough, a net – Fred's favorite trapping method – dropped down on the four "Scooby gang" members.
That was when I walked up to the tangled-up crooks, on my hind legs. The ghostly creatures joined me.
"What is the meaning of this?!" the Shaggy impostor asked us.
I sardonically grinned a typical goofy Scooby grin, reached up and started stretching up my rubber mask until it came off with a wet slurp. The cool air felt invigorating. "Surprise!" I announced. "You see, two can play at this game."
"Wha- Sam Valentino, the private detective?!" the phony Velma cried out. "It can't be – you deceived us!"
Sheriff Bronsin Stone then entered the room from behind me, accompanied by Chiefs Quimby and Flat-Foot Flanigan, Mr. Basil, and Rick Weasel. "Well, now I've seen everything!" Stone exclaimed.
The "ghosts" unmasked to reveal that the Tiki Witch Doctor was Velma, the Snow Ghost was Daphne, the Creeper was Shaggy, and the Miner ‘49er was Fred. Our sting operation had been a success.
"You look creepy, Shaggy," Daphne complimented Shaggy.
"Like, don't you mean ‘Creeper'?" Shaggy asked as he pointed to his latex Creeper mask.
"I hate to nitpick," Fred commented while holding his Miner ‘49er hat and beard, "but in our Creeper case, he was saying ‘Paper', not ‘Creeper'."
"But our doppelgangers have no papers," Velma pointed out.
Fred then turned to me and complimented, "By the way, Mr. Valentino, that was a great dramatic unmasking you pulled."
"Heh, thanks," I chuckled. "I think I picked it up from you guys."
Chief Flat-Foot Flanigan said, "Thamks to ‘Scooby' and you ‘monsters', we were able to capture the real ones."
"We know who we are," Fred replied as he slipped out of his Miner costume. "The only mystery left... is who THEY are!"
And with that, the four Mystery Inc. human members yanked off the latex masks of their doppelgangers. "It's..." they all started in unison. But after a few seconds, Daphne said, "Uh, who are these?"
Indeed, the four impostors also appeared to be Hanna-Barbera teenage characters from the 1970s. But I was able to recognize a couple of them. "Looks like the Fred impostor is Henry Chan, the oldest son of the great Chinese detective Charlie Chan. And ‘Daphne' there is Tina of the Ghost Chasers." Tina's true face even looked slightly like Daphne, but with a different hair style (albeit sweaty from her rubber Daphne mask) and different eye color.
"Oh, you ARE a great detective," Henry sarcastically said. "How'd you figure THAT out?!" His voice didn't even have a Chinese accent.
"I also recognize my impersonator," Velma realized. "Shelly LaMarine of the Neptunes, the band with Jabberjaw."
"Yeah, yeah," Shelly said. "I wanted to dress up as Daphne, but NOOOOO. I HAD to lose the coin toss to Tina!"
"And the guy impersonating Shaggy," Fred pointed out. "Isn't he D.D. from the Clue Club?"
"Yeah, you got that right," D.D. said, his poofy red hair matted down from wearing his Shaggy mask. He pulled a yellow Sherlock Holmes-esque deerstalker hat from his pocket and placed it on his head, confirming his identity.
"So they are mystery-solving teens from some of the knock-offs of our show Hanna-Barbera produced in the 1970s!" Daphne realized.
"We're so sick of how those kids were always acting like they were better than our gangs," D.D. explained. "They're treated like celebrities, while nobody's remembered us since this current millennium began! And when they featured the Clue Club I was part of in that Jellystone series, they replaced me with some black boy!"
"Well, diversity is important nowadays," Henry told D.D., "but it can be annoying compared to 40 years ago."
"My gang wasn't even allowed to participate in the Mystery Solvers State Club!" Tina groaned.
"Neither was mine!" D.D. complained.
"Nor mine," Henry added.
"But at least the Neptunes are in the club!" Shelly pointed out, letting out a devious chuckle afterward.
"Not helping at all," Tina fumed.
"Mystery Inc. doesn't deserve the fame and recognition!" D.D. went on. "Only the bad press the came from robbing Toontown of its' identity. We'd pull the classic Hanna-Barbera frame-up gambit, and with the Scooby gang out of the picture, our gangs could become the top teen mystery solving groups!"
"And we would've gotten away with it, too," Shelly said, "if it wasn't for that meddling private detective fox!"
I chuckled a bit and pointed out, "Funny enough, the four of you really ARE meddling kids, and not just your alter-egos."
Fred also laughed a bit and added, "I guess you can say we would've also gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for us meddling kids!"
D.D. let out an angry groan. "Enough with the ‘meddling kids' references!" he snapped.
The police, the real Mystery Inc. and Scooby-Doo, and I all laughed together.
***
And so, all the Mystery Inc. members' names were cleared once again. Like I said, Hanna-Barbera characters tend to get impersonated by crooks trying to give them a bad image. And while these kinds of cases are often easy for me to solve, at least this was a fun one, especially since me and the Scooby gang also got to dabble into the disguise act. Gives me quite a thrill to set up crooks as patsies that way. And Scooby-Doo wasn't a bad temporary partner to work with at all. Maybe some time in the not-too-distant future I will team up with Mystery Inc. for another case that's difficult compared to their usual phony supernatural capers. But when I do, I'll once again make sure I have plenty of Scooby Snacks... I gotta admit, they don't taste bad at all!
CASE CLOSED
SAM VALENTINO AND THE TWIN MYSTERY INC. CAPER
By Sam
It was another dark and stormy evening in the part of Toontown my office is in. I'm Sam Valentino, a private detective. I was reading one of my comics as the rain was pouring outside, accompanied by the flickers of a nearby neon sign and occasional flashes of lightning, when there was a knock at my door.
"Come in," I said, as I slowly began to open my desk drawer containing my Smith & Wesson 625JM revolver just in case it was an assassin.
Fortunately, it wasn't. The Dane walked into my room... a Great Dane. In fact, you might know him. Scooby-Doo, the dog "mascot" of Mystery Incorporated. A fellow anthro toon detective, though he and his human partners' detective work was generally different from mine. They usually went after ghosts and monsters that turned out to be crooks in disguise, often some kind of real-estate or robbery scheme. But this time, Scooby-Doo had a case that only I could solve.
"Mister Ralentino," Scooby began, sounding afraid, as usual. "The gang is rocked up! They robbed a bank, but they didn't do it. Rhaggy shcent me to you, to shcee if you can shcolve re case and clear their names."
Scooby-Doo does have the ability to talk more fluently, usually when the rest of the gang is not around, but since early the last decade, they've often been having Scooby speak as such in his newer shows and movies. I'm still not used to hearing Scooby talk that way, after decades of him often just speaking short sentences or fragments, usually when asking or agreeing with another member of the gang.
"Another frame-up case, huh?" I asked. "Shouldn't be a problem. You've come to the right fellow canine detective toon, Scooby." I patted his head. "Let's go visit the gang first. Where are they locked up?"
"The rnearby rolice shctation," Scooby said.
"I'll drive us there," I told him, fetching my car keys, my magnifying glass, my notepad and pen, and my Smart phone. (I usually have it powered off when I'm in my office, as I prefer to have potential clients call me on my landline phone – a classic black candlestick telephone that's traditional of private detectives like me.) Then I pulled on my trenchcoat (I already had my fedora on), and we stepped out into my old BMW, to drive down the rainy streets to the police station...
***
At the nearby Toontown Police Station, Chief Quimby of Inspector Gadget greeted me. "Ah, Sam Valentino," he said. "Long time, no see. And I also see you brought a friend."
"Indeed, I did, Quimby," I replied. "Scooby-Doo here told me that his human-solving pals were locked up here."
"And he wants you to figure out why they were arrested?" Quimby guessed.
"You're right on the ball, Chief," I answered with a wink.
Chief Quimby chuckled a bit. "The gang robbed some of the banks across Toontown. I saw the surveillance footage, but I am somewhat baffled by Scooby not accompanying them on the robberies. Come with me," he said, and Scoob and I followed him to the jail cells.
Sure enough, in one of the cells, I saw Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers locked up. They were wearing their usual outfits, and Sheriff Bronson Stone was outside their cell.
"I still don't understand why you've arrested us," Fred was saying. "I thought you knew us all too well to know we'd never commit an armed robbery!"
"Sorry," Sheriff Stone said. "But armed robbery is a crime we take seriously."
"Look!" Shaggy cried out, sounding semi-hysterical as I expected him to do. "Scoob! You brought in Sam Valentino! Good boy."
Scooby-Doo bounded to the cell and licked Shaggy's face.
"Hello there, Mr. Valentino," Stone greeted me. "It seems your mystery-solving friends here got caught robbing some of Toontown's banks and businesses."
I got out my notepad and pen, asking, "Do you have any proof of these so-called robberies?"
Officer Lou from Springfield of The Simpsons stepped up with a laptop computer. "Indeed, we do," he said as he opened up the lid and began typing something. "We've had reports of multiple robberies across Toontown. Here's some security footage from today, at Pamela's Clothing & Apparel."
We all looked. Indeed, the surveillance footage showed what appeared to be the Mystery Inc. humans themselves. Fred had a gun, Shaggy had a crowbar, Velma had a thin metal pipe, and Daphne had a metal club. I noticed Scooby-Doo was indeed not with them.
"Zoinks!" Shaggy let out his usual exclamation. "Like, it's US!"
"How is that possible?" Daphne asked. "We were at the campground all day, wrapping up the mystery of the Totem Pole ghost!"
"Yes, we had brought him in before you kids," Stone commented.
"Daphne has a point," Fred added. "How can we be in two places at once?"
"That's not for me to decide," Stone said. "The court system will. You may want to call your lawyer."
I cleared my throat. "That may not be necessary, Sheriff," I told him. "This sounds like another good old-fashioned frame-up plot, the kind Hanna-Barbera characters tend to fall victim too. That's why Scooby-Doo here came to me."
"Ha," Sheriff Stone scoffed. "They aren't Hanna-Barbera characters anymore."
"Like, what are you talking about?" Shaggy asked. "We're just as much Hanna-Barbera characters as the Flintstones!" He did his usual chuckle.
"I'm confident I can solve this case and clear the names of these fellow toon detectives," I assured everyone.
"Thank you so much, Sam," Velma said.
"Like, take Scooby with you," Shaggy added. "He can be your partner on your case... just like he was with us." He shed a tear. "Scooby-Doo, I'll miss you!"
"Rye, Rhaggy," Scooby glumly said as he and Shaggy hugged through the jail bars.
I sniffled a bit. "I hate to see a mystery-solving hippie and his big dog cry," I said softly.
***
So me and my temporary mystery-solving partner, Scooby-Doo, returned to my office, but not before picking up a few boxes of Scooby Snacks along the way. Once at my office, I got down to business. "So, Scooby," I began, "you and the gang were at a campground all of today solving another mystery?"
"Ryeah," Scooby said as he quickly nodded. "Ra totem pole ghost!" He stood up on his hind legs, began walking in a wooden manner and made spooky moaning sounds.
"Heh, that definitely sounds genuine," I commented. "Also, I seem to recall Mystery Inc. been framed by evil impostors before. Is that true?"
"Ryeah, ryeah!" Scooby replied. "Ra few times. Ran they also rimpersonated me then!"
"But this time, the evil doppelgangers do not have an impostor Scooby-Doo with them..." I noted. "This may be a difficult case to crack, but I'm sure you and I can pull it off. I would need to know any possible suspects. Who has previously impersonated the gang before?"
"Rwell," Scooby began. "Ra group of shkilled thieves rthat fhhaked mysteries to shteal valuables, rwith an attack dog made up rlike me... rand teen sshinger J.C. Chasez disguised ras me rith four extras as the others to kidnap Lovers' Lane couples ron Valentine's Day... Dick Rastardly once disguised as Fred, rand the Ape Man and Chameleon have both disguised as me... rand when Big Bob Oakley and two fhriends robbed banks disguised as Shaggy, Rdaphne and me!" (NOTE: This is a call-back to one of my older Scooby-Doo fanfics, "Scooby Double Doo!")
"That is a lot," I commented as I jotted down the key words in my notepad. "Of course, a bunch of Hanna-Barbera characters have been subject to being framed by impostors. It happened to Super Snooper, Ricochet Rabbit, Breezly and Sneezly, Hong Kong Phooey, Don Coyote..."
"Rand Yogi Bear, rand Captain Caveman, and Richie Rich!" Scooby added.
I nodded. "But in those cases, they were impersonated by random one-off thieves, spies and criminals," I pointed out. "I'm not sure who would want to frame Mystery Inc. for robberies right now..."
"Ri don't know either," Scooby agreed and yawned.
"Yeah, it's getting late," I said as I began slipping out of my trenchcoat. "We may as well hit the hay and start working on this case in the morning."
***
Sure enough, the next morning, Scooby-Doo and I got to work, but not before we had our breakfast at a nearby diner. That mutt sure can eat. Back at the office, I scanned through my scrapbooks and looked things up on my computer, but I couldn't find any potential suspects on who would want to pose as the Mystery Inc. humans and make them patsies. We decided to go directly to the scene of the crime... at least one of them.
Unfortunately at Pamela's Clothing & Apparel, our clue hunt was dust. We couldn't find any evidence. Things didn't especially help when Scooby accidentally knocked over a mannequin, setting off a domino effect of knocking other nearby mannequins and a display.
"Get out of here, you stupid mutt!" a toon human security guard said as he showed Scooby the way out. I followed.
But once we were back on the street, we happened to be right near the 13th National Bank. A red hatchback automobile had parked in front of it, and to my surprise, I saw what appeared to be the Mystery Inc. humans step out of the vehicle!
Scooby was surprised, too. He darted across the street (but thankfully not in front of oncoming traffic) and called out "Shaggy! Shaggy!"
I looked both ways and crossed over to where Scooby-Doo and "the gang" were.
"Beat it, mutt!" Shaggy snarled in a very different voice.
Scooby gave one of his usual puzzled looks. I softly said to him, "I think we found our perpetrators. Better watch from the window."
We observed as the fake Mystery Inc. gang stepped inside the bank and pulled out the same weapons they had used before.
"Hands up, everyone!" "Fred" announced, his voice also startlingly different. "This is a stick-up!"
"Like, it's no ‘mystery' why we're here!" the Shaggy impostor added, now doing a shoddy attempt at imitating the hippie's voice. "We're robbing this place!"
"Everyone where we can see you!" the Velma clone barked. "No hiding!"
"Hmm, a bank robbery," I said to Scooby. "The number-one frame-up crime those impostors and doppelgangers often go for. How unoriginal..."
"Ruh-roh!" Scooby-Doo said and began his usual nervous shivering. Meanwhile, I snapped a couple of photos on my Smartphone... my own evidence.
After nabbing enough money, the Daphne impostor said "We got the loot! Let's blow!" and they started for the front entrance.
"We'd better hide," I told Scooby, and started for the alley right next to the bank. But Scooby stayed, watching the action in disbelief. "Scooby, come on!"
But Scooby-Doo was still too awestruck and scared seeing the Mystery Inc. impostors robbing the bank to follow. I ducked into the alley and watched as the phony Scooby gang started to leave the bank, but as they did, their money bags exploded with a bluish-purple dye that got all over their clothes. Yes, even in Toontown, the banks nowadays rig their cash with exploding dye packs in case of a robbery.
"You nincompoop!" the Fred impostor said to the Shaggy impostor. "Why didn't you check for exploding dye packs?!"
"Why didn't YOU look?" the phony Shaggy countered.
"That's YOUR job!" the fake Fred argued. "I was watching the customers!"
I snapped yet another picture on my phone, but I had the volume up, and so the crooks heard the clicking noise.
"Go ahead, you defective detective," the Shaggy doppelganger said as he approached me, forming a fist and getting his arm ready to fight. "Take a picture. It'll last longer!"
Scooby-Doo saw what was going on and he bit the fake Shaggy's shirt in his teeth.
"What?! You again?" the crook asked, as a distant siren could be heard.
The Fred, Daphne and Velma impostors had just gotten into their hatchback. "Just get in!" the Velma double called to her partner. "The cops are coming!"
"All right!" the Shaggy impostor said, giving a firm tug and literally tearing away from Scooby's grip, leaving a piece of the shirt in his teeth. Then he leaped into the car, and they lammed off with the squeal of burning rubber.
A little later, Sheriff Stone had arrived with another toon cop I was unfamiliar with, asking the bank customers what they saw during the rubbery.
"You already know who they are," the bank manager was telling Stone. "All of Toontown does! They were always so nice before. What changed?"
That was my cue to tip my mitt. "Excuse me," I began, flashing my badge. "Sam Valentino, private toon detective. Allow me to present photos I took of the robbery." I whipped out my phone and showed Sheriff Stone.
Stone gasped. "If those were the robbers, then we've locked up... oh my! We've locked up the wrong gang."
"It's just like I said, Sheriff," feeling proud of myself. "A classic Hanna-Barbera frame-up plot."
***
Scooby-Doo and I headed back to the police station, arriving at the same time as Sheriff Stone did. As he unlocked the Mystery Inc. humans' jail cell, Stone told them, "Your alibi checked out. You're all free to go. I'm terribly sorry."
"Nothing to apologize about, Sheriff," Fred said. "We're just as confused as you are. Who would dress like us to commit these crimes? Like it's never happened before, either."
"It's a real puzzler," I added. "Whenever something like this has happened in the past, it's usually some one-off criminals. But I think Scooby-Doo here found a clue."
Sheriff Stone saw the green torn fabric still in Scooby's mouth. "Looks like part of the shirt Scooby tore off the robber."
"Gimme that!" Velma exclaimed, snatching it out of Scooby's maw. "Jinkies! There's a serial tag still attached, with a costume I.D. number. And I recognize where it came from... the Diablo Costume Company!"
"You're right on the ball, toots," I complimented Velma with a wink.
Velma chuckle and blushed. "Thanks, Mr. Valentino. Most of the crooks we've foiled got their disguises from there."
"Indeed," I agreed. "They're one of the go-to costume companies for redhots needing a disguise, along with the ACME costume company."
"And this is definitely not an ACME costume I.D. tag," Velma pointed out. "Sam, the Mystery Machine is still at the Happy Camper Campground. You think you can give us a lift to the Diablo Costume Company?"
"Sure thing, sister," I said. I knew Velma enjoys it when I talk to her like that.
***
So we all crammed into my BMW and headed to the Diablo Costume Company. Currently they operate in a big old mansion that had been rumored to be haunted, exactly the kind of environment the Scooby-Doo gang would feel right at home at. Even though the original owner of the company has since been locked up, many of the crooks the gang has caught still get their disguises from here, but the company is on good terms with Mystery Inc.
Inside, Fred was presenting the ripped fabric to the current owner, a slightly overweight older toon human male with glasses and balding gray hair. "Can you help identify this, Mister... um..."
"Basil," the owner told Fred.
"Any relation to Basil of Baker Street?" Shaggy joked, letting out his usual chuckle.
"Heh, good one, Shaggy," I complimented the hippie.
"As the current owner of Diablo Costumes," Mr. Basil said, "I'd better be able to. That I.D. number indeed appears to be one of ours. But you may want to check with Rick Weasel, one of our lead costume designers and special-effect makeup artists, just to be sure. The only problem is, Rick hasn't been to work for the past couple of days. I don't know where he is."
As Mr. Basil spoke, we spotted Scooby-Doo striking a pointer poser at a closet door. We could faintly hear muffled pleas, along with someone banging on the door from the inside. Scooby ran over to the closet and called, "Rover here!"
"Right behind you, Scooby!" I replied as I led the rest of Mystery Inc., along with Mr. Basil, to the closet door.
Mr. Basil unlocked it, and we gasped among seeing Rick Weasel bound and gagged in there. "It's Rick!" Mr. Basil cried out. Rick is known as one of Toontown's greatest special-effects makeup artists. He had designed masks and full-body suits for numerous cartoons over the decades, worked for ACME's costume division for a while, and was later hired to work for the Diablo Costume Company. The problem was that crooks often took advantage of his skills and tricked them into making custom-designed costumes and masks for their evil doings. And this is what most likely happened.
Fred and I untied Rick from his ropes and removed the handkerchief gagged into his mouth. "Thanks, Sam," he panted. "I've been locked up here all weekend!"
"What happened?" I asked as I got my notepad out, ready to jot down any information.
"A group of toon teens broke in while I was working late and tied me up, forced me to create lifelike latex masks of the Mystery Inc. humans, and dress them up to look like them," Rick explained. "They took some prop weapons as well. I'm afraid I didn't get a good look at them, but they did appear to also be Hanna-Barbera characters."
"Like, how will we find them now?" Shaggy asked. "They could be anywhere, and anyone!"
"Maybe not," Velma pointed out. "Rick did mention they resembled Hanna-Barbera characters like us, so that limits the number of suspects, somewhat."
"But how can we be sure?" Daphne asked. "In the seventies, Hanna-Barbera made a bunch of cartoon shows starring teen mystery solvers like us!"
"Actually," I said, "I've got a wild hunch the impostors will be coming back here."
"Jinkies!" Velma exclaimed. "You're right, Mr. Valentino. They've never shied away from the surveillance cameras during their robberies. They WANT to be seen as us."
"And with their costumes ruined," I added, "they'll need to get them fixed, or swap them out for new ones."
"Which means we'll set our trap HERE!" Fred said.
"And," I continued, "don't forget that I, too, am a master of disguise! I will go undercover, to try and gain the trust of those hoods that call themselves ‘Mystery Inc.' Then when they least expect it, it's trapping time!"
"Uh, that's actually kind of my catchphrase," Fred pointed out. "But that's a great idea, Mr. Valentino. And we'll disguise ourselves, too! We'll all return here at sundown to prepare for our doppelgangers' return. But we still need to get our Mystery Machine back."
"No problem," I said. "I'll drive you all to the campground. Then I need to get my disguise back at my office anyways."
***
That evening, I re-met with the Scooby gang outside the old mansion Diablo Costumes was housed in. My BMW and their Mystery Machine were parked in the back, so nobody would get suspicious. I was already dressed up in much of my Scooby-Doo costume. "You see," I told the gang, "My plan is to greet the Mystery Inc. impostors and see if I can join their little ‘gang', since people may soon get suspicious on why Scooby-Doo's not with them. By pretending to be an anonymous mug disguised as Scooby, if all goes well, I can then lead them into your trap." As I spoke, I held up the full-head latex Scooby-Doo mask, complete with dog collar and tag, that would complete my ensemble.
"Like, that's so cool!" Shaggy exclaimed. "That makes two of us with our own Scooby-Doo costumes!"
"Roh, brother," Scooby said as he rolled his eyes.
"Don't worry, Scooby," I said to the real deal. "Unlike those impostors that do it for greed and evil, my impersonation is to save you all."
But Scooby-Doo wasn't buying it. "Ruh-uh, RUH-UH." I guess he'd had enough impostors for one mystery.
"Oh, I think I know what this is," I said, reaching into a body pocket on my body costume. "Would you go along with this for a Scooby Snack?" I pulled out a box of Scooby Snacks I brought along, just in case.
Scooby thought. "Three Scooby Snacks?"
"Like, me too," Shaggy added.
I chuckled. "OK, three Scooby Snacks it is, for each of you." I tossed them to Scooby and Shaggy, and they quickly ate them. "You know what, I think I'll have a few myself. But first..." I put the Scooby Snacks box on the ground and slipped my rubbery Scooby-Doo mask over my head. Thanks to cartoon logic, the rubber dog head was able to even conceal my fedora on my true foxy head. I smoothed the snug-fitting mask on my head and made sure the eyeholes were oriented with my own eyes, tucked the mask's neck into the suit's collar, picked up the box and ate a few Scooby Snacks myself. "Scooby-dooby-doooooooo!" I said, doing my best Scooby-Doo imitation.
"Jeepers," Daphne said. "I didn't think you'd be willing to eat Scooby Snacks."
"Just getting in character," I told the gang in my normal voice as I stuffed the Scooby Snacks box back into the costume's body pocket. "A little method acting never helps. Now you all take your places." As the four mystery-solving teens and the real Scooby-Doo entered the mansion, I did my impression of Scooby's laugh. "eeHEEheeheeheeheeheeheehee!"
A little while later, I continued hanging outside the mansion, waiting for the crooks to arrive. I had started sweating a bit in my rubber Scooby mask and ate a couple more Scooby Snacks to pass the time and stay in character. Eventually, I saw car headlights coming up the road to the mansion, and when I saw it was indeed the thieves' hatchback, I said to myself, "Showtime." I sat down on all fours like the real Scooby-Doo usually does.
The red car pulled up and powered down, and the doors opened. The crooks were still in their full Mystery Inc. disguises, with dye pack stains still on their clothes and holding their weapon props. "What, you again?" the Shaggy impersonator asked when he saw me.
I started in my Scooby-Doo voice, "Rello."
"Can't that dumb mutt tell we are NOT his human friends?" the fake Velma said.
"Ruh, ractually, ri am one of you!" I said, standing up on my hind legs. "Ri am impersonating Scooby." I grasped the black rubbery nose on my Scooby-Doo mask and stretched it out a bit, and even from inside I could see the dog face distort as I pulled it outward. Then I snapped it back into place and sang, "Ta-dah!"
"You know what?" the Fred impostor told his "gang". "I think he'll be useful in our little charade. People may eventually get suspicious seeing the Scooby gang without Scooby committing these robberies." Then he turned to me and said, "OK, you're in."
"Roh boy!" I exclaimed in my best Scooby-Doo impression, dancing excitedly a little before getting down on all fours.
We entered the costume mansion. The doors were already unlocked, and luckily the impostors didn't question why.
"These stains aren't coming out," the fake Fred said. "They're permanent."
"And sticky!" the Velma impersonator added.
"Get me out of these things," the Daphne double complained.
"No!" the Shaggy simp snarled. "We need to look like this again. That's why we're doing this, right?!"
We headed over to the closet they had bound and gagged Rick Weasel in. But they sure got a surprise when they opened the door...
"Look! He's gone!" the Fred impostor gasped.
"I TOLD you to tie his ropes tighter!" the phony Shaggy said.
"Oh, so this is my fault, too?!" the faux Fred argued.
"Change of plans," the Velma doppelganger said. "We're ditching these costumes and getting out of here."
The Shaggy impostor turned to me and said, "Sorry, ‘Scoob', but I guess we don't..."
But before he could finish an eerie costumed figure leaped from a nearby hallway. I recognized it; the Tiki Witch Doctor, from one of the gang's original mysteries on the Hawaiian Islands.
As the Witch Doctor let out a scary laugh, the fake Daphne shrieked, "AAAGH! Where'd he come from?!"
I ran alongside the "gang" as the Witch Doctor chased us. But when we approached another doorway, another past foe of Mystery Inc. – the Creeper – jumped out at us.
"Oh no!" the Velma impostor cried out. "Not another one!"
"Creeper!" the green-skinned Creeper moaned as he lurched towards us. "Creeper!"
Then a huge white furry creature, the Snow Ghost from that time the gang went on a ski vacation, came from behind us and let out a scary howl.
Unable to resist the urge to stay in character, I yelped, "Ruh-roh!"
"Hit them!" the fake Fred ordered.
But the Snow Ghost easily grabbed "Shaggy"'s crowbar and tossed it aside.
"It didn't work!" the Shaggy impostor cried out. "They're just fake props!"
A ghostly-looking old man with a long gray beard – the Miner ‘49er that haunted Ghost City during the gang's time there – easily broke the fake metal pipe and club with his pickaxe. Then as the four supernatural characters surrounded the fake Mystery Inc., I was able to quickly slip away without the impostors noticing. "They can't be real!" the Fred doppelganger said, his voice now shaky. "How is this happening?"
I approached the real Scooby-Doo, standing a short distance away next to a lever mechanism the real Fred had installed. "Rnow!" I said, still in my Scooby voice.
Scooby grabbed the lever in his teeth and pulled it down. Sure enough, a net – Fred's favorite trapping method – dropped down on the four "Scooby gang" members.
That was when I walked up to the tangled-up crooks, on my hind legs. The ghostly creatures joined me.
"What is the meaning of this?!" the Shaggy impostor asked us.
I sardonically grinned a typical goofy Scooby grin, reached up and started stretching up my rubber mask until it came off with a wet slurp. The cool air felt invigorating. "Surprise!" I announced. "You see, two can play at this game."
"Wha- Sam Valentino, the private detective?!" the phony Velma cried out. "It can't be – you deceived us!"
Sheriff Bronsin Stone then entered the room from behind me, accompanied by Chiefs Quimby and Flat-Foot Flanigan, Mr. Basil, and Rick Weasel. "Well, now I've seen everything!" Stone exclaimed.
The "ghosts" unmasked to reveal that the Tiki Witch Doctor was Velma, the Snow Ghost was Daphne, the Creeper was Shaggy, and the Miner ‘49er was Fred. Our sting operation had been a success.
"You look creepy, Shaggy," Daphne complimented Shaggy.
"Like, don't you mean ‘Creeper'?" Shaggy asked as he pointed to his latex Creeper mask.
"I hate to nitpick," Fred commented while holding his Miner ‘49er hat and beard, "but in our Creeper case, he was saying ‘Paper', not ‘Creeper'."
"But our doppelgangers have no papers," Velma pointed out.
Fred then turned to me and complimented, "By the way, Mr. Valentino, that was a great dramatic unmasking you pulled."
"Heh, thanks," I chuckled. "I think I picked it up from you guys."
Chief Flat-Foot Flanigan said, "Thamks to ‘Scooby' and you ‘monsters', we were able to capture the real ones."
"We know who we are," Fred replied as he slipped out of his Miner costume. "The only mystery left... is who THEY are!"
And with that, the four Mystery Inc. human members yanked off the latex masks of their doppelgangers. "It's..." they all started in unison. But after a few seconds, Daphne said, "Uh, who are these?"
Indeed, the four impostors also appeared to be Hanna-Barbera teenage characters from the 1970s. But I was able to recognize a couple of them. "Looks like the Fred impostor is Henry Chan, the oldest son of the great Chinese detective Charlie Chan. And ‘Daphne' there is Tina of the Ghost Chasers." Tina's true face even looked slightly like Daphne, but with a different hair style (albeit sweaty from her rubber Daphne mask) and different eye color.
"Oh, you ARE a great detective," Henry sarcastically said. "How'd you figure THAT out?!" His voice didn't even have a Chinese accent.
"I also recognize my impersonator," Velma realized. "Shelly LaMarine of the Neptunes, the band with Jabberjaw."
"Yeah, yeah," Shelly said. "I wanted to dress up as Daphne, but NOOOOO. I HAD to lose the coin toss to Tina!"
"And the guy impersonating Shaggy," Fred pointed out. "Isn't he D.D. from the Clue Club?"
"Yeah, you got that right," D.D. said, his poofy red hair matted down from wearing his Shaggy mask. He pulled a yellow Sherlock Holmes-esque deerstalker hat from his pocket and placed it on his head, confirming his identity.
"So they are mystery-solving teens from some of the knock-offs of our show Hanna-Barbera produced in the 1970s!" Daphne realized.
"We're so sick of how those kids were always acting like they were better than our gangs," D.D. explained. "They're treated like celebrities, while nobody's remembered us since this current millennium began! And when they featured the Clue Club I was part of in that Jellystone series, they replaced me with some black boy!"
"Well, diversity is important nowadays," Henry told D.D., "but it can be annoying compared to 40 years ago."
"My gang wasn't even allowed to participate in the Mystery Solvers State Club!" Tina groaned.
"Neither was mine!" D.D. complained.
"Nor mine," Henry added.
"But at least the Neptunes are in the club!" Shelly pointed out, letting out a devious chuckle afterward.
"Not helping at all," Tina fumed.
"Mystery Inc. doesn't deserve the fame and recognition!" D.D. went on. "Only the bad press the came from robbing Toontown of its' identity. We'd pull the classic Hanna-Barbera frame-up gambit, and with the Scooby gang out of the picture, our gangs could become the top teen mystery solving groups!"
"And we would've gotten away with it, too," Shelly said, "if it wasn't for that meddling private detective fox!"
I chuckled a bit and pointed out, "Funny enough, the four of you really ARE meddling kids, and not just your alter-egos."
Fred also laughed a bit and added, "I guess you can say we would've also gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for us meddling kids!"
D.D. let out an angry groan. "Enough with the ‘meddling kids' references!" he snapped.
The police, the real Mystery Inc. and Scooby-Doo, and I all laughed together.
***
And so, all the Mystery Inc. members' names were cleared once again. Like I said, Hanna-Barbera characters tend to get impersonated by crooks trying to give them a bad image. And while these kinds of cases are often easy for me to solve, at least this was a fun one, especially since me and the Scooby gang also got to dabble into the disguise act. Gives me quite a thrill to set up crooks as patsies that way. And Scooby-Doo wasn't a bad temporary partner to work with at all. Maybe some time in the not-too-distant future I will team up with Mystery Inc. for another case that's difficult compared to their usual phony supernatural capers. But when I do, I'll once again make sure I have plenty of Scooby Snacks... I gotta admit, they don't taste bad at all!
CASE CLOSED