Chapter 2

Several months passed since the case in the haunted castle in Upstate New York, where Scooby Doo and his friends tracked down and captured a very frightening and very intimidating werewolf who was trying to scare away the caretakers of said building and who turned out to be a former employee of said castle, which doubled as a very popular and very successful tourist attraction of all things.

Ever since Mystery Inc. had arrived back in the Midwest, and specifically Ohio, and even more specifically Coolsville, Fred Jones had felt subtle changes in his personality, his habits and even his lifestyle.

Actually the changes weren't what most people would qualify as subtle, while they were without a doubt changes, they were small, and didn't seem to affect Fred the way major changes would affect him.

But even though the changes weren't major and weren't directly noticeable in his human body, something inside him began shifting and he felt more as if he was an animal, an untamed beast then a human being.

Sure Fred's personality was one of a regular normal twenty something year old human being, and he still felt like the leader of Mystery Inc., unofficially of course, but a few times when he spoke to the gang, he felt as if the part of him that had changed into a wolf was beginning to come out, in rather unusual ways.

At certain times when he ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with the gang, Daphne and everyone else at the table could swear that the blond young man was howling, albeit slightly, and sometimes the other four members of Mystery Inc. were shocked to see the young man somewhat devouring his food like an animal, or like something that Shaggy and Scooby Doo would do, considering the two of them ate a lot during a typical meal.

While Fred Jones wasn't like Scooby Doo or Norville Rogers, he was, well he was a leader; while he wasn't as smart as Velma, or as cowardly as the aforementioned green shirt clad young man and his canine companion, or as wealthy as Daphne, Fred had a lot to be thankful for and to be proud of.

He had earned degrees from Coolsville High School, and the University of Florida (which he mostly decided to attend because of their successful football program) and he had several hobbies, not to mention the times he and his friends volunteered at various places in the small Ohio town where the group all lived.

Deep down the unofficial leader of Mystery Inc. always wanted to tutor young men and women in what he knew, like his sleuthing skills for example. In addition to those things, Fred was more then happy to tell the next generation of detectives about how to solve a case, how to make a proper trap (which he greatly enjoyed) and other miscellaneous topics.

However, there was nothing that the young man could tell any or all budding sleuths the gang tutored about what he was going through now, because being a werewolf was something that was rather unique, and something he silently hoped and prayed that no one, no matter the age or race would ever have to go through, because if they did, it would be an unfortunate occurrence, which could very well end in that person residing in a pine box for the rest of eternity.

All of that aside, the blond young adult made a silent promise to himself that he was going to spend as much time as possible during the day to research his condition.

Or at least all the time he spent by himself, when he wasn't with the rest of Mystery Inc. Because during the nighttime hours, especially on nights with a full moon, Fred was going to change into his other form, which is something he would try and avoid as much as possible.

Thankfully for Fred, the nighttime hours passed without so much as him growing a small patch of fur on his body, which left him with a huge sigh of relief.

This was how Fred Jones' life was proceeding, at least until he woke up one morning and decided to see if the curse was affecting the well built blond young man's body, as well as his mind.

Getting up from the bed in his bedroom one day, the blond young sleuth walked over to a nearby mirror and examined himself, just to make completely sure he was still human.

After the daunting task of making sure he hadn't sprouted claws, paws or fur, he walked downstairs, still in his nightshirt and sleep pants and decided to see if the rest of the gang was awake.

Once he arrived downstairs, Fred made his way into the dining room of Mystery Inc.'s headquarters and sat down at the breakfast table, with his friends eating, talking and reading the paper among other things.

Mystery Inc.'s headquarters was a beautiful hundred year old mansion which Daphne's parents had helped the gang purchase, convert into a center of operations for the gang, and all around home for the adolescent investigators some years back.

The mansion was located in the center of Coolsville, or as close to the center of the city as possible, considering the group wanted to be close to the library, police and any other authority figures.

Naturally of course these things were very important for a group of sleuths such as Mystery Inc., and were a big selling point when the gang and Daphne's mother and father purchased the mansion.

At the breakfast table, which was made of Oak, and possibly at least 30 years old according to the gang and Daphne's parents estimates, Fred felt as if everything was going right in his life, despite what had happened only a few weeks prior.

On top the old wooden table was a sumptuous array of bagels, toast, cereal, fruit, as well as any condiments needed for said items; all of which Shaggy and Scooby were digging into as if it was their last meal on Earth.

After a brief scolding from Velma, who engaged in a back and forth staring and then smiling contest with Shaggy, the two of them eased up on their breakfast consumption. While the two chickens of Mystery Inc. ate, Fred noticed that Daphne had fixed up a pot of coffee, which was sitting on the kitchen counter, just in the young man's line of sight.

As the young man's red-haired companion and girlfriend sat and downed her cup of java, she was eating a plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese, which Fred could smell, since he had chosen a seat right next to her.

In between bites of the bagel, and sips of the coffee, the young man took the opportunity to give Daphne a few quick pecks on the cheek, which caused her face to become almost the same shade as a strawberry.

"Freddie, please I'm eating and drinking." Daphne giggled as Fred placed a hand on her arm.

"Sorry Daph, I thought you were done." Fred replied, albeit a bit sheepishly.

"That's quite all right Freddie." Daphne responded; albeit she was now chuckling as she spoke to her blond boyfriend.

"Aren't those two something else?" Velma asked, in a whispering voice, which was directed towards a certain green shirted sleuth.

"Like yeah, but they are in love after all. And I guess we are too huh?" Shaggy responded, also in a whisper.

"Of course, and I couldn't ask for anyone better to be in love with." Velma replied.

"Ditto Velma, ditto." Shaggy responded.

While Shaggy and Velma smiled and shared a hug between the two of them, Daphne began looking over the daily newspaper while taking another sip of her coffee.

The young woman was perusing the society pages, mostly to see if there was any mention of her family or her, before moving onto the horoscopes (which was something she always enjoyed, partly because she was one of the few members of the group who paid attention to anything like horoscopes).

"Hmm… my horoscope says I'm going to have a five star day today… makes sense." Daphne remarked.

"Daphne, you don't believe it those silly things do you?" Fred asked in a skeptical tone of voice.

"Of course I do Freddie, horoscopes sometimes talk about people's monetary gains and losses. So considering I'm wealthy, I want to make sure any horoscopes that talk about such a thing are accurate, just in case. Call me superficial, but it's just something I need to read in the morning." Daphne replied.

"I guess I can see that Daph. By the way, can you pass me the sports and the local section, I want to check the scores and see if there's anything going on this weekend." Fred responded.

"Sure thing Freddie." Daphne replied, rifling through the newspaper sections before coming to what Fred was asking for.

"Here we are, enjoy." The red head added as she handed the two sections of the paper to Fred.

"Thanks Daphne. Believe me, there's nothing better then reading about the happenings in the sports world to get you ready for the day. Especially when you're in the line of work we are." The blond young man said, as a slight chuckle escaped his lips.

Fred Jones then held the sports section in front of his face, scanning the paper for the results of the previous day and night's baseball games.

There were also some items and articles about the upcoming NFL and college football contests, as it was football season after all. After reading through the rest of the sports, Fred moved onto the Local section of the paper; holding the paper aloft in front of his face, he scanned it for any important news, or any relevant events that might be happening in the small town.

Of course there were the usual items that might be found in a small town newspaper: a few crime reports, the weather, a Calendar of Events, advertisements, movie listings, and the like.

A few minutes into his perusal of the local newspaper, Fred began to realize that he might be wasting his time… after all, nothing really exciting was going on in Coolsville… at least not at the moment.

However, the young man was soon to receive a shock, and was about to find that maybe his life, and his unusual ailment were possibly about to be exposed. Because after all the time and all the years that Mystery Inc. had solved mysteries, trying to hide something supernatural was very difficult, especially when the person hiding something was one Freddie Jones, the unofficial leader of the group of sleuths.

Author's Notes: Sorry for the short chapter, I got stuck a bit in thinking of ideas for this chapter and story. I promise things will pick up in later chapters though, and there will also be some sightings of other Hanna Barbera teen mystery solvers. I can't say who though, but there will be some special guests in future chapters, so stay tuned.