Another day, another mystery it seemed to be these days. The whole town of Coolsville was in a frenzie, worried about the lingering threat that of the Terrifier. It had appeared to be that the local law enforcement and Cotex Labs, especially, tried to cover up his first couple hits from the public until they knew more about them, but then he was all over the news and social media twenty-four-seven.

My parents insisted that I took a break from my 'obsessive' research into this case, and get some rest after my hospital visit because they often caught me sneaking out of bed and into my dad's office too frequently for their liking, since they took away my laptop to hinder my efforts. I knew it was not wise to ever go against my mother's word, so I reluctantly obliged.

I swear, though, this case was just mocking my inability to take any current action because no matter what I did, all I ever heard about was reports of the 'masked arsonist' as the news people liked to call him. I walked down the hallway from getting my lunch and as I was passing by the TV channel 47 news with a rather chipper news women was reporting: "All of Coolsville is concerned about this masked individual on the loose wielding a high caliber flamethrower. We have been receiving past reports that they have struck three time before around the area. Once at Trap-Co, a high tech security system company, once at a popular local food truck, once at a residential home, and the latest at the Blake Family Gala. Our team here at channel 47 has been hard at work trying to connect these locations together, and we may have cracked it."

At this moment, as I was frozen in place so entranced with the newscast, I registered what they had just said and dropped the ceramic plate that had supported my turkey and cheese sandwich.

Alerted by the sudden sound of crashing dishes from the previously quiet state of the house, my parents rushed into the room and they too were phased by what the newscaster was informing the public as she continued to say: "We have a theory that this perpetrator is purposely targeting members of Mystery Incorporated. At every fiery strike, a member or affiliate was present and effected. It was fitting that the first and most violent strike was to the Mystery Incorporated leader Fred Jones, who is the founder and CEO of Trap-Co. Secondly, the food truck that was burnt to a crisp belonged to none other than Shaggy Rogers and his pet companion who served as the mascot of the gang, Scooby-Doo. Thirdly, this piece was the hardest to fit in the overarching puzzle but, thanks to some information provided from an anonymous source, it was discovered that the homeowner had a past with Mystery Incorporated in their early high school days and was close friends with the brains behind the group, Ms. Velma Dinkley. Now, Ms. Dinkley is involved even more because the lab doing the tests for this case is spearheaded by Velma. Finally, the most recent attack was deliberately intended for the last member Daphne Blake at her parent's charity Gala which has been an annual event for many years now."

I was still in awe that they were able to obtain this information so fast and could only wonder who this anonymous source was that helped them connect the dots. I mean, I just was able to solve the motivation behind the Terrifier and that was because I utilized some resources from my father's files and Cotex's database, so how the heck did they do it? I broke away my gaze from the television for a moment and turned to face my parents to the left of me. They were still standing still, but I did notice that they were now holding each other's hands probably out of comfort and support. I knew they were trying to keep Mystery Inc. a thing of the past, as they had dismantled the gang and gone off to do better things, but now everything is back in the public eye and they are blaming Mystery Inc. for it all. I just didn't know how they are going to handle all of it.

I go over to stand closer to them to show that I was here for them and was just as concerned as they were. "Mom, dad, how could they-" I was cut off by the news broadcast as the blonde reporter chimed back in when the camera suddenly cut to her and a screencap image of both my parents in the corner of the screen. I let in a sharp breath preparing myself for what came next.

"What is quite interesting is that the two members of Mystery Incorporated that have stayed together, as they married each other, are leader Fred Jones and Daphne Blake. This folks, is something that has always been known, but since the attacker has gone after both of them, they may be the reason behind his wrath. However, they have been keeping an interesting factor a secret that may play a larger part in all of these chaotic attacks...their seventeen year old daughter Carter Elizabeth Jones"

An audible gasp escaped from my parent's gaped mouths and my mother immediately pulled herself into my father's embrace. I could feel the sense of shear panic unleashed in the room as soon after we heard my name come from the television.

Just recently, I found out the truth behind why my parents had decided to keep me out of the limelight. Growing up, I thought it was because they were ashamed of me or that I was a burden to their reputation, but now I knew I was wrong. Upon them finding out my relationship turned friendships with Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby, they had confessed that the real reason why I was raised the way I was and kept hidden from the public was because they had worried that their past endeavors in Mystery Inc. would come back to haunt them and I could be used as a tool against them. In some ways, this exact scenario that they were concerned with turned out to be true. Now that my existence was out in the open, it could lead to even more serious repercussions.

Apparently, from listening to the last part of the broadcast, they had somehow learned that I had been the one seriously injured from the Gala attack which lead them to come to the conclusion that I was the one being targeted. And just like that, the broadcast was over but the overwhelming amount of questions from it all had just began to be exposed in the room.

"Oh my god. How the heck did they find all of this out and so suddenly, Freddie?" My mother shankingly inquired as she looked up to him for an answer.

He didn't respond, instead he just cupped his hands to his face and began pacing around the room.

This did not sit well with me, so I had to ask before letting out a large breath "Uhhh dad, what does this even mean for us now?"

Still no answer.

I looked towards my mom for any kind of assistance, but she too was no help in giving any input on the matter.

Finally, my dad spoke out. "Well, we can't stop anything now that everything's out in the open. But it just makes things way more complicated. I honestly don't know what to make of all of this right now, and that scares me the most." He admits before collapsing in defeat down on the couch.

I've never seen my dad so vulnerable before, it tore me apart just to witness him in this state because I knew he is trying his best to protect us, but everything lately has been making our situation even more challenging.

I could feel my palms shaking with unease, so I tried to silence their nervous outburst by shoving them in the pocket of my sweatshirt.

Both my mother and I went to comfort my noticeably worried father. We stood behind him together, displaying our unity, as we showed him that nothing can come between our family.

I let out a sigh before addressing my dad, "I don't have a clue of how any of this came to the surface, but I do know one thing"

He picked his head up at my statement and turned to face my gaze.

"Nothing. And I mean nothing is going to stop us from getting this guy. This mystery will not be left unsolved if the Jones family has anything to do with it." I confidently declared, allowing hope to refuel the fire in the room to get to cracking this case once and for all.

(A/N Sorry for such a long break from this story. I have been kind of procrastinating working on this  because I am getting towards the end and the final scene is in my head, but I feel like it is going to be hard to write. Thankfully, I decided to instead of doing one huge chapter with the ending in it, I planned out to separate it into shorter chapters and add some filler chapters too leading up to the scene. To all who waited so very patiently thank you for that and thanks for sticking with this fic too! It just reached 2k views so I am very excited for that!)