After a couple days of working on the case and balancing school, I finally believed that I had unearthed more connecting clues on the case based on my research. I had to spend some extra time at the Coolsville Library, but it was well worth it. What I uncovered was that Ms. Fleach actually did have a past with Mystery Incorporated, which honestly did not surprise me that much. So, after analyzing and taking into consideration the last hits of this so called 'villain', I'm pretty confident that they were purposely targeting Mystery Inc and their affiliates. The question though, on mine and everyone's mind, was who would be next?

Well that was enough of that, since I was on Christmas break from school, I decided to take a break from researching as well. The case was getting a tad cold anyways; maybe the perp needed a holiday break too? Speaking of the holidays, lately I'd been feeling that, even though it was Christmas Eve, it didn't feel much like it at all. It's funny because I had felt more in the Christmas spirit during Thanksgiving than now. Maybe it's because I jumped the gun and jammed out to Christmas music as soon as Halloween ended, now it just doesn't feel the same anymore. The one thing; however, that Christmas Eve has in common with Thanksgiving is that I have to go back to my grandparents' house. You would think it would be to celebrate and open gifts together and whatnot, but no, it's actually to attend the annual Blake Charity Gala.

Every year on Christmas Eve my grandparents invite all the family, their esteemed friends, and colleagues over to their estate for a fancy dinner and it ends with an auction with all of the proceeds going to some charity they choose each year. It's not something I exactly look forward to, due to the fact that there's nothing for me to do and that I'm surrounded in a huge room by boring so called 'refined' adults talking nonstop. I mean it's not too bad, as it is for a good cause and they end up collecting a ton of money every year for charity due to all my grandparents' rich acquaintances, which is good. My parents usually make sure to bid and win an item every time to donate, so that means that we are lucky enough to drive back home with some outlandish painting or vase to display in our house. I actually remember when I was younger, my mom accidently knocked over a decorative vase that had adorned the hallway, my father wasn't even mad about it because it was such an eyesore.

The chorus of our car doors slamming shut announced the arrival of the Jones family to the Blake Gala, as we made our way to the entryway of the estate. Per usual, the inside of the house was as festively decorated as the outside, with countless amounts of wreaths, garlands, Christmas trees adorned with shimmering ornaments, and any other holiday trimmings you can think of decking the halls.

I stood in awe of the scene before me as, to no surprise, my grandparents had outdone themselves yet again. My dad snapped me out of it when he nudged my side, informing me that it was time to move onto the ballroom where all the other guests had congregated. By the time we walked down the long hallway, the muffled sound of the crowd had grown into a louder commotion.

My hands involuntarily clenched as I anxiously awaited entering the room. My mom must had noticed my uncertainness of the situation, so she gave me a comforting look and took my hand as she led me into the room full of chatter.

Taking a deep breath in, I looked around and managed to spy my grandparents out in the throng of nicely dressed guests. We made our way through all of the surrounding people and went over to greet them.

"Why, it's about time you made it Jones family" my grandmother jokingly pointed out raising her glass, as she turned her attention from the woman talking to her to us.

My mother smiled and gave a small chuckle before going in to hug both her parents.

"Quite the get together you got here Bart" my dad stated, as he proudly shook his hand.

I awkwardly stood alongside my parents and gave my grandparents a polite little wave as they acknowledged my presence. They talked for a while together, but my attention to them faded away as I began to wonder my gaze around the room. It's not that challenging to point out the rest of my family members as they liked to make a lavish statement and stand out. Some of my younger cousins had creatively found the time to pass by quicker, as I spotted them sneaking out of the room, probably getting into some kind of forthcoming trouble.

My parents finally got out of my grandparents' conversation loop as we were interrupted by the high-pitched chime of a dinner bell, giving everyone a chance to eat and have happily full bellies, strategically making them more compliant to spend even more of their money at the auction.

I carefully took my assigned seat at the table as I scooted my chair in and gracefully placed my napkin in my lap. Unfortunately, this time, I was not placed in between my parents, but rather across from them. To my displeasure, unknowingly, I let out a rather loud sigh which sparked the attention of my neighbor.

"My, my, child what has got you so down?" A pompous voice inquired my way.

I sat up more attentively and figured I'd be polite and courteous at the party and not totally ignore my grandparents' guests, despite how much I'd like to, rather than hear them drone on and on to me. And that was exactly what he did.

After about ten minutes of Mr. Glass going on about his high-times spent at Yale studying law, I shot a quick glance to my parents showing how much these kinds of conversations got to me. They just raised their eyebrows before laughing under their breaths as he pried me back into the conversation, well, more like his one-person monologue.

Thankfully, the arrival of the main course had the effect to silence him. I mean as soon as the enormous dish of ham was set in front of him, he immediately halted what he was saying to me and jumped at the opportunity to get first dibs on it. It was quite the spectacle.

As I was enjoying my meal after everyone's glasses had clinked toasting the upcoming highly anticipated auction, I caught a glimpse of something that caught my eye.

I quickly excused myself from the meal. It wasn't hard to disappear in such the large crowd, and I decided to follow one of the many servers dressed in an all-white uniform that looked all too familiar.

This little journey eventually led me to the industrial sized kitchen, which I found to be quite a chaotic environment as the cook was running around from oven to oven like a madman.

"Wait! Hold on" I shouted, making the cook abruptly stop what he was doing, as he stood there balancing trays of wobbly mashed potatoes in his hands.

"Shaggy!" I exclaimed, as I was surprised to find him there at my grandparents' house of all places.

"Like Carter? Fancy seeing you here" he replied as he slowly went back to prepping the food.

"Well, actually I am more surprised to see you here. Did you not know that you're working for my grandparents' event?" I pointed out.

Just as I finished, Scooby came waltzing into the kitchen pushing a cart of dishes. I was glad to see him there too, as he never leaves Shaggy's side. I managed to scruff the fur on his head before he continued on with his task.

"Well, since the food truck is out of commission, Scoob and I have basically jumped on any gig we could scrounge up. Once we heard about this catering job, we knew it would be perfect for us" he admitted as he popped yet another ham into the large silver oven.

"Oh, that's cool. Have you said hello to my parents yet? They're just sitting right out there" I said, as I gestured, pointing a thumb in the direction of the kitchen's double doors.

All of the sudden, a loud crash came from the outside and everyone in the kitchen jumped from the disturbance. Just as I headed out to discover what exactly happened, a resounding boom thundered close by causing me to cover my ears.

Screams were echoing in the distance and this set me off in an even more intense panic. My breaths staggered, as I could only picture what was happening in the dining room. Shaggy and Scoob slid behind me and were noticeably shaking with fear.

I didn't even realize it, but seconds later I found my feet taking over and rushing me into the room full of utter chaos. Upon entering, I immediately looked up and, to no surprise, standing in the middle of scattered broken window glass, there was a figure dressed in all black. They were wearing what seemed to be leather glass goggles and a black bandana covering their mouth. What was even more startling was that they were armed with a rather threatening flamethrower, which was wreaking havoc in the room as it torched things left and right.

'Oh great, how inconvenient that this time I get the case to come find me instead of me finding it' I thought to myself.

My mind raced, and my heart pounded as I quickly assessed the situation before me. There were frantic bodies of guests madly running amok towards the exit; but my thoughts were only focused on one thing...where were my parents?

Frantically searching for them in the blazed scene, I managed to spot them in the middle of the room, helping my grandparents get to their feet. I sighed in relief that none of them were hurt, but my gaze was quickly drawn to the lurking masked figure to gauge what their next step would be.

They couldn't even find the time to notice my attention set on them, as their eyes and weapon were locked on something else. I followed their look and stopped in my tracks; I realized that it wasn't something, but rather someone... my family.

I didn't take a second thought and quickly raced towards my parents. Making my way through the frenzied crowd, I elbowed straggling guests of whom had not made it out yet, as I was going against the grain of the crowd. I had only one goal, and that was to try my best to protect my family.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that they were just about to unleash another fiery wrath and it was pointed directly in the way of my parents and grandparents in the middle of the room. Out of shear inconsiderate recklessness, in hopes to save the people I loved, I changed my path from heading towards them, to going full steam ahead to the unknown criminal. I could hear both of my parents cry out against my brash decision, but I decided to ignore them. I couldn't afford to let this case slip away from me when I was this close to it.

It wasn't that hard to see that they didn't anticipate for me to charge right at them, but it didn't take too long to process as they ended re-aiming their weapon directly in my path. I wasn't prepared for this to any extent, well because who would think someone would have the mindset to fatally attack a teenager, albeit I was brutally flying right towards them.

I hastily acted fast and ducked down once I saw them pull the trigger, but I wasn't so lucky, as I could feel the harsh flames brush against my skin as I tumbled down with nothing but the cherry hardwood floors to graciously catch my fall. Clutching my painfully irritated skin on my left arm, I could detect the panic set in my attacker's eyes realizing what they had done, and just like that, they were gone leaving the same way they abruptly came in.

It took no longer than a microsecond for my parents to come to my aid, as I was having a difficult time to find the strength to pick myself up from the floor. They could definitely see my struggle followed by a quick defeat, but alas I was too determined to allow my injuries to get the best of me.

"Carter, oh my gosh are you alright! What the hell was going through your mind to cause you to do that. Don't you know how much danger you just put yourself in!" My father angrily blurted out, before he crouched down to my level on the floor.

I tried to speak up, but the minute I shifted my body weight, I cried out in more pain from all the burning sensations on my skin that was quickly spreading to my side.

My mother joined my father right next to me with tears swelling up in her eyes. She too couldn't find her voice, probably due to the complete shock I had just put her in. All she managed to do was grab my hand and then reach out to my father as he rubbed her back trying to sooth her worried state.

After I got into a more comfortable position that I could bear on the floor, I could finally speak up.

"Dad, what are you doing? They literally just left. You could have gotten them" I announced, my voice straining every other word.

He scoffed at my statement before replying: "Carter, you know I couldn't go after whoever that was. Yes, I am extremely mad they had the audacity to bring harm to our family, but there was no way I could pursue them when my daughter was just targeted and injured by a flamethrower of all things!" he retaliated back.

Suddenly, we were interrupted by the staggered entrance of Shaggy and Scooby, who apparently retreated after discovering the attacker and hid in the meat freezer during the whole ordeal. The concern in their expressions appeared on their faces once taking a first glimpse at the burnt scene around them, and then they became even more overcome with panic by the sight of me, as they looked past the circle of my parents and grandparents around me.

"Like, Carter what happened? Are you okay?" Shaggy distressingly chimed in, causing my parents to pan their attention over to him.

I'm kind of surprised that none of my parents were a tad taken aback by their presence, as they brushed the matter of people from their past popping up randomly again and suggested that I be immediately taken to the hospital.

The last thing I remembered before soon blacking out was being carefully lifted up in my father's arms and I was out before I could even respond back to Shaggy.

The sound of repetitive beeping from the monitor caused me to wake, and that's exactly when I had figured out that I was in a hospital room. Taking some time to look around, I saw a bouquet of flowers from my grandparents on the table with a get well soon balloon tethered to the vase. I found it comforting to discover my parents asleep while leaning on each other huddled up on what seemed to be some quite uncomfortable wooden chairs. Their sleeping state caused me to glimpse at the analog clock on my bedside table which read 9pm. I smiled softly after figuring out that they had probably been by my side and worrying about me for three hours as I was in my unconscious state.

I shifted my position in the bed and sat up straight after hearing a knock upon our hospital room door. This alarming noise caused both my mom and dad to awaken from their peaceful slumber as well.

My parents' faces lit up once they saw me awake, but the knocking persisted, so my father got up and answered it, expecting for some nurse or doctor to appear in the doorway.

To his surprise; however, it was none other than Shaggy and Scooby who awaited in the hall.

My father must have been too groggy to be phased by this late and unexpected visit, but he still welcomed them into our room.

"Like, sorry for the sudden intrusion Freddie, but we couldn't have our minds at ease after seeing how banged up Carter was after that wild scene, man. We just had to see how she and you guys were doing after all of that." He uneasily said as he stroked Scoob on the head.

"Oh guys, it's no inconvenience at all. It's actually sweet how worried you were. Thanks for stopping by" my mother commented as she got up from her seat.

"Yeah, thanks you guys for stopping by" I smiled, but quickly retracted it from the shooting pain I felt in my arm.

My mother, alarmed by my painful display, rushed to my side and then ordered my father to go fetch a doctor.

As he exited the room, my mother began to explain the situation to me: "Oh Carter, thank God, you're finally awake, we were so afraid!" she exclaimed, as she pushed my ever so unruly hair behind my ear.

"Yeah, what the heck happened to me? My recollection of today is rather foggy" I admitted, as my head fell back into the softness of my pillow.

Yet again, we were interrupted, but this time it was by a doctor dressed in scrubs followed by my father, whom looked a bit out of breath by his quest to fulfill my mother's request.

"Miss Jones! I'm glad to see you awake and well. You've had quite the day, haven't you?" He explained, as he reached out to shake my one uninjured hand.

He introduced himself as Dr. Pierce and informed me that I had been treated for some major burns on the left half of my body and I was sent into shock after the traumatic experience that I endured, causing me to pass out. He said some other technical medical jargon that I didn't understand, but the main thing I learned from his talk was that I could be released as soon as after three days spent in the hospital, so that was some good news.

Shaggy and Scooby stood awkwardly in the corner of the room while that whole conversation was going on, but thankfully Dr. Pierce left soon after he had checked on my current status, allowing us to catch up some more.

"Like, major burns, that sounds rough. I'm so sorry about that Carter" Shaggy said solemnly, scratching his chin stubble as he approached.

Scoob just simply nodded and came towards me as well. It was so nice to be surrounded by my parents and friends, even though the circumstance could have been better, but I'll take what I can get. As I cherished this moment, a hint of orange had caught my eye from just outside the hall.

I blinked a couple of times before realizing that V was leaning outside my doorway holding a gift bag in her hand.

"V? Is that really you?" I inquired, causing the four others in my room to turn around simultaneously in shock.

She smirked and entered the room, as she sat the brightly colored bag on the table.

"I'm sorry I'm late, but I wasn't alerted of your guys' incident until later, and once I arrived at the scene and had heard from your grandparents what had happened to you; I came here right away. The case can wait" she promptly stated as she too could feel the tension in the room from the staggering awkwardness as all of Mystery Incorporated had been reunited again.

"Well, thanks for coming. It means a lot" I happily replied, smiling at her. "Also, speaking of the case. I think I may have some insight on it" I mentioned to not just her, but to everyone surrounding me.

"And what might that be? I thought we told you to stay away from all of that, Carter. Things like that lead to situations just like this, and I can't afford to see you getting hurt again" my father passionately revealed.

"Well, since all of Mystery Inc is here now, I thought it would be appropriate to share that after researching I may have discovered that this person is purposely targeting its members and their affiliates" I cautiously admitted, unsure of the forthcoming responses.

I saw both V and Shaggy freeze up with gaping expressions after I shared my revelation.

"And yes, I have known about Mystery Inc for quite some time. They actually told me" I pointed out to my parents, after I concluded that was the reason behind both of their confusement.

"Oh, like, man I'm so glad you told her. Because I didn't know how much longer I could go without letting that one slip after I saw you Daph that day" Shaggy announced rather