Author's note: Here's the third installment of my Coolsville Central series, folks!

As the title suggests, this story utilizes something skeleton-related.

One thing I will like to note is that many real-life locations depicted in my stories are fictionalized.

I don't own Scooby-Doo. Hanna-Barbara Productions and Warner Bros. does.

Chapter 1: Introduction and Prologue

September 8, 2008

It has been around a year since Coolsville was gripped by Mr. Hyde's destructive rampage and a close-call, during which the gang consisting of Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, Velma and Daphne discovered a key clue that led to the uncovering of Daggett Industries' sinister plot to ruin Blake Enterprises.

After the Hyde incident, the gang's parents each decided that they should build a treehouse to let the kids have something fun to keep their minds out of mystery-solving, which they did eventually.

By this point, Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne are now in their final year at Iwao Takamoto Middle School, attending Grade 8, while Sugie and Madelyn are in Grade 6 at their final year at West Dawsburg Elementary School.

As usual, the gang will hang out together after school at the Malt Shop for dessert, as well as study together either in the library or in their treehouse, discussing homework or other stuff most kids will often discuss about, such as their summer break or going to watch a movie.

However, the treehouse didn't fully served its purpose of keeping each of the gang's minds out of mystery-solving.

As residents of a city infested by monsters or other spooks, it is natural for the kids to feel that the monsters served a purpose of some sort: A purpose that doesn't make the city look good, as Coolsville is apparently the only city in the country that continues to have monster sightings on a regular, almost-daily basis.

With neither City Hall nor the badly crooked police department doing anything to address the city's monster problems, Coolsville was christened with a few new nicknames: "City of Monsters" and the "City of Mysteries."

During the time where the gang will hang out together, they often bring along some mystery books they had either borrowed from the library or had took from their homes.

At times where they hang out together, they will sometimes talk about the mystery books they were reading, as well as sharing each others opinion on what will they do as a detective when facing a difficult choice.

Fred was the person that had the most relentless feeling of getting his hands on a mystery, in part due to his being glued to the Mystery and Traps magazine every week.

In fact, he was the one that felt the most suspicious about the city's monster problems, feeling that they serve a purpose of covering up something fishy.

Velma had always find herself interested in solving mysteries. She was in fact a fan of Sherlock Holmes, and is always seen reading a Sherlock Holmes book such as A Study in Scarlet. Her ability to guess out what the famous detective will do next made her the most detective-like in the group.

Daphne was always skeptical of reports of monster sightings, and like her parents, she always believe that "There are no such thing as ghosts."

Whenever there are news of a monster sighting, she always wants to set off to investigate and prove to whoever reported the sighting that the monster or spook is a total fake.

While Shaggy gets pretty chicken-hearted on hearing about spooky legends or monster sightings, as the son of a police officer, he nevertheless had an excited feeling of getting his hands onto a mystery and find out the culprit of those monster appearances.

His father Sam will occasionally mentor him and Scooby on making observations and keeping a sharp eye for anything out of the ordinary, though the main purpose was for them to be able to defend themselves, especially growing up in a dangerous city like Coolsville.

So far, he had used that knowledge while reading his favourite detective comic books, being able to sight clues and deduce who the villain in that story is and the motive.

Speaking of Shaggy's father Sam, he carried on with his work as Assistant to the Director of the Detective Bureau of the Coolsville Police Department.

However, unlike the past year, Sam hasn't been feeling happy about his work, particularly since with Harewood's promotion this past spring, he is now working with a new Director of the Detective Bureau that, well, doesn't exactly share his dynamic with Harewood.

The new Director of the Detective Bureau is filled by Deputy Chief Jason Poilievre "J.P." Miller, who Sam had a rather strained working relationship with.

As a matter a fact, Miller was the Internal Affairs investigator who investigated his actions in the Incident of 1985, when he shot his corrupt former training officer and her husband in self defence after catching them illegally raiding a harbour warehouse and stealing cargo.

After the investigation, Miller initially recommended that Sam be dismissed, though a conferring with then-Captain Strickland lead him to instead recommend that Sam be transferred to New York.

When he was transferred back to Coolsville in 2001, Sam received a greeting from Miller, by then, as inspector, the Assistant to the Director of Internal Affairs.

Miller was warm in welcoming Sam back to Coolsville, although he hinted that he will be keeping a close eye on his actions.

Sam has long suspected that Miller was also dirty like Strickland, though like Gosnell, Miller was smart enough to cover his tracks.

While Miller wasn't aggressive like Gosnell, Sam has learned to deal with the man the same way he will typically use when dealing with Gosnell.

With Deputy Chief Derek Harewood now promoted to Assistant Chief, he's now the Director of Special Operations with a new office at another floor.

Meanwhile, the financial crisis has cast a dark shadow over the upcoming November presidential election, and with the presidential primaries draw to a close, now comes the campaigning and debates.

As Sam read the newspaper at home that morning, he noted an article where a Democrat congressman from Metropolis raising eyebrows with his publishing of an editorial on the Daily Planet, calling for Americans to back the Democrat presidential ticket and slamming the Republican vice presidential candidate as a fraud.

"Politics sure are getting way out of hand." He sighed to himself. "Can't say that I'm surprised."

He then read another article, where it reported that the Democrats have been vocal in their criticism of the current president, particularly with the ongoing war in Iraq and the financial crisis.

"Like father like son." Sam thought to himself with regards to the president. "Dragging us into another needless war in the Middle East. Can't say I'm surprised that there are braindead people who wants our troops to stay there."

The war in Iraq struck a personal tone to Sam. After all, he was deployed to take part in the Gulf War in 1991, during the time when the current president's father was the president.

In spite of his tough on crime stance stemming from his crusade to weed out corruption in Coolsville, Sam has found himself sympathizing with liberal political views, especially with regards to foreign policy, not that he discussed frequently with family or friends.

Shrugging about the recent events, Sam flipped through a few more pages before reaching the international news.

He arched his eyebrows when he read that the day before north of the border, the Prime Minister of Canada has advised the Governor General to dissolve the Parliament of Canada and call an election, to be held in mid-October.

Reading on, he noted that all 308 seats in the House of Commons of Canada and all 120 seats in the Senate of Canada will be up for grabs in this snap election, which can be contrasted to all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats of the U.S. Senate being up for grabs.

"I guess Canada doesn't do staggered elections." Sam thought to himself.

Under Canada's electoral system, members of the House of Commons are elected though instant runoff voting while Canadian senators are elected through three different classes.

The first category of senators represents the ten provinces, three territories and the Canadian Capital Territory, where each province is represented by six senators, each territory represented by three and the CCT represented by two, with the 71 senators elected through single transferable vote.

The second category of senators, at 39, are elected nation-wide through a ranked ballot form of proportional representation, which basically is instant runoff voting, but with the political parties on the ballot rather than the individual candidates.

The remaining ten senators formed the third category of senators, where they are elected nation-wide by the indigenous population through single transferable vote.

He also read that Canada has stricter third-party financing rules, in addition to their federal elections commission having the power to draw electoral boundaries.

By contrast, while the Federal Electoral Commission has the authority to decide election rules, ultimately the power of redrawing congressional boundaries fall upon the individual states to decide, in which the majority of states have that delegated to their legislatures, in addition to lax third party financing rules.

The result is gerrymandering being a major issue in the U.S., especially with the incumbents use the advantage to disfranchise voters from voting for their opponents, in addition to what many electoral reformers refer to as "unlimited bribing in politics".

Also, in both the House and the Senate, members are still elected through the traditional first-past-the-post system, which pretty much results in the country's politics largely dominated by the Democrats and Republicans, while north of the border, additional third parties have been gaining ground.

"Canada's democracy sure is far better than ours." Sam thought to himself. "Together with their supreme court, which isn't a political football unlike ours. Oh, the irony when the country 'fighting' for democracy and human rights worldwide has serious issues with its own democracy."

He then put down the newspaper as he checked his watch before getting up from his chair to head to work.

September 26, 2008

That Friday late evening, about three weeks after the first day of school, the school sleeps as the staff members head home for the weekend. The only people left are the three janitors doing clean up in the school.

At around 10 at night, the three janitors had finished their cleaning and were preparing to head home and call it a night.

As the trio gathered at the main entrance, one of the janitors said, "Well guys, I'm just going to go down to lock the storage room door down at the gym and then we'll clock out."

"Good idea, Hank." One of the other two janitors replied.

The storage room door at the gym was unlocked during the entire evening so the janitors could get their cleaning supplies and equipment.

As Hank made his way down to the gym alone, he didn't notice a figure was watching him descending down the stairs in the dark shadows.

Meanwhile, one of the other two janitors said, "Jed, I think I'm going to go use the washroom for a leak for a sec."

"Sure Jake, just don't take too long." Jed replied.

Several minutes later, Hank had returned from the gym. He had an odd look on his face.

"What's the matter?" Jed asked.

"I don't know why I felt like someone was watching me. Did either you or Jake followed me?"

"No. Jake said he had to go use the washroom, so I don't know about him." Jed replied.

"Speaking of Jake, when did he left?"

"A few minutes after you went down the stairs. In the meantime, what is taking him so long?"

"I have no idea. Might have something to do with his stomach."

"He said he had to go take a leak, and no guy takes a leak for several minutes."

"Well, we better go check the washroom, then."

There was only one washroom opened for the night-shift janitors in the entire school building, and neither of the men have the washroom keys, nor have the knowledge to pick locks.

Soon, the two men arrived at the washroom and entered.

"Jake?" Hank called out. There was no response.

"Anybody there? Hello?" Jed called out. Turning to Hank, he added, "That's strange. Jake will never leave to use the washroom and then never come back."

As the duo look around, Hank's eyes caught onto a small note on one of the stalls.

"Hey Jed, I found something." He said.

Immediately, Jed went over and picked up the note. It read:

"To the meddlers that are still working at this school:

Back off from the school's property, or the Skeleton Men will make you disappear!

Signed, the Skeleton Men"

Soon, Jed found the flashlight Jake was using. Jake was nowhere to be seen.

"Nuts. That legend about the Skeleton Men may be true, after all!" Hank remarked as Jed recovered Jake's flashlight after the fruitless search for Jake.

What will happen next? Stay tuned, and please read and review!