Chapter 4

Hooves clapped against wooden floors, with a pair of heels clacking softer behind them. Hellboy looked back to the brunette and turtleneck clad teen, who was fairly far behind him.

"Jeez, you're slow. And who taught you how to run?" Hellboy called behind him, watching the girl run like she was afraid of having an asthma attack if she ran any faster. She was barely moving her arms, and only slightly kicking up her legs. Hellboy had to sigh, it was sort of pathetic for him to watch.

"It's hard when I'm trying not to let my glasses slide off my nose!" she protested, running up past him a little bit. In one single bound though, Hellboy was ahead again, following the shrieking of the pair of screams. The two rounded a corner, and Hellboy's run stopped to a slower jog. He looked about in confusion.

"Okay, I think we just past this way, I definitely remember that table. And that picture is the same. And…" Hellboy observed, pointing out the similarities of the new hallway. Which looked exactly like the old hallway to him. If he hadn't known any better he would've sworn this was a scrolling background that just looped over and over again.

The shrieks sounded again, and before either Hellboy or Velma could spring into action, two other teenagers came running toward them. The first was the redhead (that Liz had hit him for looking at), and the other was the muscular blonde leader (Mr. Point-Out-The-Obvious), as Hellboy called him to Abe. They didn't stop in time though, and the four of them crashed into a heap. And then frantically running from the other direction Hungry Man and Creepy Mutt, who also smashed into the dog pile, leaving all inside a tangled game of twister.

"Get offa me!" Hellboy yelled annoyed, shoving off the dog by its tail.

"Rey!" Scooby exclaimed, brushing himself off with his paws, "Ratch the rail".

"Yeah, like, how would you like it if he pulled your tail man?" Shaggy chimed in, untangling himself from the pile. Within moments, the others did the same.

"We just saw the phantom!" Freddy exclaimed, panting heavily.

"Like, so did we!" Shaggy exclaimed.

"Reah, rantom!"

"How come I didn't see any of this?" Hellboy wondered aloud. As always, he was ignored.

"Well gang, I have a plan to catch the phantom!" the blonde ascot man piped up. Hellboy just sort of raised an eyebrow, wondering how exactly that was going to work out. If it was anything like the observations the blonde had made earlier, they were in trouble. The plan was whispered among the group.

"I can't believe I'm bait," Hellboy grumbled, looking towards the constantly hungry hippy and his dog. "This bites."

"Oh Mister PHANTOM," Shaggy called loudly, only to be echoed by Scooby Doo, "Over HEE-RE!"

Hellboy stopped walking momentarily to bang his head against the wall.

That's right when the Phantom popped out. With a ghostly wail, he began chasing Scooby and Shaggy down the hallway. Out of nowhere, chase music started playing.

"That's weird…" Hellboy muttered to himself, right before chasing after the Phantom.

Our demonic hero heard a "Now!" from the blonde leader, and a large crash and bang. By the time he caught up, the phantom was caught in a big net along with the dog.

"Good work Scooby, you caught the phantom," Velma cried.

"Now it's time to unmask this phantom," Freddy said, as he pulled off the mask. In the suit was a creepy looking old man, who just grumbled as he was unmasked.

"Mr. Jenkins?!" the gang shouted in unison.

"… Who?" Hellboy asked, though the questioned was a bit delayed. How the heck did they know?

"That's right, Mr. Jenkins, the caretaker," the girl with glasses explained, "He didn't want to have the mansion torn down, so he dressed up as the phantom to scare people away. And he used speakers in the ventilation ducts to make the ghostly noises they heard."

Hellboy raised an eyebrow. When the heck did they figure this out?

"And I would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids," Mr. Jenkins grumbled.

"And Rooby-Rooby DOOOO!" the dog howled.

By this time Hellboy was gone, a few blocks outside, trying to hitchhike a ride. A blue roadster pulled up on the road. A strawberry blonde, teenage girl patted the seat next to her.

"Uh, Hi. I'm Nancy Drew," she chirped, "Do you need a ride?"

Hellboy nodded and climbed into the passenger seat. "I'm headed anywhere but here," he said, relieved to get away from the Fraud Squad.

"Sure thing, but I hope you don't mind if we stop somewhere first. A friend of my dad's called and said he was having weird accidents at his hotel and wanted me to investigate and…. Why are you hitting your head on the dashboard?" Nancy said.

With a final thump Hellboy rested his head against the dashboard.

"Kate. Owes. Me. Big."

Authors Note:

Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend for the inspiration to finish this story. I know it's short, but Scooby Doo episodes only run 20 minutes without commercials. Oh well. Enjoy, and Happy New Year.