"Jeepers Freddie that's the fifth clothes shop where all the clothes have just vanished overnight, this is really causing problems for everyone" said Daphne as she looked out of the van at yet another clothing shop with a 'Closed – Clothes Missing' sign in the window.

"Can't say I've had any problems" said Velma smugly and then proceeded to ignore Daphne's icy stare.

"Like me neither" said Shaggy.

"Nobody asked you two" said Daphne who then turned to face the front muttering something about the stylistically challenged.

"Anyway the Coolsville Chamber of Commerce have asked us to investigate" said Fred

"Well I don't think this should be too bad a case, like unless it's due to a giant moth" Shaggy laughed nervously.

"Reah Rothra" said Scooby.

"I think people would have noticed Shag" said Velma turning round to give the pair a reassuring smile "Besides moths are only tiny."

"Like OK if you say so Velma" replied Shaggy, not entirely convinced by her reassurances.

For the next few days the gang combed the shopping malls and clothes stores of Coolsville for clues. There were a few discernable patterns; all the shops catered to the middle- to high-end part of the clothing market, all had good security systems and no alarms were activated. There were a few obvious suspects, a new outdoors clothing store and a motorcycle accessories shop were unaffected but there was no evidence to link either of them to the disappearing clothes. Shaggy's giant moth theory briefly gained some traction the next day when a pile of what appeared to be grey scales were found outside the most recently affected store. There were also some unsubstantiated rumours going round that a giant moth had been sighted near the store the night the clothes went missing. The gang hurried over, this was the first bit of physical evidence they had found so far, they parked the van outside and piled out.

Daphne fell to her knees when she saw the affected store "No! Not Teeny-Tiny Hats. Noooooooo!" she cried pounding her fists on the floor in despair and frustration "No, no, nooooo why, why, why, why did this happen?"

"Who are they" said Fred above Daphne's lamentations.

"They make tiny hats that cost a lot of money and serve no hat related functions what so ever" said Velma.

"Velma, they are elegant fashionable creations, not everything has to be functional" said Daphne looking up.

"You might as well just glue a bagel to your head and be done with it" muttered Velma.

"Keep that up and I'll glue a whole bag of bagels to your head then let Scooby loose on you" said Daphne standing up and pointing her finger at Velma.

"Ream rheese rand ralmon?" said Scooby.

"That place would change hundreds of dollars for a hat like that" retorted Velma.

"Or perhaps I'll use pastrami and mustard then let Shaggy loose on you" said Daphne, Velma drew breath ready to reply but before she could a mischievous grin crept over Daphne's face "maybe even with some avocado and prawns and let that guy you keep meeting up with for coffee at the bookshop loose on you, Gustav isn't it?" Velma closed her mouth, her face going a deep red. Yes! Game, set and match to Miss Daphne Blake thought Daphne.

"Hey toasted bagels" said Fred looking at Velma.

"Mmmm I love toasted bagels, like do we have any?" said Shaggy coming in at the tail end of the conversation but was interrupted as Velma dragged the gang off to investigate. Sure enough down the side of the shop there could be found numerous mottled-grey triangles with rounded corners. From a distance they did look like scales from a moth's wing, but the gang all knew initial appearances could be deceptive.

"Man these things look and feel like Frisbees, hey they even have that little sticky-out bit of plastic like real Frisbees" said Shaggy as he picked one up and threw it to Scooby.

"Shaggy, you're a genius. This is just an odd shaped Frisbee" said Velma examining the object further "and I think I know where they came from look" Velma pointed to some boxes stacked up against the shop next door. It looked like a couple had fallen from the top and disgorged their contents when they hit the ground. The shop in question was a sports store with a line in niche items so triangular Frisbees would be right up there street. They went inside to check out the theory. The moment they were inside they realised their mistake as Fred's pupils dilated at the sight of all the unusual sports equipment. While Daphne talked to the store owner Shaggy, Scooby and Velma tried to prevent Fred from buying all the stuff in the store.

"Sorry about this" said Daphne as she watched the scene.

"Ah no worries miss we get this all the time. You should see what happens when a university team turn up; it's like kids in a candy store."

"Still we'd better get him out of here, thanks for the help."

With some effort they managed to get out of the store, Shaggy and Daphne put Fred's purchases into the van while Velma and Scooby dealt with Fred.

"I'm bored now" said Shaggy as they closed the back doors.

"I'm hungry now" said Velma brushing herself down.

"You two sure you're feeling OK?" said Daphne as she grabbed hold of Fred's ascot to stop him going back into the store "still it's getting close to dinner time."

"Yeah let's eat and review where we've got to then call it a night" said Velma.

A short time later and the gang were sitting in their favourite diner reviewing where they had got to so far.

"Well gang this looks more like a case the police should be dealing with not us" said Velma with a yawn then quickly turning her attention to her chilli and nachos before Shaggy and Scooby did.

"Man Scoob and I are more than happy with this case; it's just a regular…" Shaggy started to speak but was interrupted by a commotion from outside. A woman ran screaming into the diner, her clothes hanging off in strips. Breathless and terrified she clutched what remained of her clothes to herself as Daphne and a couple of the staff hurried to her aid.

"It, it attacked me, ate my clothing" she began to explain.

"What did?" said Fred getting up from his seat.

"That!" she shrieked pointing at the window, for a brief second they saw the form of a giant moth, over five feet tall, before it flapped away.

"Like I agree with Velma, this is a case for the regular police" said Shaggy and he and Scooby cowered under the table each clinging to one of Velma's legs. A few seconds later Velma smacked down a hand and a paw as they reached up for her food then grabbed a handful of their fries by way of compensation.

One they had eaten they piled in the van so Fred could drop them off home.

"Like the internet is our friend" said Shaggy looking up from his phone "I've found a site called 'giant moths over Coolsville.'"

"The clue is in the name, it's a website collating eyewitness reports of giant moths seen over Coolsville" said Velma looking over his shoulder.

"Rand rarries radverts ror rew rittza race."

"Ohhh and a new clothes store" said Daphne snatching the phone from Shaggy.

"Hey give it back we want to order some pizza" said Shaggy.

"No, I want to see what clothes they have" said Daphne curling up in a corner.

"Pizza first!"

"Clothes!"

"Pizza!"

"Clothes!"

Velma climbed in the front seat and sat next to Fred to avoid getting caught-up in the impending squabble.

"My money's on Shaggy and Scooby after I 'borrowed' some of their fries, the hunger will give them the edge" said Velma.

"Dunno there, Daphne's on a clothes hunt so it's not a done deal."

It was now late in the evening and Velma was trying to settle in for the night. Having to wolf down her food to keep it from Shaggy and Scooby was proving to have been a bad idea. She'd just spent some time chatting on the phone and was now lying in bed listening to the local radio station trying to fall asleep.

Coming up with news on the hour more reports of giant moths seen over Coolsville.

Just then her phone rang.

"Hi Gustav, you called to read me a bed-time story again?"

"Huh? What?"

"Sorry Freddie, I'm, I was just thinking about, emm, someone else."

"Vel, turn the TV on to the local news" she could tell Fred was excited about something.

"I don't have a TV remember, the pictures are better on the radio."

"Oh yeah, I'll record it and bring a copy over."

"Thanks, but what is 'it'?"

"Film footage of a giant moth seen near that hat store which was hit yesterday."

"So much for an early night, come on over Freddie I'll get the coffee going."

There were two things about Velma that the gang agreed on; firstly she was a bit eccentric; secondly she had the best sofa. It was a corner unit with large matching footstalls. When placed next to the sofa they transformed it into something the size of a double bed. It was so popular with the gang that Velma was saving up for another one, so she could use it. Fred and Velma were sitting on this with their legs outstretched, Velma with a wireless keyboard and track-pad on her lap. In front of them were a couple of large flat-panel monitors.

"It could still be a small moth up close mixed in with regular footage" said Fred

"Well we can test that by analysing and comparing the properties of various parts of the image with each other. Let's start with a statistical analysis of the noise then move onto look at JPEG artefacts" said Velma. After a bit of work they had determined that the image was not a composite of any kind.

"Well if it is a fake it's a very good fake" said Fred.

"Yes, so now we need to think about it being a model of some kind" Fred tried to follow the flurry of menus and mouse clicks that appeared on the screen as he spoke.

"Good plan Fred, this will just show the differences between all the frames of a two second segment, wires should stay in the same place" the progress bar began to crawl across the screen.

Fred yawned and lay down on the sofa "how long is this going to take?" his hand rubbed Velma's back.

"Just a minute or so" yawned Velma as she stretched her arms then lay down next to him.

Velma lived at a place of mutual inconvenience for the whole gang so they tended to meet at her place before heading off together. The next morning Daphne arrived at Velma's and was surprised to find the Mystery Machine there already so she checked her watch fearing she was late. Her eyebrows rose in surprise as she was early, Fred was usually the last to arrive as he didn't like hanging around. Her eyebrows rose even more when she noticed the ground underneath the van was dry, yet it had not long finished raining. This could only mean one thing. Velma half opened her eyes at the sound of the doorbell and wondered who could be calling at this time of night. Daphne tried the door and concluded that Velma must be up as the door wasn't fully locked; she used her key and breezed in to find Velma half sitting up on the sofa and looking quite groggy, Fred was asleep next to her.

"Say one word Daph and you'll be wearing bagels" muttered Velma as she saw Daphne's face. Daphne's eyes travelled to the giant computer monitor, frozen on it was a picture of a moth. Next to the sofa were two portable whiteboards on which were written various equations, diagrams and tables. Her suspicions were correct; Fred and Velma had had one of their all-night brainstorming sessions.

"We were working on some file footage of the moth" said Velma as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes then gave up and lay back down again.

"And?"

"I don't know, we fell asleep while Annie was processing the data" Annie or Annie Mac to give her full name, was the name of Velma's 'big' computer.

"Well I'll get breakfast for you both while you finish what you were doing."

"Intravenous caffeine please" muttered Fred.

"Same for me Daph" said Velma already half asleep.

"What a pair" she smiled to herself as she headed for the kitchen.

"Hey Vel, we should have more sleepovers where Daphne makes breakfast" said Fred.

"I heard that" said Daphne from the kitchen.

"Shhh Fred, Shaggy and Scooby will hear" said Velma stretching.

As if by magic Shaggy and Scooby arrived just as breakfast was ready. For some reason Shaggy's pockets were bulging. Velma finished off the analysis while they ate.

"Well do you want the long or short answer" said Velma.

"Short one please" said Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby, she gave a resigned sigh.

"You can tell me the long answer later" whispered Fred and she immediately perked up.

That's our Fred thought Shaggy, always ready to take one for the team.

"The image is not a composite, and it doesn't appear to be a model hung up by wires but there is this suspicious area under its tail and at the sides which looks a lot like air turbulence judging by the reference images I called up. If I had to make a judgement I'd say it's probably a model."

"Just probably?" said Shaggy

"I can't rule out the turbulence coming from the flapping of its wing but I would say that's highly unlikely."

"Can't you just pretend you know and say it's a model" pleaded Shaggy.

"That's not how science works Shag, but I think you can take the mothballs out of your pocket. You can put them in my jumper wardrobe if you like, they'll be safe there."

"Like OK Velma, thanks" Shaggy got up and walked into Velma's bedroom and opened the wardrobe. Velma's jumper wardrobe held pride-of-place in her bedroom; it was made of antique oak, build like a tank and almost as heavy. Inside there was a space to hang-up her jumpers and little shelves to hold her more special jumpers, each of these had a little label under it. Shaggy opened the door just stared at what he saw "Like, it's already full of mothballs."

"I did only say probably a model" said Velma sheepishly. A few seconds later, sans mothballs, Shaggy emerged from Velma's bedroom.

"I'm sure your stuff is safe Vel, right guys ready to set off?" said Fred.

"Before we set-off we need to decide where we set-off too" said Daphne.

"Shag, check that web-site you found yesterday?" said Velma handing Shaggy the keyboard.

"Man look at this" said Shaggy.

"Multiple sources all say that the moths have been seen near the caves in Coolville Canyon Park" said Fred checking over various websites.

"Hmmmm" Velma paused and stared at the information "Something's wrong but I'm not sure what. Hang on a minute I'm going to give Annie something to do with this while we're gone, don't want to have you wasting time surfing the net now would we Annie?" Velma joked to herself as took they keyboard from Fred.

"Ri-ro, ri-ro rit's roff ro rork re ro"said Scooby as they headed out the door.

Daphne drove while Fred and Velma took a nap in the back, if she didn't let them sleep now, they'd be zombies for the rest of the day.

When they arrived at the caves the first hint that something was going on there was the rental vans parked outside, that and by the entrance there was a large running generator with cables leading into the cave.

"A clue perhaps?" said Fred as they walked towards the cave.

"Nah" Velma deadpanned as they stopped outside the entrance and peered in.