It was a rare quiet time for the gang, and for once the Mystery Machine wasn't being used to drive Mystery Inc. around finding mysterious and supernatural hoaxes. Instead, it had brought the gang to the Coolsville Mall to buy supplies. This mostly consisted of Velma heading for the book store, Scooby and Shaggy heading for the grocery store, and Freddie and Daphne simply wandering around. Daphne had been glancing over a cosmetics stall when the owner spoke to her.

"I can't help but notice you have wonderful skin, my dear." The woman said. She was a middle-aged woman with black hair tied in a bun.

"Thank you..." Daphne said, somewhat taken aback by this compliment.

The woman and Daphne had a short conversation, the owner asking about Daphne's preferred mosturiser. Daphne could see it was being steered towards trying to sell her something, but if it was a decent product...

"I wonder if I can convince you to try our latest product... It's a new skin lotion. Fabricant de Serpents. It uses all-natural ingredients to gently moisturize and exfoliate your skin. You'll notice the difference after just one application."

"Is there a sample to try it?" Daphne asked. The woman nodded, producing a bottle, Daphne applied a small amount and almost right away after rubbing it in felt the difference. Her skin began to feel much softer. She was impressed.

"Wow. How much is it?"

"Only $4.99 a bottle. It works much better if you leave it for a minute then wash it off with a gentle soap."

Daphne bought two bottles, and soon met up with the rest of the gang as they finished.

***

The stall owner watched her target leave, trying to hide her excitement. Her plan was finally taking shape and her first test subject was on a road to ruin. First, she would break apart the local meddelers, those four kids and their dog. She had learned how many others had their own schemes foiled by the interference of this roving band of slueths,  and she was planning to take them into account. What would soon happen to Daphne Blake would tear the group apart, clearing the way for the full plan.

Her real name was Mira, and she had long hated the vanity she saw in young women today. She hated how sickeningly sappy some young couples could be today. She wanted to make everyone as sickened by them as she was, and her modified cosmetics would soon have that done. As long as her test subject worked well enough, she'd have her other modified cosmetics in stores in time for Valentine's Day, the perfect time to ruin vanity and break up those sickening lovey-dovey couples.

***

Daphne had found the cream a refreshing change, but after three days of use, when she woke one morning, her skin felt tight. Applying the lotion seemed to make it feel better, and she had thought nothing of it until the next morning.

"Ah... My skin feels really tight again..." she said as she awoke.

Heading into the bathroom wearing her night dress, she saw the bottle of lotion and had squirted some onto her fingers before she had looked in the mirror. She was about to apply it when she saw her reflection. For a moment, she froze in shock, before her body caught up with her mind and she screamed.

A moment later, Fred and Velma were in the door, and from the sound of the clattering feet heading downstairs, Shaggy and Scooby were looking for somewhere to hide.

"Daphne? What's..." Fred began, taking a look at his friend. Velma gasped beside him.

Daphne stood, still staring at her reflection. Or rather, her skin in the reflection. Instead of her usual smooth skin, she had a series of yellow-green scaly marks growing around her neck.

"...I don't think jinkies covers this one..." Velma eventually said. Daphne and Fred however were too busy staring in shock to hear her.


***

Velma had eventually broken the stunned pair out of their funk , and dragged Shaggy and Scooby out from their hiding place. The five now sat as Velma examined Daphne's altered skin.

"It's like a snake's skin." Velma said.

"My skin had felt tight yesterday... I thought maybe it was just because I'd forgotten to put the lotion on the night before..." Daphne said softly. She stared at her hands, noting that the skin there was forming into scales as well, but still a flesh-colour. Much of her body was tingling.

"Maybe it was an allergic reaction to the lotion?" Shaggy suggested. Velma meanwhile was looking at Daphne's eyes.

"I don't think it's just her skin that's being affected." Velma said.

Daphne quickly grabbed a mirror and saw for herself. The pupils of her eyes were becoming less of a circle and more of a slit. More like a snake.

"Daphne, can you stick out your tounge?"

She complied. It looked human, but was clearly split partially at the end, becoming forked.

"It's a snake's tongue, isn't it?" Daphne said, thinking this was all a nightmare. She looked at her legs, noting that along the side of her thighs she had the same fleshy scales developing as on her hands.

"Not yet. But I think we need to test that lotion out, and check to see what other changes might be happening. "

"And figure out the scale of the problem?" Shaggy added. No one found it funny.

***

"Hmm, nothing. The equipment I have here can't spot anything unusual in the lotion..." Velma said. Daphne sighed.

The two girls, mindful of the fact Shaggy would put his foot in his mouth again, and also needing some privacy to propely see how far Daphne had changed, were in the lab. Daphne's skin-scales on her hands had already begun to turn a sickly yellow-green, and more flesh-coloured scales were developing.

"I think you should get dressed, we might need to take this to an expert..."

"I'm not going anywhere!" Daphne said.

"Okay, I'll take it myself to the University and ask a Professor to take a look. You can wait here."

"Don't tell him what really happened. Tell him it caused a rash or something..."

"But Daphne, we might be able to find out what happened and cure it easier if we're truthful..."

"Tell him it was a rash!" Daphne almost screamed. Velma nodded.

"Okay. I'll try to be quick..."

As Velma left, Daphne waited back with the boys. She noticed that they seemed intent on looking everywhere but at her, Fred especially...

***

As it turned out, the Profesor Velma spoke to was a female.  She had consulted a database to check an unknown chemical she had found, and it held a possible answer.

"There's an ingredient here that isn't listed according to the bottle. I looked it up and it says It's a snake venom." The Professor said.

"Snake venom?"

"Yes, it's from a fairly common grass snake in Uruguay. It's not very poisonous, but it actually toughens skin when used on its own so it's used to help make leather and it's marketed to people who like sewing."

"Ah, to toughen their fingers so it's harder for them to stab themselves?"

"Right. But people can have bad allergic reactions to it and it's not approved for import or sale here in America, so to put it in this without warning it's there is pretty dangerous and illegal. Since your friend had the reaction to it, I advise you get rid of all this lotion and track down whoever sold it. Some people can have reactions worse than a rash."

"Thanks professor... Er, what kind of worse reactions?"

"The database doesn't say I'm afraid."

***

"No way!" Daphne said.

Velma had been away for an hour and a half. In that time, Daphne's legs now had snake scales, and her fingernails were elongating. Her eyes were even more slitlike, and the split in her tongue had grown.

"We need to try and find this woman though. You're the only one who saw her." Velma pleaded.

"I'm not going out!"

"You can hide with a scarf and sunglasses. And wear jeans or something. No one'll need to see your scales..." Fred said.

"You mean you won't have to look at me?" Daphne snapped.

"We need to do this to help you. Maybe she can explain what really happened."

The gang soon drove back to the mall, Daphne's changes hidden from public view.

"Let's split up, Ga... Oh, no, wait..." Fred had begun on instinct, before he realised that only Daphne could recognise the woman.

The five walked around, trying to find the woman and her stall. Daphne was mindful that even in diguise, people were staring at her.

"You're sure she was here?" Velma asked. The stall was empty.

"Maybe we can ask around, see if anyone saw her?" Fred suggested.

"I think we should start at that cookie store over there!" Shaggy (Or rather, his stomach) suggested.

"Ri ragree!" Scooby chimed in, briefly ending his Silent Bob impersonation.

The gang went over. The gang asked. Or rather, Fred and Velma did, Daphne tried to avoid being noticed and Scooby and Shaggy simply drooled over the cookies. Daphne did note that Fred was averting his gaze at her even if she was hidden behind her scarf and sunglasses.

"The stall across the way? Woman who owned it's not been here for a few days. Guess she didn't do too well." The man behind the counter said.

"Mmm, the smell of these cookies is making me so hungry..." Shaggy said dreamily. Daphne froze. She realised she couldn't smell them at all...

"...Velma, I've got to go. Come with me." She said.

"What? Go where?"

Daphne pointed at the nearby toilets, and virtually dragged Velma with her. They were empty. Daphne quickly removed the scarf she was hiding her lower face with.

"What does this toilet smell like?" Daphne said.

"Um... A toilet. A clean one. Bleach... Soap... What's wrong?"

Daphne looked in the mirror. Her nose was flattening, and she was sure she couldn't smell anything. She pumped liquid soap out, and sniffed it. Nothing.

"What about this soap?"

"It's kind of lavender. What's this about?"

"I can't smell anything!" Daphne said, and then realised something. As she spoke, she could kind of smell the lavender... The bleachy scent...

And Velma was looking at her. She looked in the mirror and stuck out her tongue. It was longer, and now properly forked.

"I've really got a snake's tongue.." Daphne said, stunned.

***

The gang were unaware that the woman they wanted to find, had found them first. Mira had been following them all the way, and had seen the nervous way Daphne was trying to hide herself.  When Daphne dragged Velma to the toilets, she had stood outside and heard the conversation through the door, delighted by the effect.  But she had to get out of the mall unless she was seen. She walked straight past the dopey hairball, the moronic looking blond... Oh, and the dog too. None of the three even had a clue. And no one would.

She returned to her home, and went to her basement. Here, she had stored her chemicals. Her specially-modified lotions and skin creams. Shepicked up one bottle.

"Such a little bottle, but such power. It's already making a snake of that vain little slueth, and it'll make more in time for valentines day." She cackled.

The snakes wouldn't be the most common, she would distrubute very little of the snake-making lotions if her other plans worked. She planned, once Mystery Inc. were eliminated as a threat, to test them all out. Her lotion that would cause hair growth. The lotion that caused hair loss. The lotion that caused skin disorders. The lotion that caused bad acne. She had felt her transforming lotions to be the most ambitious, and the snake-lotion to be the most simple. She had other transforming lotions too, but she wanted them to be rare, to make the horror all the greater for the unlucky vain fools who used it.

She imagined it. A valentines day disaster. Thousands of screaming idiotic vain women looking at theirselves in horror in mirrors around the country. Hundreds of unlucky fools transformed into snakes, dogs, frogs, all at random. Thousands of disgusted boyfriends and husbands. It was going to be delightful for her... If of course the rest of her transforming lotions worked as intended. And if Mystery Inc. really did break up.

She realised she should make sure. After all, their van wouldn't be hard to find. She just had to wait and watch the fireworks.

***

This latest change had been enough to spur Daphne into going back to the Professor with the truth. The woman was naturally shocked at first, but to Daphne's dismay, soon became strangely excited and had summoned a colleague, a male biologist, who reacted in a similar way. Velma had not destroyed the lotion yet, letting the two scientists test it again.

"I had heard a story about a woman who had a similar reaction in Canada to this venom. She'd bought it to sew, and washed her hands after. After a few days, she found her skin was getting really hard, and the story said she eventually turned into a snake. But it was in a supermarket tabloid, so I thought it was made up. After all, who honestly thinks they tell the truth?" The Biologist said.

He was aware that the whole Mystery Inc. gang was staring at him.

"Ah, right. Well, apart from you and some of my students?"

"What did you do with the lotion?" The Chemist asked.

Daphne explained. As luck had it, the same kind of soap she used in the morning was the kind the Chemistry professor had in her own washroom on campus, but they were sure that the type of soap probably wouldn't matter. The two then conducted another test, taking a sample of Daphne's skin by a scraping, and the same with Velma.

"I have a theory, but soap is mostly made of salts and fat. This chemical is widely used in Peru mostly, but there's no reports of cases there and it's washed off with soap... I think that the fluoride in the water here might be to blame. It reacts with the venom and the soap..."

Daphne was lost as the biologist explained, but Velma understood.

"So, you think the venom and soap react with the fluorine in the water?"

The biologist confirmed this, and after a few tests, determined instead that the soap and the chemical did react. The cells could be seen in a microscope changing very subtly when the two were used together, but the cells soon repaired themselves and returned to normal. The venom alone had little effect.

"It seems that just soap and the venom does nothing. But add fluroide..."

Fluoride solution was added, and the cells could be seen changing almost right away. They did not return to normal at all, the fluoride fuelling the reaction to a complete change.

"That was at a high concentration, but not so high as to be poisonous. Defiently a lot higher than in the drinking water. The soap and the lotion have low concentrations of the salt, but with a catalyst the low concentrations don't matter and the reaction is faster enough to cause lasting changes.  The low concentrations of eveything mean the changes were slow, on a cell by cell basis, but now they're happening across your whole body and converting you."

"Can it be cured?" Daphne said

"I'm not sure..." The Chemist said.

"Not Sssure?!" Daphne said. Everyone paused and stared at her for a moment, but Daphne noticed that Fred wasn't looking at her.

"...I jussst hissssed..." Sshe ssaid ssadly.

The Biologist had an idea

"There might be a cure. This databas says a plant  worked to cure the rashes caused by overusing just the venom. It's very similar to a plant that grows in the mountains. It's a random shot but if we had some of that plant maybe it could slow or reverse the process?" He said.

"Anything isss worth a ssshot." Daphne said

"We should go fetch it, but it grows in some difficult to reach places. We might need help."

"I'll go." Velma quickly said.

"I'll go with Velma and the Professors to find it." Fred volunteered, making Daphne's heart sink. He really was sickened by her now and he wanted any excuse to leave her behind.

***

It would apparently be a long drive to where the plant could be found, so Daphne was left in the Biologists lab with Scooby and Shaggy. This turned out to be a bad idea. Her change had progressed even further, and much of her skin was now scales. But any hope of sympathy from Scooby and Shaggy was wasted. Shaggy was completely oblivious towards her most of the time, but even Scooby seemed to be obviously avoiding her. He wasn't looking at her at all, and he was sitting as far away from her as possible.

"I'm famished, Scoob. I wonder if they've got a cafeteria around here?" Shaggy said, heading for the door. Daphne knew this wasn't deliberate, it was just Shaggy being Shaggy.

"Do you want anything, Daphne?" He asked. She shook her head. But after she was alone, her mind turned to the idea of food.

'What will I be able to eat? Will I be a real snake?! I'll have to eat mice and rats and things!'

She sighed, and as she did so, her tongue detected the scents of the room. Previously un-noticed, she tasted the scent of something in the room. Without thinking her snake eyes darted around the room, and before she realised it, she had strode over to a cage. She woke from her brief trance to see her hand on the cage door, and a puzzled looking white lab mouse staring up at her.

"What... am I doing?!" She asked herself in horror.

"Squeak?" The mouse asked.

Daphne had no answer for herself or the mouse. She was overcome with feelings of revulsion. She bolted from the room, not sure where she was going.

'It'll never work! This cure won't work! I'll be a monstrous freak for all my life! Everyone of my friends hates me now...'

The thoughts raced through her head as she ran, not caring anyone she saw would see her condition. Over and over she told herself this was it, her future. An unloved monstrous freak...

***

Parked up in her car, Mira smiled. To see how Daphne had changed already... Wonderful. She decided to try and follow. The snake looked too emotional to notice an elephant following her...

***

"What do you mean, you went to find something to eat and when you came back Daphne was gone and the lab mouse looked confused?" Fred shouted.

"I think he means he went to find something to eat and when he came back Daphne was gone and the lab mouse looked confused." Velma said.

"Gee, we're sorry Fred. We didn't think..." Shaggy said, but was cut off.

"But why? Why would you be so stupid? You know she's frightened by this so why did you leave her alone? Why did I leave her alone? We didn't think at all, did we..." Fred realised. He had a realisation.

"I'm going to find her." He said, and left the room. It took a few moments for even the two proferssors to realise it, but they soon did.

"He just took the lotion." The Biologist said.

"He just took the fluoride!" Velma gasped.

"He stole my soap!" The Chemist fumed.

All the others stared.

"It's nice soap!"

***

It was dawn. Daphne awoke, and looked down in sorrow. As she had run, she had grown tired, and she had realised other changes were happening. Her legs had begun to fuse together, tearing apart her clothes to clear obstructions. It wasn't a full tail yet, and walking was difficult, but she felt like it was better to wait until she could slither...

She was cold, but she expected that. She was probably cold-blooded already. After all, she was almost all snake now. But the sound she next heard would have frozen her blood if it wasn't already cold enough.

"Daphne?! Where are you?"

It was Fred! She scrabbled to try and hide, fearing the outcome of him seeing her transformed all this way... But it was too late. He was there.

"Daphne... I'm sorry. We haven't been very considerate..." he began.

"Go away!" She wailed.

"Daphne, please..."

"I'm a monster! Just leave me out here. I'll never be normal! I'll never be loved! You all hate me now, it's better you all just leave me alone!" She sobbed.

***

Mira had been hiding in the woods all night as well, and now here it came. She would flee. He would go back. They would argue. Blaming each other for being cruel to her. And then they would split...

...What was the blond carrying?

***

"I don't hate you, Daphne." Fred said.

"You're lying! You've just followed me here to... Why did you follow me?"

"Because I love you."

Daphne paused.

"...But I'm a monster now. You can't..."

"I told you I was following you because I love you. And if you think you're a monster now and that means no one can love you... Well, what about another monster then?" Fred said. Daphne noticed what he held. The lotion, soap, and a bottle of fluoride. The stuff that wouldn't be poisonous but would...

He poured them all on. Almost instantly, his skin was turning yellow and scaly.

"If the cure doesn't work, you won't be alone. I don't want you to be alone. I want us to be together. Whatever it takes." Fred said.

"No! No that isn't right at all!" someone yelled to interrupt. It was Mira. She stormed up.

"You fool! How can you be such a sappy fool?! She's a freak, you should hate her!"

"You..." Daphne hissed. Mira realised her mistake. The transforming girl stood up, baring long fangs...

"Uh..." Mira realised. She fled. Daphne tried to follow but her merging legs ruined her mobility. Fred meanwhile was well into his transformation. The two had to wait, unable to follow.

"Fred... Did you really mean all that?" Daphne eventually asked. He nodded

"Every word."

***

The others found them an hour later. The two had begun making their way back, both fully transformed. Their legs had become snake-like tails, but their upper bodies retained some human shape. They were closer to Nagas than true snakes, but they were recognisable by their hair and their clothing. Of course, their lower clothing was rags now, torn apart as the tails formed, but it was them.

"Fred? Did you turn yourself into a Naga to be with Daphne?!" Shaggy said, stunned.

"Yesss, he did. Isssn't that Ssssweet?" Daphne hiss-sighed.

"Well, yes, I guess. But the cure works. We tested it on the cells, it reverted them." Velma said.

The two nagas looked at each other.

"Onccce thisss isss over do you want to go see a movie?" Fred said. Daphne nodded.

Mystery Inc. had not broken apart. In fact, the bond between two members at least had grown stronger.

***

Meanwhile, someone's anger had also grown.

"Fool! How could he be so sickeningly romantic?! Literally! Loving a snake-freak and then turning himself into one!" Mira raged. She looked over her lotions.

"Oh, but I'll get them yet. There's more than one way to skin a snake..."

She looked over her notes, her plans for lotions not yet made to test. She looked at her lotions she had made. Ideas came to her mind, dozens of ways to get them back and out of the way.

"Yes, nothing will stop me once I'm rid of those meddling kids!"

She cackled again, confident she would have the last laugh...