The Mystery Machine had rolled into a small, somewhat sleepy, seaside town, and soon found claims of a strange curse being muttered among some of the people milling around. Fred had naturally instructed everyone to split up right away and look for clues for a few hours. However, Daphne had decided that instead, she would rook for rays. She hadn't paid much attention to the curse story when they'd heard it.

"It's all been mysteries, and curses, and UFOs and other stuff that turned out to be a janitor or someone trying to scare people off a farm or something for weeks. I deserve a little rest." She told herself as she went down to the beach, in bikini, shades, and sandals.

A little sun cream, a towel on the sand, and soon enough, she was relaxing in the warm glow. The beach was relatively empty, she noted, wondering if that was part of the curse. Well, if that was the case she'd just need to wait ten minutes for some idiot in a white sheet to pretend to be a ghost or something, Fred would show up, Scooby and Shaggy would be chased by the "ghost" for half an hour, Velma would figure it out, and she could come back to finish sunbathing. If it wasn't, well, maybe Scooby and Shaggy.

An hour passed. No sign of a curse. She was tanning nicely, but felt maybe it was time for a little swim to cool off. Heading for the surf, she walked into the warm water, and began her swim. Five peaceful minutes in the sea were interrupted as a woman began shouting at her.

"Hey! Don't swim there!"

Daphne sighed. So the curse was the water.  The woman ran towards her as she made her way back ashore. However the woman paused.

"Oh, no, wait. Sorry. I forgot."

"Forgot what?" Daphne shouted back.

"Well, there had been Jellyfish in the water last week but the shoal left a few days ago. We had no swimming signs up but they took them down this morning. Sorry."

Daphne sighed, but thanked the woman anyway for being helpful. The woman did seem to be muttering something about paper as she left, though. Daphne thought no more of it, enjoying the time she had left.

***

The gang had decided to meet at the hotel in the town, learning they were the only tourists there. The catering was self-serve, and all you could eat, to the delight of Scooby and Shaggy.

"Well, gang, we didn't have any luck finding out about the curse, and people seemed really reluctant to talk about it directly. Velma, did you check the library to read the local papers?" Fred asked.

"I did, Fred. But a lot of them had pages missing. The librarian claimed her wife took them for the crosswords or for vouchers for the Wal-Mart in the city... But I think he was hiding something."

"What about you, Shaggy?"

"Uh, like, nothing." Shaggy said, briefly glancing up from the massive spread of food he had taken from the buffet.

"Daphne?"

"Nothing. Just that there used to be Jellyfish at the beach." She replied.

"Well, we're going to have to investigate more. This is a real mystery."

Daphne didn't think it was, but had already made plans to head for the beach.

***

She had decided though, to enjoy a good long soak in the bath that night. She was just about to slide into the water having filled it up, only for a knock at the door. Grumbling, she wrapped herself in a towel and made her way to the door.

"Just to let you know, miss, don't use the bath..."

Oh good, maybe some lead to let Fred waste his time tomorrow and let her hit the beach. Hopefully the shower was okay.

"...Without checking the hot water. The boiler's broken so it's comin' out scaldin' hot. Make sure you check the bath's not gonna cook you."

"Oh. Okay, your wife had warned me about that." Daphne said, recalling what she had been told before she had run the bath. The owner scratched his head.

"She did? Oh, okay. Have a good night, ma'am."

She closed the door, and grumbling still, Daphne made her way back to her bath. Which was now almost a little too cold.

***

Daphne had snuck down to the beach again, only Velma having noticed her tan the day before. And again, she simply relaxed. She was just coming back in after a swim when she felt a strange sensation, but thought nothing of it.

Again, no leads at the hotel. Nothing of it.

Running another bath. No interruptions. Nothing of it.

She let herself fall asleep in the tub, and woke up in slightly cold water. Thinking nothing of it, she was about to stand up, when she realised a problem.

Her legs seemed to be stuck together, and were turning green and scaly. She found herself transfixed in surprise, watching her legs merge into a distinct tail. Her feet flattened into a fin, and the scaly tail spread up her body, until all below her waist was that of a fish. She was a mermaid. But how?

"Wait, no. This is a dream or something. There's no curse at all, and it had nothing to do with becoming a mermaid in the bath." She told herself.

Then came a knock at the door.

"Daphne? It's Velma. Were you swimming today?"

Daphne tried to reply, but found herself tongue tied. Still unsure if this was a dream or not she tried to stand, and then found her tail flopping her face first into the floor. She must have made a noise doing so, for Velma simply walked in to see the half-fish Daphne trying to crawl towards the door.

"Oh. I should have expected that..." Velma sighed, as familiar with this as Daphne, who was now aware it wasn't a dream, but wondered why she couldn't talk just now.

***

It turned out she was just too confused to do so, and sitting in the dining room with a sheepish looking man in a Navy uniform, the truth emerged.

"We'd developed the chemical to try and clean our ships easier, but it had some strange side effects." The Navy man admitted.

"So you covered it up and dumped all of it into the water, causing people to turn into mermaids and making everyone in town feel cursed!" Fred said triumphantly.

"No, Fred. The hotel owner told me the curse was actually the Jellyfish shoals that moved in at this time of year. The local paper takes days to tell everyone they've moved on."

"Oh. So what happened with the chemical?" Fred pondered.

"A truck carrying it to be disposed of had an accident and spilled barrels into the sea yesterday. We'd thought telling the local newspaper about it would have had everyone close the beaches off before it washed ashore, but it seems one of the barrels managed to stay mostly intact and floated here. It also seems the newspapers are unreliable so I came to tell everyone here the water was unsafe."

"So... Is this permanent?" Daphne asked, her head barely absorbing all the facts as she stared at her fishy lower body.

"Oh, no. The accident that we had that made us scrap the chemical turned three guys into Mermen but they were back to normal after a few days, and that was a full concentrated dose. They seemed to go off tuna for a while though..." The man from the Navy noted.

"So, Daphne will turn back to normal?" Fred noted.

"Yup. So long as she doesn't go swimming in the seafront again for the next couple of days she ought to have legs again."

The Navy man soon left, leaving the gang with their half-fish friend.

"Well, gang, another mystery solved!" Fred said.

"Fred, there was no mystery." Daphne snapped.

"Yes there was. We didn't know what the curse was..."

As Fred rambled on, she swore that as soon as she had legs again she was going to kick him...