Chapter Fifteen: Reunited and It Feels So…Slimy!

Chapter Fifteen: Reunited and It Feels So…Slimy!

J.G. Stantz was practically in heaven when he was around Vanessa. She brought out a side of him that he never knew existed – that affectionate, enchanting side he figured only came from Natalie Venkman. Stantz was a scientist, not a lover. Most of his time was spent studying theories on the supernatural. Then this wonderful woman came into his bookstore one sunny afternoon, told him how alluring he was, and asked if he would take her to dinner and movie.

Incredible how that wasn’t very long ago and now look at how far we’ve come, he thought as he drove his Volvo V70 down the block with Vanessa there by his side. “The perfect car to drive the perfect girl in,” he once said after owning it for a whole year.

“So where are we going to next, my sweet?” Vanessa asked him.

Jay smiled and answered, “It’s my surprise.”

“Oh, come now,” Vanessa remarked with a laugh. “Our relationship is supposed to be based on trust.”

“Yes, and I know you trust me long enough to keep this a surprise,” J.G. reversed, and the couple laughed happily. It was a nice thought to Jay, being a couple with Vanessa. When could he honestly say that he…?

HONK! HONK!

The Volvo came to a screeching halt as a monster of a traffic jam had built up a few or so blocks away from Times Square. It was right in front of Pizza Planet, and there were several NYPD personnel blocking off the area and trying to get everyone to their individual destinations as soon as possible.

“Love, what’s going on?” Vanessa asked J.G.

Jay shrugged his shoulders, looking over the fleet of cars in their path. It was then that he spotted some familiar figures, running out of an alley and into the restaurant, undetected by the police. One of them he closely noticed was drenched in some kind of green liquid…and an unforgettable device strapped to her back. Stantz’s eyes widened with a mixture of excitement and surprise. “Uh, baby? Could you stay here para uno momento?”

Vanessa watched him in confusion as he parked the Volvo and jumped out, heading straight towards Pizza Planet. J.G. made sure he was careful in not being detected by the authorities, who would’ve been sure to stop him the moment they spotted him. Stantz ducked and rolled between cars, being careful not to inhale the exhaust fumes while hiding behind them. The former Ghostbuster finally reached his destination, ducking into the shadows of the alley that the figures emerged from; he looked around the corner to see if there were any cops keeping an eye on the entranceway.

A large, heavy model of planet Earth suddenly crashed through the entrance and rolled into the path of the officers, forcing them to dodge out of the way. It was a crude and harmful distraction, but J.G. would take it if it meant getting into the restaurant unnoticed. He was just about to run out of the alleyway, until something snagged him from behind and held him back. Turning around to see what it was, he was all but surprised to see Christina Melnitz standing there and holding a Proton Pack.

“If you’re plannin’ on goin’ in there, you’re gonna need this,” she told him.

J.G. smiled as he took the Proton Pack from her and put it on, getting that sense of nostalgia again. “Thanks, Chris.” Fully equipped, he dashed around the corner and snuck inside the building, which had become a battleground in less than two minutes.

There his former teammates were, together again and squaring off against the same green, onion-headed ghost that they first busted back in the Tipton Hotel, along with four others in bowler hats and cloaks that he didn’t recognize. Along with Venkman, Spengler, and Zeddemore was the “rookie” from the bookstore, showing off the same impressive moves. He suddenly noticed one amateur mistake she was about to make as she came close to where Natalie fired.

Immediately, he screamed, “DON’T CROSS THE STREAMS!”

Their attention shifted to him at the exact moment he cried out, drawing focus away from the streams in the process. Moving away from the ghosts, the streams went near a set of cables that suspended a larger-than-life model of a space shuttle. The cables snapped and the model fell twenty feet towards the Ghostbusters, forcing them to duck for cover. The model crashed down on the play area, destroying all of the arcade games and the games of skill in one massive crash. While the Ghostbusters were distracted by the sudden destruction, the onion-head ghost and his friends disappeared from the area, phasing through the nearest wall with a series of cackles (and belches).

As soon as the chaos passed, the Ghostbusters emerged from their individual hiding spots, totally unscathed. Needless to say, they were shaken and upset. The team started to approach J.G., almost threateningly. Realizing the stupid mistake he made, a sheepish Jay uttered, “Sorry…my fault.”

Natalie moved more briskly than the others, and J.G. almost figured she was going to strike him as she raised her arm. She did the opposite instead: give him a big hug. “Oh, you big oaf! How could I ever be mad at you?”

J.G. smiled and chuckled nervously as she let him go. “Man! You really had me goin’ there! For a second, I thought you were gonna…” He stopped once he realized that the clean, pressed, and white suit that he wore for his date with Vanessa was covered in the green slime that Natalie was drenched in. “Hey!”

“What?” she said in mock innocence. “Can’t a girl show an old friend a little love?”

J.G. glared at her while Spengler approached with his P.K.E. Meter still in hand. “You came back just in time. We’ve got a serious problem here.”

“How so?” J.G. queried. “They look like the same Class 5 free-roaming vapors to me.”

“Only the P.K.E. is reading them as something higher…way higher,” Sean notified. “According to it, they’re in the same class as Vigo the Carpathian.”

“Really? Wow!” J.G. exclaimed with a bug-eyed expression on his face. “This sounds like a real breakthrough! An actual ‘ecto-upgrade’ of some type! This could be like the next stage in paranormal evolution!”

Witnessing this ridiculously geeky display from the two men, Natalie and Jacqueline both hung their heads and put their hands over them in frustration. Before it could’ve gone on any further, Jacqueline finally walked right up to them. “I hate to break up your little ‘fanatic moment,’ but if you boys can take a minute to focus on this situa—”

A loud crash emerged from upstairs, followed by the sound of a woman screaming. Quickly, the team headed in that direction, knowing their ghostly adversaries were terrorizing someone who couldn’t make it out of the building on time, and they had to get to her before it was too late. The moment that the team reached the second floor, which was the level reserved for staff only, they were caught by surprise of the way it was designed. The wallpapers were fashioned to resemble constellations with alien planets around them and the doors to the offices, bathrooms, and closets were automatic and designed to look like something out of Star Trek.

“Okay, whoever runs this restaurant chain needs to get a life,” Natalie criticized.

A growling noise emerged from the door straight ahead, which was labeled “manager/captain” and had the name “W. Brewster” printed above. Again, the scream was heard; but, this time, it confused the Ghostbusters rather than alarm them. Natalie grinned as she asked Jacqueline, “Isn’t that your boss’s office?”

“He’s not my boss,” Jacqueline clarified. “He’s just a client who I was working for tonight.”

“Well, hopefully, he won’t mind if I do this.” Natalie aimed her Proton Gun and fired a quick stream, blasting away the door.

Jacqueline and the others could barely believe she even had the nerve to do that, knowing the cost of damage. It wasn’t like the old days when they could do whatever they wanted to catch the ghosts and the city would pay for the property damage. They weren’t even supposed to have on their Proton Packs. It was pretty much a risky situation the team was taking, handling this situation like rogues.

The group watched cautiously as dark gray smoke emerged from the wreckage; just as it had cleared, the onion-headed ghost and the other four phantoms flew out without warning. The Ghostbusters opened fire in the hallway, trying their hardest to capture the fast-moving vapors; they proved to be quite a challenge, leaving the team hitting nothing but wall and ceiling at every blast.

“Man! What’ve they been juicin’ on?” Jacqueline yelled in annoyance.

Meanwhile, Natalie’s focus was solely on her old nemesis: the green, slimy spud that nearly killed her a while ago; between that and getting covered with slime, she had about enough of him. Although her extreme rage blinded her from the fact that one of the bowler hat phantoms approached from behind. Before she could even realize it, the vapor had grabbed the back of her shirt and hung it over her head.

“Hey! What the…?” The revolting specters began laughing insanely as Natalie continued firing her stream, while totally blind. As it came over the heads of her teammates, they instantly ducked, not wanting to get their faces melted off.

With the blinded Venkman trapping everyone in her mania, the onion-head ghost and his companions took the opportunity to escape. However, just as they flew towards the starry wall, Natalie’s protonic steam came in contact with one of the bowler hat ghosts, capturing him. J.G. soon took notice of this unintentional success and triumphantly shouted, “You got him! You’ve got him!”

“Awesome!” Natalie muffled beneath her shirt. “Wish I was there to see it!”

J.G. detached the ghost trap from his Proton Pack and rolled it beneath the captured ghost that had apparently been abandoned by his “friends.” “Just hold still and try to keep your stream leveled, Nat! I’m gonna open the trap on the count of three!”

“Oh, forget countin’! Just open the thing!” Natalie retorted.

On her command, Stantz pressed down on the pedal switch with his right foot; the trap opened, consuming the bowler hat phantom into it. The moment the ghost was trapped, Natalie felt a great deal of slack given to her Proton Gun and was thrown back unexpectedly to the floor. Sitting there, she removed her shirt from her head and gazed on the smoking ghost trap a few feet away. “Did I get him?” she asked. “Did I get the spud?”

“No, it was one of those other creepies,” J.G. confirmed while kneeling down to check for any scratches or bruises on her. “Are you okay?”

Venkman looked directly at him, noticeably angered and disgusted. “He slimed me, dude. I am never gonna be okay, until I’ve kicked his butt for the second time in a row!” She then got to her feet, tightly gripped her Proton Gun, and ran back downstairs like a maniac.

“W-Wait! Venkman!” J.G. shouted as he and Spengler chased after her.

Genevieve and Zeddemore remained where they were, watching the three parapsychologists as they left. “Wow. She’s got a real vendetta against that little ‘slimer,’ doesn’t she?” Genevieve stated, just as Zeddemore dashed into Mr. Brewster’s slime-covered, ravaged office with Genevieve soon following.

“Mr. Brewster?” Jacqueline repeatedly called, but there was no answer.

Mr. Brewster did slowly appear from behind his desk, covered in soot and his clothes slightly charred. Jacqueline’s hand went to her mouth when she saw him this way, knowing it was all because of Natalie’s reckless firing. “Sir, I am so sorry about this. I promise that I’ll pay for damages as soon as this crisis has been averted. You have my word on that.”

Brewster attempted to speak, but all that came out of his mouth was a squeak. Jacqueline exited from the room, catching up with the others. Before exiting herself, Genevieve told Brewster, “Uh…nothing personal…but…if I was you, I’d consider having yourself checked out…because you really sounded like a woman from downstairs, dude.” Brewster couldn’t come up with a response to that, still being scared speechless.

Genevieve ran out of the tattered office and headed downstairs, only to have been met with a bright reddish-orange beam of energy that struck her body and paralyzed every inch of it. As she tried to move, she noticed how her teammates were in the same situation, their forms all shrouded by reddish-orange energy waves and standing paralyzed near the flight of stairs. Looking straight ahead, she saw the onion-head ghost and the three remaining bowler hat phantoms hovering in the air and doing…nothing; they just hovered there with mindless expressions on their faces, and their eyes glowed in a deep, dark reddish color.

What is wrong with them, Genevieve thought.

Her answer came as a dark form materialized in a puff of bright red smoke beneath the ghosts. Once the smoke cleared, Jafar appeared with his golden, cobra-headed staff in hand and his pet parrot/sidekick, Iago, perched (as always) on shoulder. There was a sinister grin on his face, as he glared over the five of them.

“Foolish simpletons! Indeed, the mighty have fallen!” Jafar exclaimed. “I knew controlling these foul-natured spirits would lure you all right into my trap…especially you, Dr. Stantz!” J.G. grunted in anger, still trying to get free of Jafar’s hold over him. “It’s all part of Hades’ plan to do away with you. Assist the ridiculous ‘fan girl’ and her impotent friends in reuniting the Ghostbusters and destroy them all under one roof. It’s so brilliant and yet so…”

“Oh, will ya just shut up and kill them already,” Iago interjected. “Geez, the more time you spend flappin’ yer gums, the more chances that something might go horribly wrong!”

Jafar cackled. “Come now, Iago. What could possibly happen? The Ghostbusters are at our mercy, we have the most chaotic ghosts in our control, and Hades’ master plan is only minutes away from coming into fruition. Not even the most ignorant goof can foul things up for us now!”

Directly after Jafar proudly made his declaration, Goofy ran right into the restaurant with Donald and Mickey following. “Don’t worry, team! We got yer ba—” That was when Goofy suddenly slipped on a slice of pepperoni pizza and began sliding extremely fast towards Jafar and Iago. “YAAAAAAA-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!”

Jafar turned his attention to the goof a little too late as he was already a few feet close to him when he lifted his arms in a protective manner and screamed, “Oh, no!”

“Oh, boy! Here it comes!” Iago screeched.

Goofy’s body smacked hard against Jafar’s, causing both him and Iago to collapse with the goof, while Jafar’s staff flew out of his hand and soared several feet across the air. The eyes of the Ghostbusters – the only things that weren’t in a paralyzed state – watched the staff as it descended towards a wall and finally crashed into it, shattering into many pieces.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Jafar cried.

This, of course, wasn’t much surprise to Iago. “What did I tell ya?”

At the exact moment Jafar’s staff had shattered, the Ghostbusters were free from its hold as were the four ghosts, who were (needless to say) puzzled over what was going on. Noticing this, the Ghostbusters took advantage of it and immediately fired their particle streams upon the ghosts. Considering that they were no longer under Jafar’s control, it was easy for the team to capture the ghosts in the streams since they were the same out-of-shape specters as before.

Sean threw in his ghost trap for the final blow and activated it to suck all four ghosts into it at the same time. The Ghostbusters shut off their Proton Guns and sighed in relief, approaching the ghost trap with Mickey and Donald. “Now that was hardcore,” Jacqueline exclaimed while J.G. picked up the smoking ghost trap and then shared a high-five with her.

“Just like the good ol’ days!” Stantz said.

Jafar scoffed at the victorious group as Goofy was sitting on top of him and Iago, pinning them to the floor. “Enjoy your win while you can, Ghostbusters. Hades isn’t far from executing his plan.”

“Tell us right now, Jafar,” Mickey demanded. “What’s Hades’ plan?”

“Yeah!” Donald bellowed. “And what’ve you gotta do with it?”

Jafar cackled. “I’ll tell you fools nothing!”

Natalie walked right up and aimed her particle thrower at his face with the intense humming sound from her Proton Pack adding to the intimidation. Instinctively, Iago screeched, “WE REALLY DON’T KNOW ANYTHING! HADES DIDN’T TELL US DIDDILY SQUAT!” Jafar glared at his timid and foolish pet parrot, who might as well have been born as a stool pigeon.

The team exchanged confused looks, hearing this. “I don’t get it,” said J.G. “Why would he leave you guys in the dark like that? Aren’t you major benefactors in his plan?”

“The deal was to reunite and destroy you all in exchange for ruling the entire Middle East under Hades’ ‘New Underworld’,” Jafar revealed. “Other than that deal, he did not tell us how he intended on making it happen.”

Spengler scratched his chin in a ponderous manner. “So he is intending on merging the realm of the dead with our world.” His eyes then widened behind his thin glasses while adding, “But if something like that were to be attempted, it could put both worlds in imminent danger.”

A worried look crept across J.G.’s face in reaction to Spengler’s hypothesis. “Oh, man! You’re right, Spengs.”

Natalie, Jacqueline, and Genevieve all looked confused; it was Genevieve who then had asked to ease the confusion, “What? What’re you guys talking about?”

Before either J.G. or Sean could explain, they all had heard each of their names being called out by a group of people. They noticed Christina, Cody, and Alex running into the now-demolished restaurant with panic registered on their faces.

“Jay!” Christina cried. “Someone’s taking her away!”

J.G.’s ears perked, and his eyes registering a state of alarm; he didn’t have to bother asking who it was that Christina was talking about. Without alerting the others first, he dashed out of the restaurant, not worrying about catching the attention of the NYPD officers outside. It had taken Natalie, Sean, Jacqueline, and Genevieve only a few seconds to realize that Christina was referring to Vanessa.

“Who was taking her away?” Sean asked.

“Some taxi driver,” answered Alex.

“Yeah, and he had yellow eyes, too,” Cody added.

Soon after Cody’s mentioning of it, one name uttered from the mouths of Natalie, Sean, and Genevieve: “Maleficent!” They were soon out of the restaurant themselves, leaving a confused Jacqueline to deal with the mess they were leaving behind.

“Why am I always the one who gets left out of the major stuff?”

“Don’t worry, Miss Zeddemore.” Mickey said. “We’ll take care of everything here, including handing Jafar over to the authorities.”

Jacqueline smiled at the mouse and her other friends. “Thanks for everything, guys. You’ve all been such a great help. I wish there was some way to repay you for your dedication.”

“Just kick some ghost booty for us, will ya?” Christina requested.

Jacqueline tightened her grip on the Proton Gun and grinned. “No problem.”

As Zeddemore departed from the ravaged Pizza Planet, Jafar and Iago both grumbled in despair. “Ya think the ‘Three Strikes’ rule counts for evil sorcerers and talking parrots, too?” Iago inquired, and Jafar’s only response was a raspberry to the parrot’s face.