“Egon!” The psychologist shouted in alarm, taking an unconscious step forward. He was stopped cold when he saw two particle streams flash out and viciously snap at the blond scientist. As the glowing streams flared and crackled, Egon threw his head back sharply, different pitches of screams ripped from his throat at the same time.
“Winston, tighten your stream!” Ray shouted, planting his feet more firmly as he fought to control his thrower.
“Anytime, Pete!” Winston exclaimed, his hands and arms shaking as he tried to keep his beam on Egon’s body.
Peter shook his head quickly, snatching his rifle from its holster and letting loose a third stream of particles. Egon gave another howl of outrage and pain, this time doubling over to grab his stomach. “Locked on!”
“Winston! That way!” Ray pointed to his left. “Peter, let your stream out and back up!”
Peter and Winston scrambled into position, and after swift glances, they nodded together and started backing up in their respective directions. They all had to grit their teeth and steel themselves as more screams, both Egon’s and not, were torn from his throat. As the streams lanced across Egon’s hunched form, the scientist writhed in agony, creating more close calls than Peter could keep track of as one or two of the beams threatened to touch each other.
“Ready, Ray?!” Winston shouted over the noise of the crackling proton beams.
“NOW!” Ray shouted, dragging the creature he snagged forward as he tightened the beam and backed up faster. Winston followed him step for step, keeping his eye on the glowing form they were slowly pulling out of Egon’s body. When the being realized it was being removed from its host’s body, it wheeled around in the grip of the protons and latched onto Egon’s chest, forcing another scream of pain from the man.
“No, you don’t, you son of a bitch!” Peter shouted furiously, using his stream to drag Egon’s body backwards, following the man’s unsteady lurches as he walked down the other side of the pews. As soon as the physicist was free of the shrieking demon, Egon stumbled and fell to his knees. Peter shut off his thrower with a snap, running on top of the closest pew to reach Egon’s side. He took off his proton pack quickly, kneeling at the weakened man’s side. Peter removed Egon’s helmet before he was surprised by the abrupt screech of the meter clipped at Egon’s belt.
“Egon?” Peter asked in a low voice, taking one of Egon’s hands in his and ignoring the defective meter. “You okay?”
A slow nod and a light squeeze of the blond’s hand answered him. “…Peter.”
Peter didn’t realize he was holding his breath until he breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Christ, don’t scare me like that, Spengs.”
“And…this differs… from you scaring me… how?” Egon managed with a slight raise of an eyebrow.
Peter gave him a mock-frown. “That’s different. I have a license.”
Egon snorted weakly and was about to reply when the pair heard Ray.
“What the hell?!” Ray’s voice rose in surprise, his eyes locked on the glowing entity before him.
Derek’s ghost writhed and twisted, his jaw nearly unhinged as it continued to shriek under the lancing beams. Hands that blurred between human fingers to animal claws and back clamped on the young man’s head, grasping uselessly at hanks of hair and pulling them out in savage fury.
>You bast--< /LeGgo!/ More multi-frequency screeches met Ray and Winston’s >proton fire. /No-O-o-o-O-O-o-O!/
“Keep on him!” Winston shouted. “He’s getting weaker!”
“I…dunno…if I can-HEY!” Ray shouted as the entity whipped an arm out and slapped at one of the streams. “Peter! We need a hand over here!”
Peter glanced over Egon quickly, but only received a slow shake and heavy-lidded blue eyes. “’M fine.”
“Yeah, right--” Peter was about to add more when he heard Ray yelp, “Peter!”
Peter gritted his teeth before squeezing the weak hand in his, rising to his feet and snatching up Egon’s proton pack. Shrugging into the pack quickly, he yanked the particle rifle from its holster and turned to join Ray and Winston. “Coming!”
The psychologist turned in time to see the other two Ghostbusters moving to opposite sides of the pews, each drawing away a screaming part of the entity. There was an incredibly bright, pulsating blur between the ghosts that grew as the two moved further and further away from each other. Both halves were still protesting the split, though the boy’s ghost sagged in the grip of Ray’s stream, looking exhausted as it was drawn away.
The ghost trapped in Winston’s proton beam morphed into something more chaotic, if that were possible. Hands, eyes, faces, limbs, anything remotely human jabbed and pressed against the green glow of the entity’s “skin”, more screeches of differing frequencies raging against the stream of particles. Baleful eyes glowed red and narrowed dangerously as more furious howls emitted from the spirit.
Without another word, Peter’s thrower started with a whine and another stream crackled loudly, causing the entity’s screams to reach near earsplitting levels.
“Trap out!” Ray shouted. There was soon a fan of blinding white light as the redhead kicked out a trap and stepped on the trigger pedal. Derek’s ghost was out of the way, but the Ghostbusters had more important things to handle.
“Okay, we’ve got the ghost!” Winston shouted. “Now what?!”
“I say we dump this sucker at Coney Island!” Peter replied breezily, only having to raise his voice as he did so. “They’ve been needing new attractions lately!” Winston rolled his eyes behind his ecto-scopes.
--GivE uS bOy!!!- -gIvE!- -BoybOyBoY!- -WaNnnNnNt!- The different shrieks and gibbers were nearly deafening. -*NOW!*-
“Fat chance!” Peter retorted, adding more power to his thrower. The combined spirits writhed with more moans and screams.
-ThEn DIE!- The fused spirits screamed as one, trying to break free of the particle throwers.
Unnoticed, the three ghosts came hurtling out of the door to the back room, evidently surprised at the fact that they could move through it. Quickly righting themselves, Angela, Maxwell, and Dave glanced at each other before wheeling around at the crackle of the proton streams.
After one look at the specter, Dave gave a low whistle. “And I thought my sister’s boyfriend looked bad.”
Angela nodded. “I had a feeling that Derek kid had something wrong with him, but I didn’t think it was *this* bad.”
“Trap out!” Winston shouted, oblivious to their audience as he wrestled a hand free and threw out a trap. With more force than was necessary, he stepped on the trigger-pedal, the brilliant white fan of light blazing out of the trap to hit the struggling creature head on. It screamed furiously, and fought against the throwers that had it pinned over the trap. At the last second when the specter was about to be sucked in, it broke free in a rush, darting towards the ceiling. More gibbers and shrieks, mostly unintelligible, issued from the mouths that opened in the entities’ “skin”. The white light died quickly as the trap shut its doors automatically.
Maxwell gave them both a pointed look. “They’re in trouble. We should help…”
The three Ghostbusters aimed and caught the ghost again, teeth bared and replanting their feet in the ground as they tried to keep the fused ghosts from escaping.
Dave rolled his eyes at the comment. “My boyfriend, the good Samaritan.” At Angie’s irritated scowl at him, he threw up his hands in mock-surrender. “Okay, okay.”
“Okay, so let’s knock some heads together.” Angela clapped her hands together with a shrug. “If we can fly around and piss it off enough to get it to separate, those guys might have an easier time of catching it. Maxwell, you look after Brother Raymond. Dave, you take care of the black dude. I’ll handle Mister Congeniality.”
“Hate to burst your bubble, Angie, but we can’t fly,” Dave told her. “And what about that guy?”
“Yes, we can,” she corrected him. “We’re already dead.” She glanced at Egon, who’s chest was rising and falling slowly. “He’ll be okay. It’ll be better if the ghost doesn’t try to go after him, so let’s go.”
Dave gave her a skeptical look, but Angie pushed herself off the ground, dodging around the particle streams to settle cool hands on Peter’s shoulders. Hoping she wouldn’t alarm him, Angela leaned in close. “It’s okay. We’re here to help.”
Peter felt a pat on his shoulder as his proton stream wobbled in surprise. He righted it quickly, shifting his grip on the thrower to move the erratic stream away from Ray’s. Then, three new voices started shouting at the ghosts.
“Hey, dumb-ass!” Angela’s voice rang through the church. The creature turned to her at the insult. “Yeah, I’m talkin’ to YOU, snotball! Why don’t you fight like a REAL man…err, ghost, whatever!”
“Think you got the balls to take ME on?!” Dave shouted from behind Winston, who jumped a little at the sudden closeness of the kid’s voice. “I bet there’s a whole buncha ya who wanna get a piece of me, huh?! Ya wanna beat up a fag?! Here I am! Come and get me!”
“It must be pretty humiliating that you couldn’t even get rid of two boys and a girl.” Maxwell added calmly, rolling his eyes at the shouted insults and the frantically waving arms of his friends. “Of course, only some lowly spook like you could botch a job like that.”
The three Ghostbusters watched in amazement for a moment, as the entity swiftly ripped itself in two, leaving two smaller, shrieking blobs that bobbed and bolted around the proton streams. Chunks of the roof cracked and fell, forcing Ray to shut down his thrower in order to dodge the fragments.
“Keep on them!” Peter shouted. “If we’re lucky, we can make them split into the original seven Threes!”
Across the room, Egon was still trying to sit up, resorting to holding a hand over his head when the ceiling debris showered him. Turning his attention to the melee Peter, Winston, and Ray were engaged in, he was suddenly aware of … something… He glanced at his belt, sluggishly removing his PKE meter and looking at the readout. There was a Class Six nearby, which had caused the meter to spike so quickly. With a lethargic frown, Egon turned his head to look around. /Where could it possibly…?/
/Oh, no./
“Max!” Dave shouted, giving the entity as many signs he knew for ‘up yours’ as he shouted. “We’re gonna need help and fast!” There were more loud insults from Angela as a fan of white light shot toward the ceiling, and one of the ghosts from the larger half was ripped away with a shriek. Dave blinked, turning back as the glaring hole was quickly re-formed, more limbs and faces replacing the missing ghost.
“One down, six to go!” Ray shouted, keeping his stream pinned on the recently-reduced half.
“C’mere, ya big butt-ugly mess!” Peter shouted. “Lemme get a crack at you! I can wipe the floor with you any day!”
“Keep at it, Peter!” Ray shouted encouragingly, his eyes widening with fascination as the half Winston was firing at began to erratically convulse. “It’s working!”
“All right, you sack of cow shit!” Dave threw at the quaking half. “Let’s see what you’re made of! Come get me!”
There was a loud, grotesque ripping sound that accompanied the split this time, and then there were three ghosts where one of the halves at been.
“Get ‘em!” Peter threw out a trap, slamming down on the trigger. A wave of grim satisfaction crashed over him as the ghost was sucking shrieking into the trap.
Ray juggled his thrower and tossed out two traps. “Trap out!” Two fans of white light sprang into existence, and the other two entities went with outraged howls into the traps.
“Guys!” Winston shouted, his proton stream flicking around erratically as the other three fused ghosts bobbed and feinted swiftly. “I need some help here!”
“I’m on it!” Ray shouted, firing his thrower at the fused specters. Peter wasn’t far behind, and three beams flashed over the specter’s form, tearing more howls of fury and pain from it.
“C’mon, you yellow-bellied fuck-face!” Angela shouted.
“Yeah, are you chicken?!” Dave added. “Not man enough to take us on, that you hafta gang up on us?!”
The catcall received a near-deafening scream, and the last fusion of ghosts separated into two ghosts. The ghosts were quickly halted in their tracks as they were hit head on with three different proton beams. With a flick of the wrist worthy of John Wayne, Winston was able to yank out two traps from his belt and toss them out underneath of the ghosts that the others had writhing in their particle beams.
“Trap out!” Winston shouted, resorting to stepping on both pedals with his feet. Both traps opened, and the confused, moaning, screeching ghosts were sent screeching into the traps.
As the last blinding white fan of light disappeared when the trap sucked in the last ghost, the four Ghostbusters all breathed a visible sigh of relief.
“Lord, and I thought New York traffic was bad,” Winston muttered, taking off his helmet with obvious relief. “Everybody okay?”
“I’m all right,” Ray answered. “Peter? Egon?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Peter rested his hands on his knees as he took a moment to recover. “A little worse for wear, but still good. Nice roping there, Winston.”
“Ummm, I hate to interrupt,” It was obvious Dave didn’t feel guilty about it. “But does anybody else think we’re short a ghost?”
“Short a ghost?” Peter parroted incredulously. “Kid, we can *never* be short of ghosts.”
Angie frowned, and then started counting on her fingers. “There was that one… and then the three… the two…” She blinked a few times. “Uhhh, Dave’s gotta point. That was only six ghosts.”
“There is NO way that’s possible,” Peter objected. “And even if there were just six ghosts, maybe Egon miscounted.”
Winston frowned, but as he recounted the traps himself, his eyebrows rose. “Pete, Angie’s right.”
“And when have you known Egon to mess up his calculations?” Ray added, his grip tightening on his thrower.
“Does ‘Ka-Boom’ ring any bells?” Peter asked flatly.
Suddenly, Maxwell stiffened as he saw Egon stand up fluidly near the psychologist, who was busy nit-picking with the redhead. He noticed the thrower leveled at Peter’s side, as well as the confusion on the blond’s face as he looked at the weapon.
“NO!” The boy shouted, sprinting at top speed at Egon as the man shrugged and brought up the thrower like a hunting rifle. Before anyone else could react, the brown-haired kid dove directly into Egon’s chest, causing the man to stagger backwards awkwardly. The others turned quickly to the physicist as he gritted his teeth, the thrower slipping from his hands. Fingers dug into blond hair as Egon twisted around, and finally, he gave a sharp, painful cry.
[Egon!] Maxwell shouted, only to have his voice rip into his presence in a shower of knives. Gritting his teeth, he tried again. [Where are you?!]
/…here…/ A whisper came from the darkness, but it was very faint.
[Egon! Where is it?]
/…It’s here!/
Egon’s head threw itself back and released a hoarse screech as an inhuman paw wrapped itself around Egon’s presence and balled into a fist. The scientist’s eyes snapped open, revealing a dark red as Egon’s hands grabbed for the thrower. “Ahhh, so that’s how you do it….” He leveled the muzzle at Winston. “Prepare to die, human.”
“Not on your BEST day, asshole!” Peter snarled, lunging at the gun and shoving it toward the ceiling as the possessed man pulled the trigger. Dust and small fragments of ceiling drifted down, lightly covering Peter and Egon as they struggled for control of the gun. “Egon! Can you hear me?!”
Egon’s teeth started chattering, his hands gripping the thrower shaking uncontrollably. “…Peter…control…can’t…Legion… release-” Suddenly, Egon’s head snapped upwards and back, blazing crimson eyes pinning him squarely. “DIE!”
“Ray!” Winston wheeled around to Ray. “Open the kid’s trap!”
Ray nodded, and stepped on the pedal for the trap he had used on Derek. The fan of white light appeared, followed by a hazy, grayish cloud that hovered in the air before settling on the floor near Angie’s feet, shifting and condensing into Derek’s human form, which sat on the floor with his arms wrapped around his legs and his chin resting on his knees.
The ghost blinked a few times, looking up before standing and looking around anxiously. “What happened?”
“A helluva lot,” Angie admitted. “That dude’s got one of your little friends in his head, and we need to separate them. You gonna help, or what?”
Derek blinked again, this time looking anxious. “One of the demons?”
Dave nodded. “Yeah. If you plan on doing something, how ‘bout you do it fast?”
“But…I can’t!” Derek shook his head quickly. “The demons…”
“Look, kid,” Winston took a deep breath, watching with increasing worry as Peter and Egon grappled with each other. He winced as Peter delivered a sucker punch to Egon’s gut, followed by a throw that had both of the men on the floor. “We’re all asked to do things that scare us, homeboy. It’s just a matter of doing it as best you can, and hoping for the best.”
“Yeah, man,” Dave nodded. “Like trying to make up for past mistakes.”
