//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Panic in the Streets! 
// Story: Ghostbusters: A Different Adventure 
// by Chrome Masquerade 
//------------------------------//

Egon said, "Anybody hear from Winston yet?"

Thump

Winston communicated, 

"Uh, guys? I'm right outside. And so is something else."



Peter joked, "Gosh, we've missed you, partner. Glad you could make it. But first, how was Aida? We had to make do with, uh, this new specimen here."

Winston replied, 

I've been trying to get here for over four hours, Peter! Traffic is a tad blocked right now!"



Thump

Ray said, nervously, "Wait...I know that thud..."

Egon grabbed his own meter, communicating, "Winston, what do you see out there?"

Winston replied in a deadpan tone. 

"It's big, it's clean and soft and white. And you aren't gonna like it."



Just then a gargantuan white shape passed by the window before moving on

Ray was nearly panicking. "No... this is not possible. Not here! Not now! Not again!"

Quickly, the group headed back down by the elevator. As they dashed out of the hotel, Twilight said to the staff, “Keep that food ready for us! We're coming back when we're done.”

The Ghostbusters exited the Sedgewick Hotel and saw... The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Egon put a hand on Ray's shoulder, comfortingly.

Ray put out, "It wasn't me this time, I swear."


Chapter 4: Panic in the Streets!

Winston said, "Pull it together, Ray.” 

Peter asked, “What do we have that can stop that cheap confection?"

Winston was the one who answered that. "Ray, weren't you gonna finish up the install of the Super Slammer today?"

Peter said, "The.... Super Slammer? Sounds untested. Tacky, and exciting! I'm in. But, will it work?"

Egon answered, "Against the minions of a god? That was never the intent, but in theory I suppose it could. But a Muon trap of this capacity has never been used, or even made before."

Peter joked, "Uh-huh. And why would that stop guys that don't know any better?"

Winston added, "Yeah, man. What are we? The FDA?"

Twilight put in, "We'll have to clear a path through this mess first.”

Suddenly, some marshmallow creatures began animating from the piles of residue that Stay Puft had left behind.

"And this is a good place to start, i guess." Twilight said.

Ray said, "Lordy help us! Stay Puft is somehow hatching these... mini minions from pieces of himself. Well, there's paranormal physiology for ya.” 

Twilight nodded, putting in, ”Always something to make your stomach turn. It's like Dragon's Teeth in Greek myths. Sow 'em into the ground, warriors come out. Kind of.” she said, dodging clumsy strikes from the aggressive creatures.

Ray commented, raising his proton wand, “Nettlesome little yarpers! ...and yet they look so darn tasty. Blast 'em!"

The busters proceeded to blast the little creatures to pieces, stopping to direct anyone who came by to go to a safe location.

Winston, the most perceptive of the main four members, looked up. "Hey! more trouble!”

"Multiple class 5 FRV's! Inbound!" Twilight quickly scanned the ghosts, revealing them to be Construction Worker ghosts and Hobo ghosts

Egon ordered, "Ray! Prepare the Muon trap."

Ray said in a semi-singsong tone, “Switching on the Muon trap." Immediately, a bright light began to rise from the top of the Ecto-1.

Winston commented, "Aw, yeah! My favorite song: 'Switched on Muon trap!'

Twilight asked, curious, “Is... that actually a thing?”

Winston replied, “Well, yeah. We were brought in for a recording session, but that's there and not here.”

Blasting the ghosts with as much skill as they could, being careful to cause as little damage as possible. And, of course, not cross the streams.

Winston asked, perceptively, “Is it just me or are the ghosts harder to take on than usual?”

Twilight replied, “That's my fault, but i'll explain later.”

The two of them wrangled the ghost that they had been attacking over to the Ecto-1. Just then the light sucked the ghost in, gone in an instant.

“Oh yeah! I'm LIKING the Super Slammer!" Winston exclaimed.

Egon said, "Throw all the ghosts you capture at the Slammer. You can relinquish your hand-held units."

They moved on to the next ghost, and the next. 

Peter said at one point, "I dreaded you when you were alive. You're worse!" nefore blasting another hobo ghost. "And whoa! Ugh! What, big soap shortage in the afterlife, guys?!”

Twilight pointed out, “I don't think they'd be able to hold it.”

Winston tried the diplomatic approach briefly, sparing a bit of cash for one of the Hobo ghosts. “Don't give them change! You're only encouraging them." Peter complained.

Winston's reply was, "Venkman, we need to have a talk about tolerance!"

Twilight added, "Yeah. You suggested tipping the bellhop ghosts, but discourage giving change to the ones that needed it more? Sheesh!" 

Nearby, one hobo ghost was harassing a couple of people.

“Change! Change! Aw, come on!” Twilight heard. She gave him what she had on hoof of her allowance, satisfying the ghost, which disappeared. The coins she had given him had dropped to the ground, which she scooped back up, smiling.

Egon's meter suddenly beeped. "I'm detecting something... significant. Behind us."

Winston listened out. "What is that? Am I hearing... wings?"

“Not mine.” Twilight said.

Suddenly, three stone gargoyle statues on the exterior of the Sedgewick Hotel animated and began to attack.

Egon quickly scanned the incoming fliers "Class six! Kinetic animators! Multiple contacts!"

“Well, they're made of stone, right?” Twilight pointed out.

Winston caught on first. "Grab 'em and slam 'em!"

With the five of them working together, the gargoyles didn't stand a chance. Add to that, a few more ghosts were trapped.

Egon mused, "Interesting. Ghosts and gargoyles."

Ray exclaimed, "Hey! That was a game! 'Ghosts and Gargoyles'. It was a game we played when I was in the Seminary."

Peter joked, "Ghosts and Gargoyles. What dink game didn't you play? Do you have your eight-sided dice with you?”

“Of course not, Peter. I wouldn't bring those on mission.” Ray scoffed. “Don't be ridiculous.”

Peter scowled as nobody even chuckled at his joke, but said no more.

Shortly further, there was a large white mass of marshmallow blocking the way.

“What a... what a... what's uh... what a... wh... what do we do?" Peter asked.

“Zap it?” Twilight suggested. And they did just that, to little effect.

Egon said, "It's not vaporizing fast enough. There's too much of it."

"Damn! We were starting to make good time, too." Winston quipped. 

Ray added, "And I thought it couldn't become any harder to get around Manhattan. Any ideas?"

Egon stated, "Well, we're not getting through that way now."

Winston cast around and saw a possible detour. "Hey, we can cut through this alley. We might be able to head off Stay Puft." Then he turned to Twilight. “Let's go see if we can find us a shortcut. You with me?”

“Yeah. Let's go!” Twilight affirmed.

As they went in, the lights dimmed.

“Spooky and clothesline fresh.” Winston joked.

As they tried to go around the rows of washers, several of them blocked the way. ”Are you kidding me? Haunted laundromat?” Winston said, slightly annoyed, but they continued.

After picking up a nearby sample, they noticed the back door. “That looks like our exit.” Winston noted.

Nearby was a fuel truck blocking the way. 
“That tanker's leaking gas all over the place. That is a serious safety hazard, man." Winston said. “Maybe we could use that to our advantage.”

Egon communicated, 

"I wanted to test these first, but since we're waiving that safety step today anyway, you should be aware that I modified the Neutrona Wand, which normally releases the particle stream. You can now fire off what i call Boson Darts, essentially charging your stream and releasing it as a ball of energy."



“Nice!” Winston exclaimed. “That'll come in real handy.”

Twilight said, “This might also be a good time to mention that i made a modification as well. I noticed how careful you guys are about crossing the streams. So i modified the polarity by a factor of 1.4863. It decreases the general output of the proton stream by 30%, but it will allow you to cross the streams safely. Even better, when you cross the streams it wil increase the damage output by 25% initially, doubling for each addition to the stream. So the second person wouild add 50% to the stream's power, the third, 100% and... after that it begins to destabilize. I'll need to tinker with that at some point.”

Winston exclaimed, "Wow! It's like Christmas came early!"

Ray replied, 

"Earlier than what? They started Christmas before Halloween this year! Santa came to my house dressed as Dracula! I WISH I was kidding!"



Egon said proudly, 

“Nice work, Twilight! Though warn me if you intend to do that in the future, okay?”



“I'll remember, father.” Twilight promised.

Backing up, Twilight and Winston started blasting at the tanker's leakage, setting it ablaze.

Winston said "You guys might wanna stand back."

Egon communicated, 

"How far back, exactly?"



Winston repplied, "Back. WAY back."

“Preferably as far as you can.” Twilight added.

A few seconds later, the tanker exploded, clearing the passage.

Egon communicated, 

"Do I still have eyebrows?"



Peter added, 

"Same old, same old."



Winston said, "I said, "way back"."

Ray said, coming through first, "Nicely done! Great job, guys!"

Peter said "Yeah, combustible gasoline. It's the future.”

“Actually, it's the present.” Twilight joked.

“Egon, once again on the Super Slammer. I, uh...dog ate my homework." Peter suddenly apologized.

Egon reassured him, "It's a prototype, Peter. Do you recall the memo from you about getting too many memos on prototypes?"

Peter said, "Well, I did write that memo."

Egon explained. "Essentially, we've mounted a high-expansion, rapid cycle multiple ghost absorber. It's faster and larger than our portable units."

Peter exclaimed, "Am I on Jeopardy?! Is this a big enough stick to roast this guy? Okay, okay!"

Egon said, "Potentially. But our exposure to interdimensional deities 
has been only marginal to date, so it would be wise to anticipate some error."

Suddenly, there was a scream.

Winston said, "Somebody needs a Ghostbuster." raising his proton wand.

Twilight stopped to snag another cursed artifact and followed.

Stay Puft threw a vehicle in their direction, causing debris to go flying in all directions.

Egon exclaimed "Yaaah!"

Peter said, "You know for a big guy, he fights awfully sneaky. Someone should tie a bell around his neck."

This actually got a chuckle from the group, which Peter was pleased with.

Nearby was a theater, currently abandoned.

Ray said, reading the banner, "'Hindenburg The Opera'? Wasn't that show shut down 
when the stage caught fire and killed the cast?"

Peter Said, "I read the reviews...Oh the humanity! I had to say that."

Winston added, "That's right. Ruthless producers. They just reopened it last week.”

As they got closer, their meters went off.

“It's cracking. There must be something really bad about this place." Winston said.

Egon ordered, "Grab a full scan."

“Hey, what have we here?” Twilight queried.

The others looked in the direction of Twilight and noticed what she was pointing to.

“Whoa, wait! Don't touch that!” Ray said, pulling Twilight back a bit before scanning the find himself. “That's what I thought. Black slime.”

Egon exposited, “Black slime is a hazardous form of ectoplasmic residue. 
Toxic to both body and soul. Very dangerous.”

Ray said, “Egon and I haven't developed clothes and boots sufficient enough to insulate against the negative psychokinetic effects of this stuff yet, so be careful."

Winston summarized, "In other words, the stains don't ever come out.


Suddenly the black slime started bubbling and turning red.

Watch yourself!" Ray warned.

Portals began to form, ghosts immediately coming through.
A quick scan confirmed that these were opera ghosts, as if it wasn't obvious enough already.

Egon joked "Look out! The Fat Lady's singing!"

Peter quipped in turn "She is so over."

Ray said, "Looks like an opera singer, and a hefty one at that. Peter, you better take her."

Peter complained, "What's that supposed to mean? I'm a chubby chaser? I take out one plump girl on a blind date, like her personality and you guys can't let it go."

Twilight, for her part, could hear what the ghosts were saying, but had no iidea what they were talking about.

So they began to blast at the ghostly singers, capturing them one by one. Before they were done, growls could be heard.

Winston said, "I don't have time for you right now, gargoyles!"

Ray called out, "More of them!"

Properly rallied, the Opera Diva ghosts, Gargoyles, and Hobo Ghosts attacked.

Twilight said, “Quick! Cross the streams!” The busters did just that, striking all the ghosts at once and completely sapping their energy in seconds. The Gargoyles couldn't take the heat and exploded, leaving the crew to plug the ghosts into the Super Slammer.

Winston said to Twilight, "We just did a service to humanity, kid. Hindenburg is a terrible show."

Ray said, from the Ecto-1, "Times Square, post-urban renewal. All shiny and clean. I love it!"

A thump and a thunderous growl later, Peter said, "Say, is that him?"

Egon deadpanned, "He's hard to miss."

Peter said, "Egon, how close do we have to get the big trap to reel him in?"

Egon replied, "A lot closer than this."

Twilght wondered, "What's he up to?"

Ray speculated, "He's... looking for something."

“Maybe.” Egon said, "Or is he looking for someone?"

Ray looked concerned and sank in his seat.