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Chapter 1: Hotel Haunters1,259 words
Chapter 2: Bellhop Boos and Cooking Clownery2,084 words
Chapter 3: Trial by Water830 words
Chapter 4: Panic in the Streets!2,239 words
Chapter 5: Sweet and Present Danger2,816 words
Interlude: New Developments, Old Problems1,526 words
Chapter 6: Silence is Golden2,732 words
Skipping forward - Museum Madness (working title- slightly edited)1,832 words

Chapter 6: Silence is Golden

Chapter 6: Silence is Golden

Egon looked around the area in the front of the library and commented "Big crowd. Venkman would love this."

Ray said, "Captain McMahon from the 12th says there was a massive disturbance. Real fireworks show."

Winston noted, "Not much going on now."

"Maybe.” Egon said, “But didn't there used to be... two lions out here?"

Twilight pulled out her PKE meter. "Checking for valences."

Egon did the same, and, scanning the remaining statue, said "Hmm... interesting. Ray, take a look at this."

Ray was the third to be on the ball and grabbed his meter, scanning as well. "Wow! Big spikes!"

The lion statue suddenly exploded, revealing a ghost.

Egon warned, "Stay back!"

The ghost they saw dashed into the library.

Winston stated, "Look out! There they go!" giving chase.

Another ghost came along and the two of them floated off.

Ray exclaimed, "Whoa! Double full torso animators! Twilight? Are they saying anything?”

Twilight listened for any commentary from the ghosts, but when she did....

“GAAAAARGH!!!”

“YAAAH!!” Twilight screamed.

“You okay, kid?” Winston asked.

“Beside my mental eardrums screaming in pain, I'm fine.” Twilight assured, rubbing her head.

“C'mon! After them!" Egon said.

The group pursued the ghosts slightly further into the Library.

Ray exposited, "They're a couple of Class-five Animators. Never seen them in tandem like that! They're really agitated!"

“Yeah.” Twilight said, “I figured that out the hard way.”

Winston smirked lightly, but said, "Switching on the packs." doing so.

The group ran up the stairs, catching up to the two ghosts.

"All right...take it easy, now." Ray said.

Noticing them, the ghosts began to fly off.

Winston called after them. "Hey! He said 'take it easy!' That's not 'easy'!” he said, firing off a proton stream, missing entirely.

“Missed! Damn!"

Ray put a hand on Winston's shoulder. "Sorry, Z. Better luck."

Egon Spengler "That one is a Beast. Ray. Let's chase him down. Winston, check that next doorway. See if he has any 'other' friends."

Winston agreed. "Leave a haunted room? I got no problem with that."

Twilight burst Winston's bubble. “You do realize that the whole place is likely haunted, right?”

“I was trying not to think about it, but yeah. Thanks.” He replied.

Ray said, "Hey, Egon? Don't you think now is a good time to explain the new CPS?”

Twilight facehoofed. “Right!” I forgot about that. I helped install that last night. But you never explained how it works.” She said, switching to the Shock Blaster.

(Shock Blaster: Installed. Also, Blast Stream Focusing and Boson Immunity added)

“To use the Shock Blaster, it's best to get up fairly close. Its effect is powerful, but dissipates quickly over distance." Ray explained for Twilight and Winston.

Egon said, "Please be careful, it's a prototype."

Ray continued. "Also, the Stasis Stream will temporarily slow down paranormal entities. If you train the stream on the target long enough, you can actually stop it entirely. Pretty much turn it to stone!” he said, demonstrating the shock blast first. “This is how you use that." Ray said, firing off a blue coloured pulse.

Winston whistled and said, "Cool! A freeze ray!"

"A stasis stream. This has nothing to do with cold. But the effect is similar." Ray corrected.

Winston turned to Egon, asking, "When do you have the time to work on all this stuff, Egon?"

Egon replied, "I've been conducting an experiment in which I sleep an average of fourteen minutes a day. Leaves me a lot of time to work."

Ray shifted attention back to the situation at hand. "Great! Ready to roll.”

Hey, Sparks? You think you can handle that little fella yourself? We'll meet you back here."

Ray said, "Remember. Stay alert. Keep your PKE Meter up. Animators can hide in anything."

Twilight walked down the stairs as the rest of the team split up, each going in a different direction.

Suddenly, Twilight's meter started buzzing. She went over to a display case which the meter was indicating, her wand floating in her magical grasp as well.

At that time, the first ghost phased through the case and shot off before Twilight could get... well, a shot off.

“Hey! Ugly just shot around that corner!” Ray said on the communicator.

"Same here." Twilight said, as she walked through a nearby door, following after.

She came into a large room, mostly empty, but with a few bookshelves around.

Look! It's the cadet!" Winston said from above. “How's it lookin' down there, kid?”

Egon's meter started buzzing, those of the others shortly thereafter. "Strong emanations. No direct source, though."

Ray explained to Twilight, "We followed our guy in here and it gave us the slip."

Egon continued, "Detecting a strong anomaly, here..."

Chairs and desks erupted into the air in reading room, as several books added to the mix, starting to form another golem-esque construct.

Ray said, "Uh-oh. Here comes something big!"

Egon analyzed, "Now that is a fine example of a Level 6 Bi-Dimensional Attractor."

Winston joked, "Egon! Did I mention what a good idea it was that you had to come up on the balcony?”

Twilight backed away nervously.

“What's wrong, Twi? Give it the ol' what-for!”

“I... I can't!” Twilight protested. “I just... can't!”

Ray asked Egon, “What's wrong with her?”

“The construct is partially composed of books. Mostly hardcover, if I'm correct. Either way, I don't think she can bring herself to harm it!” he replied.

Winston suggested, “Then just freeze it for us, Sparks! We'll do the rest.”

“Yes. Yes, I think I can do that.” Twilight said, flicking on her stasis stream function. She began spraying the gestalt with the blue coil of energy while the others blasted away at it the old-fashioned way.

Ray exclaimed, "It's losing strength! Keep tearing it down!"

Soon enough, a single part of the construct started glowing.

Egon noted, "All of its power is emitting from a single focal object!"

Twilight wasted no time in using her magic to tear that object off, causing the thing to explode.

Ray praised her. "You got it! Fantastic!”

“Man. How much PK energy must it take to collect and animate an entity like that?" Winston asked aloud.

Egon answered that. "A lot. A lot of very angry energy."

Ray joked, "How easy was that?" before they continued on.

"Wait! Not so fast, I'm getting some big fluxes here." Egon said, as they entered the next room.

Twilight, however, got a blue sine on her meter and a little searching later found another artifact. A rather.... well animated portrait of Eleanor Twitty herself.

“Well, if this isn't foreshadowing.” Twilight said quietly. “Appropriate, in a library.”

"I think it's her. Yes, yes, it is her! Eleanor Twitty, The Librarian!" Ray said as the apparition passed by.

“Well, called it.” Twilight mumbled to herself.

Giving chase, Egon said. "Look! There she is! Meet us at the stairway door!"

Ray went to kick the door open for Twilight, but before he could do so a purple aura encased the handles on his side, turning and opening the door.

“Going my way?” Twilight joked.

Ray wasted no time in saying, "She went down that way!"

Egon communicated, "Winston, check upstairs to see if the other Phantom doubled back."

"Roger."

Right near the stairwell, the Gray Lady said “Shhh. Not so loud. This is a library, after all.” before vanishing.

Ray said, "She shushed us. That witch."

“Well, we are being pretty loud.” Twilight countered.

As they went down the stairs, several of the books fell off a couple of bookcases. Twilight quickly used her magic to re-shelve them by author and title.

At the bottom of the stairs was a large reading room, with an oversized table and a few chairs around it.

Egon warned, "PKEs out. And try to be quiet."

Slowly, the table and chair set began to rise, halting in midair.

Ray commented, "Oh, wow! A full stabilizing levitation! I'd say we're close to something."

Twilight shrugged. “Big deal. I do that all the time.”

“It isn't the same, Twi.” Ray said, a tad scornfully.

Egon demanded some attention. "Ray..."

"You got something?"

"I've got something. Right... here." Egon said, indicating a particular bookshelf.

Ray whispered, "Kid, check that out.”

Twilight went to do so when the ghostly librarian manifested again.

“Yaahhh!" Egon shouted, quite startled.

“Shhhh. Quiet, now. Don't want to disturb the peace.” she smiled and dashed for the door at the far end of the room, the levitating objects crashing unceremoniously to the ground shortly thereafter.

“Hypocrite.” Twilight snarled.

Ray growled, "Ooooh! She keeps shushing us! Nevertheless, that's her! The Gray Lady! She's the first ghost we ever hunted. Man, I wish Venkman was here."

Egon and Twilight said in unison, "I'm pretty sure he doesn't."

Ray warned, "Easy now...she's reeeeal skittish." before they went through the next door.

“Follow me if you can!” Twilight heard, before the ghost fled down a narrow corridor, blocking the way with a bookshelf. Twilight was about to telekinetically move it, but then an entire line of bookshelves blocked the way further.

Egon said, "Damn! Lost her!"

Twilight also noticed some black slime on the wall behind where the first bookshelf toppled, which she scanned.

Ray said, "Let's go! We'll cut her off!"

“That almost never works.” Twilight complained, but was largely ignored.

Egon, PKE in hand, said, "These readings are off the charts!”

“We have those on PKE emanations?”Twilight queried.

“Yes. But now I'll have to make new ones." Egon said, pouting slightly.

They entered a large reference section, typical lines of bookshelves in high quantity.

Ray exclaimed, "Wow!” then added, “Now listen. This place is reading like a psychic pressure cooker. Prime your thrower. Everybody stick close together."

Egon spotted the fastest way through. "Here! This way! Quick!"

A set of shelves quickly blocked Twilight's path. She smiled with a “what kind of idiot do you take me for?” expression before flapping her wings and flying over the assembled shelves, easily bypassing the obstacle and reuniting with her adoptive fathers. An otherworldly shriek of frustration followed.

Ray said, "From what I'm reading, There are two hostile spirits roaming around in here."

"Two that we know about." Egon corrected.

“Yes, Egon. Two that we know about.” Ray deadpanned.

“At least we're still together.” Twilight said.

As they passed by the shelves, at one point Egon said, “The temperature's dropping. Event imminent! Brace yourselves!" before a bunch of books fell on them. Or they would have if Twilight hadn't re-shelved them almost as quickly as they had fallen.

“You're getting good at that, Twilight.” Egon commented.

“It is kind of my thing.” Twilight said. “One of my things. I have a few things.”

Winston communicated,

"Guys? I'm in the periodical archives looking at a stack of old newspaper clippings... All about some nut named Edmund Hoover, AKA, 'The Collector.'"

Egon said, "Hmmm... go on."

"This dude has a history you should know about. He was a rare book collector who seduced Eleanor Twitty, the head librarian of this place."

Ray gasped, "The Gray Lady?!"

Egon nodded. "That would be my guess."

Coming to a crossroad of sorts, Egon indicated for Twilight to go to the left and Ray to go to the right. Both nodded before moving on.

Twilight briefly saw a spirit enter a room. When she came in...

“Black slime...” she said fearfully. “Uh... Father?”

“Yes, Twilight?”

Egon replied.

“Think i could enable the Slime Blower early? This room is pretty close to becoming a cross-dimensional portal.”

“Truly? Then yes. I will allow it. We can't let this get out of hand. Or hoof, in your case.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Very funny, Father.”

“By extension, we'll do the same.”

Egon added, before returning to silence.

She proceeded to neutronize the slime on the walls, allowing her to continue without worry.

As Twilight passed into another room with several conveyor belts and -again- books all over the place.

Winston communicated,

"Okay, guys, it's dead up here. The good kind, I mean. You all cool?"

Egon replied,

"We may need to get back to you on that."

“So that's a 10-0 for now.”(1) Twilight clarified.

Twilight continued to scan around the room that she was in, when she heard Ray who communicated, "Hey, Kid? What's your 20? I'm in some kind of a dark tunnel, moving fast... towards a bright light.”

“10-9 dad?”(2) Twilight said. “I can barely hear you.”

Suddenly Ray came in from one of the conveyor belts.

“Nice of you to drop by.” Twilight joked.

Then a bunch of floating books started to follow.

“Class I Swarmers! Pesky, but combustible!" Ray said.

“Dad, you know I can't do that!” Twilight complained, though taking a scan quickly.

“Twilight!” Ray shouted, “At some point you're going to have to overcome this.”

“But... But I-”

“Being a bit of a bibliophile myself, I understand, believe me. But sometimes you need to do what's necessary to get the job done. These books are possessed by angry spirits and will kill you if they get the chance. Now, are you going to just sit there and take it? Or are you going to put up and help me?”

Twilight closed her eyes, a single tear following. Then she reopened them, a determined, angry expression on her face.

“Let's do it.” she said with some ice in her voice.

Ray nodded and they started blasting at the Book Bats, as the guide called them. Twilight focused on putting them in stasis instead of burning them, but she did so without visible remorse or hesitation. "She'll pay for making me do this." she mentally snarled.

After a while, all of the Book Bats were defeated.

“I'm proud of you, kid.” Ray said. “That can't have been easy to do.”

“It wasn't.” Twilight confirmed, “But like you said... sometimes you have to do what needs to be done.” she added.

Ray started to look around. "Now where's that Class Five Animator? I tracked the slug here.”

As if on cue, said Animator appeared from a nearby wall.

“GAAAARGH!!” Twilight heard, causing her to wince.

“There's the Big Fish!” Ray said. “Let's give him a new home - in our containment facility!”

“This i have no issue with at all.” Twilight said, that angry look returning. She, of, course grabbed a scan first.

The two crossed their streams, easily sapping the energy of the ghost.

“Throw your trap, Twily!” Ray ordered.

Twilight nodded and did so, slamming the ghost into the trap.

"Yeah! Get dunked on!" Twilight exclaimed excitedly.

Just then, the other Animator appeared, howling as well before attacking.

"There's the other one!" Ray said. "Give him full stream!"

Ray and Twilight scanned the ghost and started to attack, but it built up some energy in its ghostly hand, lobbing it toward them, leaving a scorch mark on the floor.

“More powerful than I expected! It might even have effectively become a Class 6!" Ray said, redoubling his efforts, trying not to get hit.

Twilight used one of the nearby tables for a better vantage point, jumping to another whenever an attack was thrown.

By the two's efforts, the other ghost was trapped after a time.

Ray wiped sweat from his brow. "Phew. Good work. That took some doin'." he fist-bumped his daughter before they continued onward.

Egon communicated,

"Congratulations, Ray, uh... but I'm near Special Collections. Someone you've been wanting to meet again is here."

Ray nodded. "We're on our way!”

The two came into another room with many rows of bookshelves.

Keep an eye on the twitchy ones; they'll really crease ya if you aren't careful.” Ray warned.

Shortly thereafter, constructs made of paper appeared and started attacking.

“Watch it!"

Twilight grabbed each of them in her magic and said “NO! I am no longer in the mood for this.” before slamming them together, bursting the small golems into smithereens.

“Vicious work there, kid.” Ray extolled.

“It felt good to get that out.” Twilight said, with a sigh. “Those are loose pages, not books, so I'm fine with that.” she added as they went forward.

Ray said, "Looks like the Gray Lady makes her own reinforcements. Keep your eyes open, team. She's upping the ante."

Winston communicated,