Chapter One: Terror At The Tipton
October 2004
Alexis Embers had always thought superheroes existed only in comic books. It was a common thing to assume because this was real life and there weren't such a thing as superheroes in real life. Then again, she lived in a society where a mouse with red shorts and round ears walked a dog named after a dwarf planet around all the time. Could anything else be just as uncommon as that?
Yes, a woman at twenty-four years of age who still reads comics, she thought to herself, as she stood amongst a crowd of New Yorkers that had gathered to watch the strange lights and flashes emanating from the upper floors of the Tipton Hotel.
They had evacuated much of the residents of the hotel, from the ditzy London Tipton (daughter of Wilfred Tipton, the owner of the hotel) to some twins named Zack and Cody, whose mother (Carey Martin) was one of the two people still trapped upstairs in the hotel, for some unknown reason, along with a guy named Arwin.
London was standing nearby Alexis, as she was contacting her father over the phone, sounding panicked. "Daddy, I don't know what happened! One minute, I was partying with some friends..." She stopped for a second to hear her father give her an angry response. "No, Daddy. It wasn't a big party. It was a little-big party. Oh, oh! Johnny D. was there! Did you know he's signed up for 'Pirates 4'?"
Alexis rolled her eyes in disbelief. Here they were, near the end of the world, and this stupid girl was giddy about a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film. Wow! Is New York ever the most unbelievable place in the world, even at the end of it!
Mr. Marion Moseby, the somewhat uptight manager of the hotel, ran out of the building with Maddie Fitzpatrick, the teenage candy-counter girl, and Esteban Ramirez, the head bellman. He sounded highly urgent as he told the hotel residents standing outside, "This situation will be taken care of immediately, ladies and gentlemen. I just alerted the mayor of our situation, and he has agreed to let the Ghostbusters handle this."
Alexis smiled; she knew that they were going to come, despite whether or not they were charged by some idiot from the Environmental Protection Agency named Louise Peck for misuse of toxic chemicals (or some mess like that).
"Aw, man!" Zack exclaimed. "The Ghostbusters are comin', and here I am without my camera!"
Cody gave his brother a dirty look. "Are you insane?!" he yelled. "Mom is still up there and heaven knows what's happening to her! And all you care about is some stupid five-second photo?!"
Zack paused as if he was taking a minute to think about what he just said, and then he quickly responded to Cody with a simple "Yep."
Feeling the need to choke his only brother, Cody was about to do just that, until the screaming of sirens turned his and everyone else's attention to an arriving motorcade. They could clearly see the Ecto-1 (or "The Ectomobile" as a few fans called it), the standard vehicle of the Ghostbusters, a 1959 Cadillac ambulance/hearse combination car fitted with communication wafers and antennae and blue and red strobes. As it rounded the corner, a huge cheer went up from the crowd.
London was jumping up and down with excitement over the arrival of New York's Ghostbusters team. "Oh, oh! Daddy, Daddy! They're here! They're here!" She paused for a minute to listen to her father ask a question. "Who? The Ghostbusters, Daddy! They're here to exchange autographs with me..." She then lowly added afterwards, "Oh, yeah...and save the day, too."
Alexis tried to ignore London's conversation the best way she could as she watched the Ectomobile pull up in front of the Tipton Hotel. The doors flew open and one-by-one the Ghostbusters jumped out. The first was Dr. Kimberly Venkman, a 27-year-old redhead Caucasian who was one of the three parapsychologists on the team, although she also held a PhD in psychology. She had a very flippant personality and proved to be very lackadaisical to her profession. Still, she was well liked by most of her fans—who were mostly men—presumably because of her magnificent beauty. It was this reason, as well as her savvy, street-smart attitude, that made her a reasonable front woman for the team.
The second team member to exit the Ectomobile was Dr. J.G. "Jay" Stantz, a 19-year-old Hispanic Mensa-level genius who skipped most of grade school and started college at eleven years old. He was an expert on paranormal history and metallurgy, having a childlike enthusiasm towards his work and forthright acceptance of paranormal activity. Kimberly had often credited him as being the "heart" of the team and kind of looked to him like a kid brother—something that came from the friendship they shared during their college years.
Jay was responsible for pioneering the team's theories and designing and building the equipment used for catching and containing ghosts, along with the third team member to have exited the Ectomobile, Dr. Sean Spengler. Like Kimberly and Jay, he had an expertise in the paranormal. The tall, laconic, bespectacled, and black 22-year-old scientist was heavily addicted to science, thus making him the "brains" of the team. If the other members of the team didn't understand something about their situations, they would ask him to explain—although they often wouldn't understand the answer he gave. Although brilliant, Spengler didn't have much social ability, and he generally needed Kimberly to do the talking for the group.
And, lastly, there was 34-year-old Diana Zeddemore, the only member of the team who didn't hold a PhD or had any backgrounds in the paranormal, the only other Caucasian woman on the team. She was hired on the spot by the team in the previous week, seemingly because she was the only applicant at the time. Despite her lack of PhDs, she proved to be someone who could serve as a voice of reason, displaying far more common sense than the others.
That much was certain when she told her teammates, "I think we should get on a plane right now and go to Australia or Indonesia until this blows over. Wouldn't you all think so?"
"Tell you what, Z," Kimberly said, "I'll make a note of your suggestion and possibly bring it up later if this thing really does get out of hand." Diana rolled her eyes in annoyance while they pulled out a rack from the rear of the Ecto-1, containing their Proton Packs—a backpack-sized particle accelerator with a handheld wand that fired a proton stream, which polarized with the negatively charged energy of a ghost, allowing it to be held in the stream while active.
Once they had finished gearing themselves up, they waved to the roaring crowd and started heading for the lobby entrance to the Tipton Hotel. Just as they neared the front of the building, they looked up at the roof, seeing the blinding flash of light that shot from there.
"Aw, man!" Jay exclaimed. "Looks like we're gonna have to do a little overtime on this one!"
Kimberly scoffed at his comment. "Ya think, dude?"
The whole building seemed to groan as if under enormous pressure. The concrete façade then cracked open and the pavement in front of the building collapsed, dropping the Ghostbusters into an enormous sinkhole.
Alexis and the rest of the crowd gasped, believing they had just witnessed the end of a marvelous team before their very eyes. She didn't want to admit it—at least not right now; she wanted to have some bit of hope that they had survived; and she prayed that they had.
Her prayers were instantly answered, after a tense moment of silence, as the Ghostbusters popped up and climbed out of the pit. Kim was quick to crack a joke as they did, "Man! I've heard of underground parking, but this is ridiculous."
"Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters!" The crowd cheered, as the team flashed an "O.K." sign to everyone and entered the Tipton Hotel.
Moseby deeply sighed as he watched them go. "I hope they take care of this situation as quickly as possible."
"This is no sweat, Mr. Moseby," Maddie said. "Remember that business with that straight-up nasty, slimy green ghost London found on the thirtieth floor?"
Moseby shivered. "Don't remind me!"
On the rooftop of the Tipton Hotel, Carey Martin and Arwin Hawkhauser emerged from the stairwell, both looking extraordinarily pale and disheveled. Carey's eyes were wide open, filled with a kind of love-slave longing, and her clothes were seductively tattered. Arwin was walking stiffly in his janitor attire with a glazed look in his eyes. Both of them were holding each other's hands as they moved across the rooftop.
Carey and Arwin were possessed by demigods known as Zuul and Vinz Clortho, the former haunting Carey in her own suite from inside her refrigerator. The Hittites, Mesopotamians, and Sumerians and a minion of Gozer—a Sumerian God—worshiped Zuul around 6,000 B.C. She and Vinz addressed each other as "The Gatekeeper" and "The Keymaster" respectively because of the role they played in opening the elaborate, decorative temple located on the rooftop of the Tipton, complete with an altar, stairs, and Babylonian columns.
Carey and Arwin approached the Temple and mounted the pedestals that were once occupied by doglike demons, once statues but brought to life on the same night the two Tipton residents were possessed. Zack and Cody often hung around the rooftop and referred to these statues as "Terror Dogs," a nickname that seemed highly appropriate at this point in time.
When Carey and Arwin were in position, the walls of the temple began to vibrate and blinding beams of light flashed from all the windows of the Tipton Hotel.
Inside the stairwell, the exhausted Ghostbusters were trudging up thirty-five flights of stairs, panting and hacking on the way up. Kimberly was the one who was falling behind a little, and she expressed her distain in the best words possible: "For years I've busted my butt at the gym! And I can't even figure out why the heck I'm even out of breath now of all times! What the hell, man?!"
"Relax, Kim." J.G. said. "We're just about there."
"Alright, well, when we do get there, let me know," Kimberly remarked, "because I'm two seconds away from throwing up!"
A few more floors up, the Ghostbusters staggered into the hallway, completely exhausted. Still, Sean was able to take the time to observe the hallway and its décor. "Art deco...very nice."
Kimberly glanced in his direction and frowned. "Yeah, we should write a letter to Mr. Tipton when this is all over," she sarcastically said before they headed over to the door to Carey Martin's suite.
"Should we ring the doorbell?" Diana asked.
"Why not?" Kimberly replied. "We'll say, 'Oh, hi. We're the Ghostbusters. Don't mind us. We're just here to kick some demigod ass.'"
Diana shook her head at her and then turned the door with a frame that was charred and blackened by soot. Instead of ringing the doorbell, she knocked. And on the first knock, the door instantly fell off its hinges and crashed to the floor. As soon as it happened, Diana was already heading the other direction.
"See you all in Indonesia!"
Kimberly quickly stood in her path and pinned her against the wall. "You know, for someone who claims she practices Martial Arts in her resume, you really are chicken-shit."
"Come on, girls." J.G. said. "A lot of people are counting on us down there. You don't want to disappoint the kids, would ya?"
Diana looked down towards the floor, thinking about what Stantz said and admitting how right he was. She was mostly into this ghost-busting gig for the kids, who were their biggest fans. "Alright," she said with a nod. "Let's do this."
Kimberly playfully and gently slapped her face, smiling. "That's my girl."
"Did you just slap me?"
"It was a pat."
"No, that was a slap."
"A pat."
While the two ladies continued going back and forth, Stantz and Spengler gaped at the damage to the suite. The exterior building wall was completely gone, providing an unobstructed view of the Hudson and New Jersey. All the furniture was overturned and the other walls were cracked. A powerful wind blew through the apartment, fluttering the shredded curtains.
The team entered the kitchen area and noticed how the refrigerator had been blown away, revealing a hole in the wall and the entrance to a stone staircase behind it. "Where do these stairs go?" Jay curiously asked.
"Where else? Up!" Kimberly said, and she was about to approach them until a sudden bolt of lightning struck the staircase, putting a monster-sized crack into one of the stairs. Venkman then turned to her fellow teammates and ushered them on one-by-one, "C'mon! Gentleman first! Go! Get your butts up there!"
Our "fearless" leader, Diana thought in sarcasm.
Carey and Arwin stared blankly at the temple and began a miraculous, terrifying transformation into the hideous forms of the Terror Dogs. The solid stone walls of the temple rumbled ominously and separated. Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters arrived on the rooftop in time to see the entire scene take place, perplexed and astonished of what they were seeing. They saw the walls open, revealing the secret architecture of the temple: a stone staircase leading to a set of monumental doors; beyond them was a massive pyramid that appeared to be suspended in midair with no visible means of support.
The possessed humans once known as Carey and Arwin had completed their transformation into the Terror Dogs. They turned and snarled menacingly at the Ghostbusters, who couldn't believe their eyes when they saw them.
"Anybody got any Bacon Bits? You know...in case they want to take a chunk out of our asses?" Kimberly inquired, and the others weren't certain if she was joking or not from that statement.
The heavy rumbling of moving stone drew their attention back to the temple. The Terror Dogs had taken ritual positions on the staircase. The heavy stone gates opened and a dark, bluish form started moving down the stairs. The Ghostbusters instantly recognized the form as the Greek god of the underworld, Hades.
"What the...?" Diana began, until the creep with the blue fire for hair interrupted her.
"Now, now, before you finish that wonderful phrase," Hades said, "Allow me to introduce myself…"
"Don't bother, dude." Kimberly remarked. "We've all seen Hercules and played Kingdom Hearts about a billion times already."
Jay cleared his throat and sheepishly said, "A billion and two."
Kim snickered at J.G., while Hades seemed a bit frustrated over the interruption. "Anyways! I should warn you measly mortals that you are way in over your heads with this Gozer guy. I mean, he's like bad news, man!"
"Let us be the judge of that, Hades." J.G. remarked. "What connections do you have with Gozer anyways?"
Hades chuckled. "Hello! I'm a god! He's a god! See a connection here?"
"Yeah," Kimberly said, "A little candlelight dinner, and you two crazy fruitcakes can really set it off."
Hades was about to make a comeback to her witty comment, but then stopped when he realized that he didn't have one. "Oy! And I thought I had all the good one-liners." Shaking his head, he refocused his attention on the moment at hand. "Alright! Have it your way, mortals! It's your funeral…literally. I'll be waiting here to collect the bodies." He then turned his attention to an unseen party and yelled, "Pain! Panic! Introduction, please!"
Out of nowhere, two small, strange-looking demons—one pink and one turquoise—magically appeared at the feet of Hades. The pink demon (Panic) started to say, "Presenting the Sumerian God you all know and fear…"
"…Gozer the Gozerian!" The turquoise demon (Pain) concluded.
Hades, Pain, and Panic then moved to the side, as a bright white light emerged and descended the stairs, slowly materializing into a human form. That form was a thin, hollow-cheeked woman in her mid-twenties, her eyes burning red pinholes and looking around at the spectacular rooftop view. She then acknowledged the two Terror Dogs and started stroking them like house pets.
The Ghostbusters stared at the apparition with wide-eyed bewilderment. "Hold up!" Kimberly exclaimed. "Gozer's a chick?!"
"Yeah, I thought he was a man." Diana added.
"He becomes whatever he wants to be." Sean clarified.
Hades snickered at the surprised mortals. "Suddenly that 'candlelight dinner' crack doesn't seem all that smart anymore, does it?"
Kimberly gave him a smug look and then refocused her attention back on Gozer. "I don't care what she, he, or it is! She's not gonna get past us!"
"That's right." J.G. agreed. "Because we're a team!"
"You said it, sweetie." Kim said before patting him on the shoulder and adding, "Now go get her!"
Stantz slowly turned in her direction and almost glared at her. She winked at him in a way that was hard to determine as being genuine or mocked. Whatever it might've been, he was put into position at that point in time to deal with the massive threat they were currently facing.
Cautiously, J.G. took a few steps up the staircase and boldly said, "Gozer the Gozerian!" She looked up and seemed to notice them for the first time. Jay took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and rapidly uttered, "As a duly-constituted representative of the city of New York, and on behalf of the county and state of New York, the United States of America, the planet Earth and all its inhabitants, I hereby order you to cease and desist any and all supernatural activity and return at once to your place of origin or next parallel dimension." He then took another deep breath and sighed, feeling somewhat relieved.
"Well, that ought to do it." Kimberly said. "Thanks very much, Jay."
Hades just rolled his eyes at the mortals, while Gozer stood up to her full height and regarded Stantz curiously. "Are you a god?" she asked.
"Oh, this should be good," murmured Hades, looking on with a hint of interest.
J.G. turned to Kim, as if summoning her for some sort of advice. She simply shrugged her shoulders and motioned for him to do whatever was best. So Stantz returned his glance on Gozer and, being compulsively honest, gave a simple answer: "No."
"Then…DIE!" Gozer raised her arms and blew away the Ghostbusters with searing bolts of energy.
Hades watched this with intense excitement, flames shooting out from his body as he screamed, "Yes, baby! Yes! That is what I'm talkin' about! YES!"
Momentarily stunned, the Ghostbusters tumbled all the way down the stairs and nearly fell over the edge of the rooftop. Down below, the large crowd of New Yorkers saw the searing bolts of energy sparkle in all directions, knowing that whatever was going on up there couldn't be going well.
The Ghostbusters quickly picked themselves up, moving as far away from the edge as possible. As soon as they were safe, Diana grabbed J.G. by the collar of his jumpsuit and shouted to his face, "The next time when someone asks you if you're a god…YOU SAY 'YES'!"
Jay just simply nodded in approval, while Kimberly stepped forward and glared at the two supernatural figures ahead of them. "Are you twerps ready to give up?" Hades asked.
"The only thing we're ready to do is show you prehistoric bitches how we do things downtown!" Kimberly exclaimed, as she and her teammates leaped into action, one-by-one activating their wands (or "Proton Guns" as they sometimes called them) and taking up positions for an entrapment. In the meantime, Gozer was bracing for the onslaught. As soon as Kim and her team had the apparition aimed in their sights, she yelled, "Let's toast this chick!"
Together, they fired the particle streams from their Proton Guns. However, their mark was missed when Gozer leaped out of the way with superhuman agility and executed a perfect double-flip with a half-twisting round-off at the end; she landed flawlessly on the altar right behind the team.
Kimberly pretended not to be all that impressed, even though she was stoked out of her mind by what she saw. "Please! I made better moves than that while on the cheerleading squad," she said.
"Forget the trapping! Just blast her!" J.G. yelled, and they fired away at Gozer, who just stood there calmly and absorbed the force of the streams. There was a brilliant pink flash and Gozer disappeared.
Seeing this, Hades and his two minions blinked rapidly in confusion. "Wait! Wh-What just happened here?" he asked.
"Maybe she just, like, spontaneously combusted or something?" Panic assumed.
"Can ghosts even do that?" Pain inquired.
The Ghostbusters stared for a long moment, finding it hard to believe that they won so easily. They were uncertain at first if they had, and then Diana let out a triumphant whoop. "Hot damn! That's what I'm talkin' about! Nobody can mess with us! We are the best!"
Sean scanned the area with his Psycho-Kinetic Energy meter (or "P.K.E. Meter" as he called it), a handheld device used to locate and measure that kind of energy emitted by ghosts; he wasn't at all convinced that the danger had passed.
"I don't believe it! We neutronized it!" J.G. happily exclaimed. "She's a molecular non-entity now!"
"Not only do we have the tools, but we've got the talent to back it up!" Diana jubilantly cheered.
"Oh, yeah! We bad-asses tonight, y'all!" Kimberly said, as she, J.G., and Diana all exchanged high-fives.
Sean's face suddenly registered extreme shock as he addressed his teammates. "I hate to break up the celebration...but this is extraordinarily bad!"
Before either of them could ask what was wrong, there was a deep seismic rumble and the entire building vibrated. They looked around nervously as the Tipton Hotel itself started to sway. Cement carvings and moldings around the edge of the roof cracked and broke off, falling toward the crowd below.
Noting the oncoming danger, Alexis rushed to Zack and Cody and shielded them the best way she could while the rest of the crowd screamed and ran to avoid the cement debris that rained down the side of the building. Mr. Moseby tried to calm down the hotel residents. "People, please! Try to stay in an orderly fashion as you flee for your lives here! We don't want anybody getting hurt!"
Maddie, who stood by in disbelief over Moseby's assertive attitude in the midst of all the chaos, suddenly realized her boss was standing directly in the path of danger, as a huge chuck of debris was falling towards him. "Mr. Moseby! Look out!" she cried upon running and tackling him out of harm's way in time for the chuck of debris to crash on the spot and place an enormous hole there. Lying on top of him, Maddie asked Mr. Moseby, "Are you alright?"
He had a look on his face that was registering great pain. "My…back!"
Back on the rooftop of the Tipton Hotel, the Ghostbusters looked up at the sky, waiting for the big blow, as an incredibly loud thunderclap rocked the entire rooftop. Hades stood calmly where he was, delighted in all of the chaos that erupted all around, while Pain and Panic were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
A bolt of lightning crackled from the swirling dark cloud in the sky, striking the rooftop. The Ghostbusters stood there, facing their new God, like Moses on Mount Sinai. And then Gozer spoke to them in a voice that could be heard throughout the entire world:
SUBCREATURES! GOZER THE GOZERIAN, GOZER THE DESTRUCTOR, VOLGUUS ZILDROHAR, THE TRAVELLER HAS COME! CHOOSE AND PERISH!
"Didn't I warn ya not to miss with the gods?" Hades told the Ghostbusters, following with a wicked cackle.
Kimberly looked up in confusion. "Is it talking to us?"
"What's he talking about? Choose what?" Diana asked.
J.G. brought himself to address the unseen deity to get to the bottom of all this. "What do you mean 'choose'? We don't understand."
CHOOSE! CHOOSE THE FORM OF THE DESTRUCTOR!
"I believe what he's saying is that since we're going to be sacrificed anyway, we get to choose the form we want him to take." Sean assessed.
"You mean the form of a Yugoslavian model wasn't enough for him?" Diana uttered. "I don't know whether to find that sad or appalling."
Kimberly's mind was fixed on what Spengler had just told them. "You mean to tell me if I stand here and think of Hannah Montana, then Hannah Montana's gonna come and destroy us all?" She scoffed at the idea, but then quickly realized how much sense it made, considering all that was already happening. "Alright! Just everybody clear your heads, okay? Don't think of anything. We've only got one shot at this."
THE CHOICE IS MADE!
"What the fu…?! Nobody choose anything!" shouted a panicked Kimberly.
THE TRAVELLER HAS COME!
"But we didn't choose anything!" Kimberly yelled, before turning to Sean. "Did you choose anything?"
"No!" Spengler quickly responded.
She then turned her attention to Diana. "Did you?"
"My mind's a total void!" Diana exclaimed.
Venkman then looked up towards the sky and innocently said, "I sure as hell didn't choose any…" She then stopped once she realized there was one person who she hadn't turned to yet: J.G.
They all turned and looked towards him, and immediately he said, "Why's everybody looking at me? I didn't think of anything either!"
"Well, there is only four of us here, Jay," said Kim. "So that would only leave you."
"Unless," said Sean, who suddenly began to realize a possibility, as he looked over the edge of the building and down towards the crowd of people, "One of them could be accounted for as well."
The other Ghostbusters looked over the edge and shook their heads in disbelief. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Kim exclaimed. "You mean our lives could be destroyed by some asshole's imagination of a…"
"LOOK!" J.G. suddenly screamed, pointing southward.
They all turned and looked in that direction, past Columbus Circle, where part of something big and white moved between the buildings, accompanied by thunderous footsteps of almost seismic proportions. By the time it reached Broadway and 55th, they caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a fat, white arm. The thundering footsteps continued to plod upon reaching Columbus Circle as the thing started to emerge from behind the buildings. From what the Ghostbusters could additionally make out, a blue garment seemed to be covering its enormous chest.
"Aw, shit! What in God's name is that thing?!" Diana exclaimed as she noticed a large, square, bobbing, and laughing white head atop a massive body of similar puffed white squares.
J.G. recognized it instantly, a look of shock registering his face. "Oh, man! It's…It's…"
"THE STAY-PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN!" Cody screamed as he and the rest of the crowd looked up in shock at the gigantic white figure that loomed over them. It was dressed in a tiny sailor's hat and a blue vest with a button undone in the middle, revealing a white belly. People in the street fled in panic as the marshmallow feet padded along, kicking over lampposts and mailboxes. The driver of a Volkswagen jumped out from his car, just before an enormous white marshmallow foot came down and flattened the automobile.
While everyone else was running in panic, London Tipton remained where she was, gawking up at the marshmallow man in utter disbelief. Her cell phone still in hand and placed next to her ear, she muttered into the receiver, "Uh, Daddy? Remember that cute little mascot I loved so much on those marshmallows you always bought for me to make s'mores?"
"I don't know if it might be the economy or George W. Bush," Kimberly stated, "But this city has gone to shit in just one night."
The Ghostbusters watched as the Stay-Puft Man plodded relentlessly uptown, coming directly towards them. The ground rumbled as his big, soft feet came down on the pavement. "What the hell do we do now?" Diana asked, hoping someone would have a reasonable plan in less than a second.
Spengler adjusted his Proton Gun as he said, "Full-stream with strogon pulse!"
"I don't know what you just said, man," Kim uttered, "but I'm all for it!" They stepped to the edge of the roof, moving like warriors ready to face the consequences. Looking down, they saw the Stay-Puft Man reach the building and then, using the church next door as a stepping stone, begin climbing the wall. "Oh, no that big, cute glob of marshmallow goodness did not just step on a church in my town! Roast this freak!"
They each fired point-blank at the Stay-Puft Man. He bellowed with pain and rage, as the beams struck him right in the chest and set his skin on fire. He began to burn with a blue flame that was spreading quickly across his torso and down his arms. He swatted one of those flaming arms at the Ghostbusters, forcing them to back away from the edge of the rooftop before he caught them.
Diana shook her head. "This is unbelievable! We're gonna be killed by a hundred-foot marshmallow!"
"Ironic, isn't it?" said Hades, still standing in front of the temple. "A bunch of marshmallows killed by a marshmallow. That's gotta be the most brilliant death there is. I mean, ya can't write this stuff!"
The Ghostbusters glared at Hades, growing extremely agitated over his obscene commentary. As they gazed in his direction, Sean looked past him and towards the inside of the temple, from the suspended pyramid to the two Terror Dogs. He then looked to his Proton Gun, an idea quickly popping into his thoughts. "I have a radical idea!" he exclaimed, and the others turned to him with hopeful expressions. "The temple door swings both ways. We could reverse the particle flow through the gate by…" He paused for a brief moment, hesitating to utter the last part of his plan, "…crossing the streams."
The other Ghostbusters looked at Spengler with doubtful expressions. "Whoa! Excuse me, Sean!" Kim assessed. "But as I remember from the last time our butts were on the line in this stupid hotel, you told me that crossing the streams was bad! And now you're willing to risk everything, including our lives and the hefty payment we're getting from the crazy black dude with the stick up his ass."
"Not necessarily," said Spengler. "There's definitely a very slim chance we'll survive."
The others hesitated for a long moment, completely uncertain of whether to go through with this; but then, as the flaming head of the Stay-Puft Man suddenly popped up and roared behind them, Kimberly immediately charged up her Proton Gun and said, "I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it! LET'S DO IT!"
The rest of them charged up their wands as well, and they fired directly into the temple straight ahead. While they were combining their particle beams into one large stream, Hades was starting to realize the danger and exploded in intense rage, orange flames surrounding his body.
"I don't believe this! I am not gonna be beaten by a bunch of freakin' mort—" And before he could even finish his rant, the entire front of the temple was obliterated along with the door, taking Hades and his minions along with it.
With the destruction of the earthly portal, the Stay-Puft Man was suddenly engulfed in a cyclonic wind that began to swirl around him like a firestorm. The flames were whipped higher and higher as the tornado picked up rotational speed. The Marshmallow Man then seemed to have exploded from deep inside, creating a flaming air burst high above the rooftops. All this had occurred while the Ghostbusters had been blasted off their feet.
The fireball reached its maximum explosive force and a sudden jet of air pressure occurred like a titanium vacuum cleaner in the sky, sucking the flaming mass of gasses and ash up through the atmosphere and right out of the dimension. The dark clouds disappeared with it, leaving a beautiful clear blue sky over the whole area.
Down below, Alexis was totally amazed over all that had just happened. Globs of marshmallow goo were all over the street corner, and even London Tipton was showered by some, covering her from head to toe. Zack and Cody were safe, as were Maddie and Mr. Moseby (despite the fact that he had thrown out his back). Everyone seemed to have been alright down there. But what about the people up there? What about the Ghostbusters?
The explosion she witnessed was quite intense. There was no way anyone could have survived it. And, for a while, Alexis believed that her favorite heroes, the Ghostbusters, had reached the end of their run.
And then she heard Zack and Cody say in unison, "Here they come!"
She looked up towards the entrance to the Tipton Hotel and saw the Ghostbusters emerge, all covered in marshmallow goo, with Carey and Arwin—looking safe, unharmed, and (most of all) normal—by their side. They were met with roaring applause from the crowd of New Yorkers. Once again, they had saved the day…and the world.
And Alexis Embers was there to witness it all.
END OF CHAPTER ONE