Lunar Impact: Phases
Sailor Moon/Extreme Ghostbusters Crossover
By Dan "Ectodude" Shannon
Chapter 1: The Story So Far
In October of 1995, the world renowned Ghostbusters of New York - Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Raymond "Ray" Stantz, Dr. Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore - had been contracted by the Japanese government to investigate a series of disappearances in a local Tokyo park. Before the trip, Ghostbusters new hire Dan Shannon has an unusual and vivid nightmare of a young girl being killed by a man in mysterious gray attire. The girl herself was dressed in a Sailor-like costume trimmed in green and pink. The nightmare ended in Dan's death.
After subsequently being dumped by his girlfriend and evicted from his apartment, forcing him to move into his company headquarters, Dan is thoroughly distraught about his life becoming in shambles. The call to Tokyo, he believed, would take his mind off matters.
In October of 1995, Lita Kino - secretly known to Japan as Sailor Jupiter, guardian of the Moon Princess Serena and protector of Earth - has a horrible nightmare about being struck down by a man in a gray attire while being held in the arms of a man in green battle armor. As she faded in her dream, she witnessed him being struck down by the same man.
Being lonely and confused about the situation she consulted her fellow Sailor Scouts Serena Tsukino and Amy Muzuno - Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury respectively - to learn former Negaverse General Jedite was the man in gray. After another consultation with Raye Hino and Mina Aino - Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus - they learn of the man in green battle armor, but don't know what to make of it.
In October of 1995, Dan Shannon investigated the school nearby the park and detected a strange energy signature on his PKE Meter.
In October of 1995, Lita Kino needed to go to her locker, and heard a strange noise.
They rounded the corner…
This is how Dan and Lita met.
It had become clear Jedite was behind the disappearances in the park, having risen from the grave. After an ultimatum, Jedite had repeated his threat onto the city of Tokyo to burn it to ashes if the three Sailor Scouts who were present during his last battle did not repeat said battle. The Ghostbusters - also witnessing the projected warning in the sky - mobilized to the Tokyo International Airport in fear the Sailor Scouts didn't exist.
This only angered Jedite.
While two Boeing 747s where under Jedite's control, Dan and Sailor Jupiter were captured between them. Not knowing Sailor Jupiter was Lita, but still feeling a sense of urgency to the situation, Dan fired his Proton Pack's particle stream into one of the jets blowing out it's nose landing gear. As this happened, the symbol of Jupiter appeared on his chest. The planes collided as they dove out of the way.
After a failed capture attempt on the Ghostbusters' part, Dan and Sailor Jupiter awoke after the collision to have Dan recognize not only was Sailor Jupiter the girl from his nightmare, but that Lita was Sailor Jupiter. Terrified that Dan had figured out her secret, Sailor Jupiter follows her fellow Scouts into the plumes of smoke emanating from the wreckage and disappear.
After the ordeal, and Dan confronting Lita about her abilities, the Sailor Scouts learn that the Ghostbusters are fighting on the same side as them and hatch an alliance to stop Jedite. There is more to the story as after Dan returns to the temporary headquarters in an unused American Embassy building, he is confronted by the Scouts' cat guardians Luna and Artemis. They reveal onto Dan he is what is known as a Solar Knight - one of the Protectors of the inner belt Sailor Scouts…
He is Jupiter Knight.
Back at Raye's family temple, whilst the Sailor Scouts and the Ghostbusters strike their alliance Jedite appears as a projection in the temple and challenges both groups. If either one of them wanted to see the people who were abducted from the city park alive, they were to fight their way through Starlight Tower.
Separated but with their counterparts, the Ghostbusters and the Sailor Scouts clear level by level while finding the missing members of their respective teams. After several mishaps, Sailor Jupiter is abducted by the sub-level demons roaming the building. Dan goes on an insane rampage fighting through his pain to reach the top of the tower before Jedite's set deadline. It wasn't long until both teams find Jupiter battered and beaten on one of the floors.
Once on the roof, it is soon discovered that not only were the Ghostbusters actively helping Jedite by releasing the energy from the possessed people within the tower to return them to normal, but that Sailor Jupiter had not escaped Jedite's hold. The Sailor Jupiter that had been with the team was a decoy; a doppleganger that nearly kills Dan with his own Proton Pack. Trapping the creature with a hidden Ghost Trap on his pack, the real Sailor Jupiter - who was hung from a transmission tower on the roof - is then struck by another energy bolt from Jedite's hand.
Once the other Ghostbusters and Sailor Scouts ran onto the roof attacking the demons Dan ran to the tower. After managing to climb all the way up and retrieving her, it was already too late. After a tearful goodbye, Sailor Jupiter - Lita Kino - succumbed to her wounds and died in Dan's arms.
The rest of the Scouts and Ghostbusters became immobilized after the Scouts became fatigued and the Ghostbusters Proton Packs ran out of power. Finally having enough, Dan transformed into Jupiter Knight in full battle regalia. After slaughtering the all of the sub-demons, Jupiter Knight set his sights on Jedite. After a long and grueling fight, Jupiter Knight managed to get back to his Proton Pack and start firing the pack at Jedite.
Jedite was too powerful for the beam to be effective. That was until Jupiter Knight concentrated as his energy seeped into the casing of the device and started overcharging the pack to the point it nearly overloaded. He managed to to finally contain Jedite's form, but he had reached behind him to discover his last Ghost Trap was used.
Jedite, in final stride, called the for the power harvested throughout the building and enabled himself to become an extremely powerful sub-deity. It was an energy level not which the Ghostbusters had ever seen. Opening a portal to a netherrealm, Jupiter Knight was thrown in.
During the fight, an energy bolt had flown in an errant direction to the ectoplasmic bonds on Sailor Mars' wrist which loosened it. Just as Jedite was about to kill the remaining Sailor Scouts and Ghostbusters, Jupiter Knight reemerged from the portal and with several other arms helping, they grabbed ahold of Jedite and pulled him into the void. Sailor Mars manages to finally pull free and frees the others from their bonds.
The portal was now out of control and ever widening. Using the power of the portal in conjunction with their Proton Packs, the Ghostbusters pulled what was left of Jedite's sub-demon thralls out of the building and into the void and the void itself started to close. Despite knowing it would entrap Jupiter Knight - Dan Shannon - their fellow Ghostbuster and friend - in a spirit realm, the Ghostbusters regretfully begin closing the portal to save the rest of the world.
The Packs never fully recharged. In the middle of the operation, the Packs started to fail again. Knowing this was the only opportunity, the remaining Sailor Scouts begin overcharging the Ghostbusters' equipment with their powers to seal the portal.
Feeling a sense of loss, both teams of heroes begin morning. Unbeknownst to them, the remaining energy left from the portal destruction started to loom the building awaking the fallen people throughout, including Sailor Jupiter. After learning what had happened to Jupiter Knight, Sailor Jupiter broke down. Just as she had given up hope, Jupiter Knight reappeared in the location the portal was open. It would have been a happy ending…
But that's only half of the story.
Shortly after the Ghostbusters returned to New York, the operation closed. From the damage sustained during the mission in Tokyo, on the authority of the American Ambassador of Japan, the payment was denied. After going their own ways, Egon remained in the firehouse to watch over the Containment Unit, and Dan returned home to Chicago to start his post-Ghostbusters career as a telephone lineman.
Lita had continued her life as both a student and Sailor Scout still fighting evil forces. As time went forward she continued to correspond with Dan through letters to each other, her hearing of his work, and him receiving pictures of her and the other Scouts. Eventually, the forces of the Negaverse ceased. The Scouts eventually faded from the public life for there was no more evil threatening the world in their corner of the world. Happiness still reigned between them despite being thousands of miles apart.
The happiness ended after 4 years. Looking forward to going to culinary school in France, Lita had received a letter that looked to be one of Dan's…
It was from her Grandfather.
He was dying from cancer.
Years had passed. Dan had been laid off from the phone company after a merger with a larger company leaving him on the verge of bankruptcy. On the off chance while watching TV to subdue his mind, he learns the Ghostbusters had now been placed back into action. Egon had recruited students from his class at New York Community College - Roland Jackson, Kylie Griffin, Eduardo Rivera, and Garrett Miller - to be the next generation of Ghostbusters. It was clear where he needed to go.
Working as the new team leader, Dan lead these new, "Extreme" Ghostbusters on a great deal of cases saving New York time and again from a new breed of ghosts. Even though Dan has pulled the team from inexplicable danger, resentment runs rampant amongst the new team over his methodology.
In June of 2002, Dan learns his brother had become married and that he is now an Uncle of a little girl. After a conflict with Eduardo's brother Carlos, Dan finally reveals his loneliness and sense of abandonment with team secretary Janine Melnitz. Confessing his love for Lita, he resigns to the fact he will never see her again and is doomed to be hated by the team.
In June of 2002, Lita - now an adult woman working as a lowly waitress for a very hostile woman - is feeling entrapment she never thought possible. In an attempt to obtain a loan to finally start her own business, she is denied. No money, no future without difficulty, she regretfully resigned herself to a life of indentured servitude to make ends meet. On the night of her bank loan denial and subsequent beratement by her boss, she proceeds to Raye's temple on Cherry Hill as she had for years to meet with the other Sailor Scouts. During their meeting, it is learned Egon Spenger had contacted Amy to request Lita to come to New York. When Lita learns Dan is the new team's leader, she immediately quits her job, packs up, and leaves for New York.
On another routine day, Dan and Roland depart for the auto parts store to replace parts on the teams secondary vehicle when Lita arrives at the Ghostbusters firehouse. She enters to meet Janine and meet with her old friend Egon. The other members of the team meet Lita with warmth.
That was, until Egon tells them Lita is Dan's girlfriend.
In June of 2002, Dan felt a familiar sensation while outside the front of the firehouse. He proceeds to run inside.
In June of 2002, while talking to Egon and the new team, Lita feels a sense of warmth she hadn't sensed in what seemed to be forever. She turned.
After nearly 7 years, Dan and Lita were back together again.
The reunion was short lived when a massive grouping of calls came in about a monster crashing through neighborhoods in midtown Manhattan. Dan and Eduardo go ahead of the others to investigate. During their radio-in, Lita hears of the destruction and begins to worry for Dan's life. After the other Ghostbusters leave in Ecto-1, Lita proceeds to grab her transformation wand from her baggage and hightail it to the Chelsea neighborhood.
After driving through destroyed streets and buildings, Dan and Eduardo discover a Draugr - a Norse creature of evil - destroying everything around it. The two Ghostbusters barely escaped the creature, but at the cost of severely damaging the Ghostbusters Supplemental Ectoplasmic Response Vehicle - the Chevy S-10 Xtreme Dan belovingly called Lucky Black.
Lita departs a cab in the neighboring neighborhood and transforms again into Sailor Jupiter. She spots the Draugr and attempts to destroy the beast, but it instead grabs her and proceeds to perform severe bodily harm to her.
Dan awakes from the accident inflicted on the truck and starts empathically sensing Sailor Jupiter's pain. Instructing Eduardo to exit, he started the damaged truck and ran his way back to the creature's location with the Guardian in it's hand. Dan rams the truck into the creature allowing Sailor Jupiter to be set free, but it only slowed the creature down. Trying to use his Proton Pack, Dan was only able to do minimal damage before the creature grabbed him forcing him to overload the pack.
No more equipment and now alone, Dan did the only thing he could to save Sailor Jupiter and himself. Using his civilian-form powers as Jupiter Knight, he proceeds to tear the Draugr apart, knocking it down enough to get a Ghost Trap on the beast and trap its essence.
Sailor Jupiter was hurt badly. After another tearful goodbye, Lita had again succumbed to her wounds. Refusing to let go, Dan uses one more of his powers and heals her. The massive light between them alerts the other Ghostbusters, but find no reading associated with the light on their PKE meters. The energy exchange brings Sailor Jupiter back to life, but nearly kills Dan; after she escapes, he collapses into a coma from the energy drain. After being indisposed for 2 days, Dan finally awakes. Lita feels an incredible guilt about the situation. Because of a massive uptick of paranormal activity in the city, she joins the Ghostbusters.
A new order starts in the city. After the abduction of a prisoner in transport to the prison, a cult calling themselves the Order of Asatro led by the mysterious Madame Holly perform a sacrifice to gain access to a magical recorder. Capable of great destruction, parts of the music used in Ragnarok were split up to prevent anyone from initiating the end of the world, but it isn't the first time in recent memory the recorder was used.
After an earthquake shakes New York, Egon discovers the energy used in the event matched a signature he saw during Jeremy Whittington's raign some 17 years before. The newly formed night team consisting of Dan, Eduardo, and Lita using a new vehicle proceed to Jeremy's home for answers. Cindy - Jeremy's wife - informs them Jeremy had passed away, but his friend DyTyllio may have the answers they seek.
It was now a race between the Order and the Ghostbusters to find the remaining stanzas of the Symphony of Destruction, but without knowing of the Order's existence, the Ghostbusters are fighting blind.
With more of an idea of what's going on, the Ghostbusters get to work searching for the recorder, but find the trail was rather cold. After some brainstorming, the team sought out the abilities of Raye and her ability to fire-read to get a new lead on the documents. After looking over the information with Amy and Mina, Raye performs the reading only to have the flames produce a negative effect. Shortly after unpossessing Raye with a combination temple charm covered in Psychomagnotheric slime supplied by the Ghostbusters, Amy calls to inform Dan and Egon of the situation.
This is where our story resumes…