Chapter 31: Venus Fly Trap

The fire extinguishing system activated covering the floor with an eerie white fog. After a moment or two Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Mercury stood up ahead of the Ghostbusters and walked to the edge of the window to look at the extensive damage to the building. Sailor Mars whistled in amazement at the damage as Sailor Moon looked back to the Ghostbusters, "Is all of your equipment this dangerous?" "Well… yes," Peter said as he walked beside the Scouts and looked at the damage himself, "But we're very well trained to use it."

"'Well trained'," Dan scoffed as he stood back by Sailor Venus, becoming angry and hyper as he spoke, "You wanna know what my training was, Serena? 'Hit this switch, point this this way, push button. Make sure thing is dead before shooting.' What a crock."

"Okay, so exploding equipment is an occupational hazard," Peter stated trying to save face, "I mean, other places have these kinda issues."

"Like where?" Dan asked scathingly, "PEPCON? NASA?"

"Pete," Winston addressed as he brushed additional glass of himself, "don't get him riled up."

Egon walked to the window's edge to look at the damage with everyone else, a very disturbed look on his face. The reaction of the meter's detonation left a very terrifying impression on him. Ray walked beside him and saw the color drained from his face. He couldn't help but ask, "What was the reading on the meter before it blew?" "I-I don't know. It… It pegged!"

All of the Ghostbusters and Sailor Mercury yelled in unison, "PEGGED?!" "But," Ray was trying to talk through the shock, "you turned the gain on the meter all the way down!" "I haven't seen readings like that since the Ragnarok Incident with Jeremy Whittington," Egon took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes in disbelief, "Do you know what that means?" "I can only think of two words:" Dan chimed in, "We're boned."

"Wait, we're forgetting something here," Sailor Mars started, "What's in the room that sparked that reading?" Dan heard a shuffle behind him, prompting him to turn to find Sailor Venus standing ramrod straight. Before he could say anything Sailor Venus wrapped her hand around his throat and lifted him up with inhuman strength. He looked into her unnatural green glowing eyes as he gagged out, "I think I found the answer!"

The possessed Sailor Scout threw Dan across the room and sent him crashing into a conference room window. She turned her attention to Sailor Moon and began quickly dashing toward her. Winston attempted to intercept her and charged his thrower only to be knocked away, slamming into the floor face first rendering him unconscious. Seeing that prompted Peter, Ray, and Egon to grab their throwers as Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury stood in front of their leader to prevent Sailor Venus hurting her. She had no issue knocking a normal man with a nuclear accelerator out of her way, but slowed as she watched the two women step before her target. When she spoke it sounded as though there were two of her speaking, the reverb sending a chill up the Scouts' spines, "Get away from her or suffer the consequences!"

"Nail her!" Egon and Ray followed Peter's command and all three of them opened fire on her. The Scouts gasped at the split decision for fears it was going to hurt Sailor Venus, but after a moment of straight fire it looked as though the particle streams had no effect. She began to approach slowly, fighting against the streams making them power down. Peter wanted to ask the obvious question, but even he knew the equally obvious answer, "We don't have enough juice for this!"

Sailor Venus raised her arm as one of her love chains formed, but instead of its normal golden orange hue it was glowing in the same red and green that was promoted through Jedite's energy. The chain flew out and wrapped around them, soon pulled tight causing all three men to be bound together. The force of the chain tightening knocked the wind out of them. Before they could even hollar in surprise she used all of her strength to pull the chain again and whip them across the room into a support pillar in the middle of the floor with the slack of the chain wrapping around the pillar holding them in place.

After dispatching the three remaining Ghostbusters in her way Sailor Venus began approaching the three Sailor Scouts before her. She walked slowly as she spoke in her reverberated voice, "It's time…"

Sailor Mars knew it was a failed effort but she stepped forward and attempted to reach her friend, "Mina! Mina, don't! You have to fight the evil possessing you!" Sailor Venus finished her approach and stopped before the Scout of Fire, "There is no, 'Mina'." She clasped her hands down onto Sailor Mars' arms and was about to pick her up, "No! Mina, don't do it!"

That was when Sailor Venus closed her eyes and started whipping her head around violently, her blonde hair flying from side to side trying to fight the force that had taken over her body. Her eyes opened with strain as her eyes looked to have returned to normal, but when she blinked they started glowing green again. Between each blink her eyes switched back and forth showing the struggle to regain control of her body. She forced herself to try and talk, switching back and forth as she did, "Raye… I-I'm too weak. I can't fight it. Help!" "It's futile. You will bend to me." "No, leave my energy alone! Don't hurt my friends!" "I can, and I will!"

Sailor Mars watched as her friend and fellow Sailor Scout had a rhetorical conversation with the evil force within her. After a slight convulsion Sailor Mars could feel that the force inside Sailor Venus now took unprecedented control of her body. She looked back up with the green glow in her eyes as she looked into Sailor Mars' soul, "Now that I have her, I will take YOU!"

A beam of energy was hurled from the periphery of their vision which struck her in her side, throwing her off Sailor Mars. As the possessed Sailor Venus stumbled and turned to the direction where she was struck Sailor Mars fell over in surprise. They looked and saw a very angry 6-foot-tall man in a blue and gray jumpsuit with a trail of blood flowing from under his hat adjusting a dial on the device in his hands. Dan growled out, "Alright, motherfucker, you wanna play games?" He activated the thrower again as he gritted his teeth, "Let's play a game called 'I Win.' Object of the game?" He fired his thrower and managed to entangle the Scout in his stream just enough to do exactly what she did to the other Ghostbusters in her love chain. Dan screamed in anger and pulled Sailor Venus off her feet and flung her across the office space. As she crashed into a bank of computers and desks he snarled, "I kick your ass and win!"

As Sailor Venus was down Dan grabbed Sailor Mars by the hand to get her up and led Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Mercury to a safe place to think of a plan. They hid in an alcove behind another cubicle wall as they all knelt down. After a moment of trying to regain their senses Sailor Moon was appalled at what the rookie Ghostbuster had done, "Are you trying to kill Sailor Venus? Why did you do that?"

"Whatever has control of her," Dan explained as he removed his hat to wipe the sweat and blood off his forehead, a clear cut briefly seen before putting his hat back on, "it's protecting her body. I doubt I did anything of consequence. Besides, it's official we can't kill her and my stream was cranked to high and it barely worked at all. Anyone got any ideas?"

Sailor Mercury checked her computer for data playback. Even her own computer was giving an error message on the energy overflow that was happening with Sailor Venus's possession. She sighed in frustration, "My algorithm is based on your meters. If the meter truly topped out and caused an energy feedback, then we won't be able to do anything to the demon without weakening it first," she looked to Dan, "I'm not sure if even your equipment has the capability of doing it."

"Sailor Mercury," Sailor Mars grunted out, "he asked for a suggestion! That's not helping!" "Don't go bustin' her chops!" Dan yelled at her, "she's trying!" He stopped and started breathing through his nose to calm down. His bellowing made Sailor Mars recoil as again she felt his stress. Whatever happened in her absence with Sailor Jupiter was causing him to become unstable. It could have been the blow to his head, but it felt far more deep-seated than that.

After a moment of thought Dan started to throw ideas out, "Okay, okay, so the thing that's in Mina started as a class 7. It must have leached the power off her and…" he grabbed the bridge of his nose as the thought crossed his mind, "...Oh, sweet Jesus." That scared the three Scouts before him. Sailor Mercury knew where he was going with his theory, "It's using a great deal of her power while also using the multiple energy sources Jedite is tapped into." Dan groaned, "That thing's gotta be a more advanced sub-demon than the little pricks in the building! Maybe even more than the one that…" Dan started to grow more angry as he thought of what he did to Darien, "If I try to capture this thing with strictly my equipment, I donno if…" a thought crossed his mind as he looked at Sailor Mars.

She took notice of the facial expression as he looked at her; the gears were turning, "What?"

"Those anti-evil scrolls you have," he asked, "do you think they'll help push her power back into her?"

"I-I'm not sure," she tried to answer, "I've never tried to use one on an entity so powerful before."

Sailor Moon made an observation, "What about that pistol thingy you have? Can't you do anything with that?" "I don't know," Dan pulled the pistol out of the holster and looked at it, "I tried to use it…" it hurt him to say it to Sailor Moon knowing what happened, but he had to finish the thought, "use it on Darien and it didn't work," the look he knew was going to form on her face appeared causing him to wince. He had to power through it, "That was why I did what I did. It was a last ditch attempt."

"Wait!" Sailor Mars interrupted, "What happened to Darien? Did you find him?" The hurt look appeared on Sailor Moon's face again as Dan averted his eyes. Even Sailor Mercury closed her eyes in sorrow. Sailor Mars looked at Dan and started interrogating him, "What did you do?" When he didn't answer she grabbed the straps of his Proton Pack and shook him, "What did you do to Darien?! Was he the one that died?!"

Sailor Mercury got between them and forced Sailor Mars to release the Ghostbuster, "Now is not the time for this! Our priority is Sailor Venus!" After being released Dan sucked air through his teeth as he tensed up, attempting to suppress the pain screaming all over his body. When she saw how much pain he was in, Sailor Mars began to quickly understand - and remember - how much damage he's been through the last few days. Sailor Moon spoke softly to her fellow Scout, "Don't be mad at him, Raye. He's been hurting himself all night protecting us. All of the Ghostbusters have. I believe him when he says it was an accident."

Elsewhere on the floor Winston was starting to moan as he was beginning to come around. He picked his head up from the floor and attempted to shake the cobwebs off, "Ugh, did anyone get the number of the blonde-haired train that hit me?" That was when he felt a coil of some kind wrap around his legs and begin to pull on him, "Oh, man!" Next thing he knew he was pulled from the ground and whipped into the air, several pieces of equipment on him being flung about off his person. Sailor Venus used another of her Love Chains to send the hired Ghostbuster across the room and smash into a Xerox machine causing him to make it collapse under his weight.

He was in pain. He tried to stand to find he was incapable of doing it quickly. He heard the sound of heels walking across the tile floor and saw the top of Sailor Venus's head poking from just behind the cubicle walls, her distinctive red bow in her blonde hair being the best indicator of her identity. She rounded the wall and immediately he saw her eyes glowing from behind her bangs. She approached him and spoke in her dual-reverberating tone, "Why do you resist?" Although not a sight he hasn't seen before, the circumstances were extreme. Being the only non-science acclimated one of the team - even the rookie of the team having an engineering degree - Winston had at the very least enough sense to know if Peter, Ray, Egon, or even Dan hasn't stopped what's happening, "Look, I don't know what we did to tick you off so bad," he said with strain, "but what you're doing is wrong!"

Another chain formed in her hand, the same red and green hues enveloping it the same as the last. The chain wrapped around Winston's throat and became far more rigid, the chain lifting him off the copy machine and drawing him closer to her face, "My master demands you tell me why." It was clear Sailor Venus was not in control. Whatever was inside her was working directly at the behest of Jedite. He attempted to wedge his fingers between the chain and his throat so he could talk, "Because we were…" he gasped, "hired!"

"He was like you once; a mercenary." Winston stopped trying to get loose a moment once he heard that. He pulled enough to talk, "We're… not… mercenaries!" "Yes, you are. Against your wills. Like him." It was an odd statement. He didn't fully understand what was going on. In the intervening time between the teams splitting up and finding Dan in the stairwell Sailor Mars explained what had happened with the Scouts and why the Negaverse was attacking them. She explained that there were four Generals of the Negaverse, but Jedite was the only one that disappeared and never resurfaced. All of the others died as a result of a type of failure or fight, but their fates were known; explained as much by other Generals even if they didn't see what had happened. There was something more to this. You didn't have to be a scientist to see that, "Against…?"

"He was forced to serve, but only after agreeing to a lie."

The Ghostbuster blinked in confusion, "Lie?"

Back at the alcove Dan recovered enough from being hit in the head to start thinking of a plan, "Okay, here's what I'm thinking," he quickly peered around the corner of the wall and saw Ray's Ecto-Goggles laying in the middle of the floor. He reached out and concentrated on his powers. He thought about Lita and how badly he wanted to find her, knowing it was what was activating his incognito powers.

The goggles slid across the floor until Dan was able to grab them with his outreached hand. Quickly putting them on his head he then pulled out the ED pistol again followed by his pack's main thrower. He adjusted both devices as he explained, "Sailor Mercury: That fog-producing move you did at the airport?" "My Mercury Bubbles?" she confirmed. He nodded as he continued, "Use it to blind Sailor Venus. It'll buy us time and breathing space to work. Sailor Mars, while she's distracted you hit her with one of those sutras. With any hope that'll drain enough of her power back into her and give me a clear line of division between her and the rogue signal."

Sailor Mars asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Based on the previous readings Egon took," he raised the particle thrower, "I'll hold onto Venus's bio-electro frequency," he then raised his pistol, "then blast the demon in her out with the pistol," he put both down, "Hopefully with the sutra, the energy will be forcefully detached from her PKE."

Sailor Moon raised her hand like she was trying to have a teacher call on her, but proceeded to ask, "Uh, what do I do?"

"You got a wonderful job:" Dan stated, "You get to be the trap handler." Peering back around the cubicle wall he spotted Winston's trap. It had fallen off his pack as he was being thrown around the room. He started concentrating…

Sailor Venus still had the confused Winston in her corrupted Love Chain when she took notice of a box with a protruding handle and caution-striped black and yellow doors laying in the middle of the floor starting to twitch. She witnessed as it started to roll on its wheels toward an alcove back toward a small set of cubicles out of sight. She flung the Ghostbuster in her chain toward the pillar in the room where the other Ghostbusters were lashed and was subsequently wrapped in another chain holding him in place. Peter took notice of who was at his side and tried to be welcoming, "Nice for you to join us, Mr. Zeddemore." The black man groaned as his arms were pinned to his sides, the pain of being tied up clearly bothering him, "Great to be here, Peter. I think there's something more going on with the Scouts than we thought." Egon spoke up under the same strain beside him on the other side of the pillar, a hint of regret in his voice, "Winston, there's even more to this than you realize."

"Yeah," the hired employee stated aloud, "I figured. Just another day at work."

The trap rolled into Dan's hand, him pulling it front and center to show it to Sailor Moon, "When I say 'trap out', you throw the trap under ol' nasty and stomp the trigger," he quickly coiled the cable and handed the device to the Moon Princess, "You got it?" She took the device and quickly looked it over before nodding, "Yeah, I think so."

He looked over to Sailor Mercury, "Alright, you're up." She stood and prepared herself to use her attack before stopping and looking back down to Dan to ask, "Will you be able to see after I use my bubbles?" "So long as I have the Ecto-Goggles, I'll see through anything. Go for it."

Sailor Mercury nodded and began turning back to the main floor when she found Sailor Venus standing directly in front of her. She screamed as Sailor Venus grabbed her by the arms. A dark aura surrounded them as she began draining her of lifeforce. Dan immediately stood up and pointed the destabilizer pistol into her face, "I'm sorry, Mina!" The look on Sailor Venus's face actually contorted to surprise right before Dan pulled the trigger and shot her in the face. She released Sailor Mercury causing her to collapse to the ground. Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon grabbed her and checked her over as Dan continued shooting Sailor Venus and knocking her back. When there was enough of a gap between them Dan looked down and demanded a status, "Is she alright?"

Sailor Mercury spoke weakly, "She didn't get much out of me, I can…" she attempted to stand back up when she collapsed again under her own weight. It was clear she couldn't carry out the attack now. Sailor Mars stabilized her on the floor before looking back up to the rookie Ghostbuster in panic, "What do we do?" "We forego the fog. Get that scroll working!" Dan stopped firing and checked the charge gauge on the side of the gun to find the pistol was almost drained again. The increased energy consumption of the more amplified bursts were depleting the energy faster, "Come on, I don't have much power left in this pistol!"

Sailor Mars quickly stood and began her attack. She again held one of the sutras between her fingers as she placed the paper before her face to concentrate, "I call upon the power of Mars… Mars… Fireballs… Charge!" The sutra became engulfed in flames as it did before, the paper becoming rigid in her hands and her violet-color eyes opening to focus on her target. She threw the scroll toward Sailor Venus and attached itself to her forehead. Dan stopped firing and took out his PKE meter to monitor as Sailor Mars began encouraging her fellow Scout to break the demon's hold on her, "Come on, Mina!" she yelled, "Fight it!"

"It's working!" Dan called out as he adjusted the meter more, "The overall power threshold is dropping like a rock! The signals are separating!"

Sailor Venus was shivering in what looked like pain. She stood stiff before them as her eyes returned to their normal blue. It looked as though she was still fighting for physical control, only able to speak in broken speech, "It's… it's not… enough!" she looked at them with tears forming in her eyes from the pain, "Help!"

"We're working on it, kid! Hang tight!" Dan called out as he switched the pistol from one hand to the other and grabbed this thrower by its cord off the floor, pulling it up quickly. He activated it one handed and handed it over to Sailor Mars as he instructed, "I need you to fire this at her!" he dropped the gun into her hands, the weight nearly pulling her to the floor before recovering, "Geez, is all of your stuff this heavy?"

Sailor Moon stood with the trap in her hand responding to that, "The backpacks are like, a hundred pounds."

"What's that in kilograms?" the Scout of Fire asked.

Sailor Moon looked blankly at her, "Uh…" From the floor Sailor Mercury answered weakly, "Approximately 45 kilograms." Hearing that Sailor Mars starts grilling Sailor Moon yet again, "And why didn't you know that? Some leader!" "If you were so smart," Sailor Moon fired back, "why did you have to ask?" At first a look of realization formed on Sailor Mars's face before she quickly dismissed it, "That's not the point, Meatballhead!"

"Then what is, you spazoid?"

"I can't fucking believe this," Dan was floored. He broke up the pointless and idiotic argument, "Your friend in is peril, my bosses are in trouble, we have a job to do, and you two are bickering over bullshit?!" The bellowing from the American man beside them pulled them back to the situation before he actively punctuated the statement, "Quit bitching and focus on the problem at hand!"

The both of them winced before Sailor Mars got beside Dan and knelt down to start the device. Thrower fired up, she fired the gun sending the stream toward the struggling Sailor Scout. She was elevated above the ground, suspended by the stream allowing Dan to rearm the pistol and take aim. Sailor Moon stood and began prepping the trap. She was nervous. She knew it was almost time to throw out the trap and she made sure to do it right.

"Trap out!" She heard Dan call out her cue causing her to take the heavy incarceration device and start deploying it. She remembered when she was younger she watched the Ghostbusters on the news deploy traps a certain way. She actually became somewhat excited to do it. She wound up and threw out the trap on its wheels like she was throwing out a bowling ball. There was a grand feeling watching the box-like device glide over the floor. Little did she realize she had one tinsey problem…

The trap cord was around her foot.

The cord grew taunt and pulled her leg out from underneath her. The plan was moving so fast Dan didn't even take notice of her falling down and didn't notice the trap stop rolling from out of the corner of his eye. Sailor Mars didn't notice it, either. She tried frantically to get the cord off her foot to stand when Dan threw out the next command, "Okay, on three, open the trap! One… two… three!" Sailor Moon's chest tightened when she witnessed Dan pull the trigger on the gun in his hand, the energy bolt making contact with Sailor Venus.

Before he could realize the trap wasn't open the demon in Sailor Venus's body was blown out of her body and onto the floor. Sailor Mars disengaged the thrower dropping the Scout of Love to the floor. Before he could process the scene before him Dan witnessed as the demon quickly sprang to its feet and let out a savage growl before taking off into the darkness of the office floor. He turned to Sailor Moon and saw she was still on the ground with the cord tangled around her foot. She looked up with panic in her eyes. He felt his heart jump into his throat as he realized what he just had happen before him, "Jesus Christ! Why didn't you say something?!"

Before she could answer he dropped to his knees and started untying the trap cord from her foot and with the trap in hand he ran after the demon. Sailor Mars was still holding the man's particle thrower when he started running and yanked the device from her grip. She was pulled to the floor alongside Sailor Moon. Completely shocked, she watched as the man ran from her view toward the demon, leaving her with the other Scouts asking several questions, "What is the deal with him? He wasn't this angry when he came in! I can feel his anger; it's outta control!" Sailor Moon looked to her fellow Scout and remembered, "That's right! You weren't with us." There was an ominous tone in her voice. Sailor Mars looked her leader in the eye and saw there was a horrible revelation he hadn't been included in yet, "You mean, there's a reason? Does it have to do with Sailor Jupiter?" Sailor Moon blanched before looking back to the weakened Sailor Mercury. The both of them looked at each other as though there was a silent debate happening. She didn't like it.

The demon that was blown out of Sailor Venus bolted around a corner with Dan hot on it's tail. Upon rounding the corner he found the demon disappeared. He stopped a second and peered around, the Ecto-Goggles lowered over his eyes, "Now where'd that little asshole go?"

A pair of webbed feet swung down from the ceiling and kicked Dan directly in the face, knocking him back onto his back with a thud and causing the Ecto-Goggles to be thrown from his face. Once on the floor Dan grabbed his head in agony, the multiple injuries throbbing as he tried to suppress the pain enough to look back up. Once he did he was looking up to an ugly, dark red demon with a bulbous head, four eyes, and insect-like appendages for arms and legs. Dan immediately lifted his feet up and flipped backwards to get onto his feet while using his feet to kick the demon under it's chin.

From a distance Sailor Mars started to approach the fight to help when she began witnessing something almost uncharacteristic for a man of Dan's size. She was watching a physical fight take place with the demon taking swipes at him and him dodging them with martial arts moves. After a few moments of looking on she started to notice the fighting style, "No way," she whispered to herself, "that's Lita's fighting style!" It was almost like auto-pilot for the man, like he'd been doing it for years. Dan started throwing kicks and punches, landing them onto the demon after each successful dodge. She was almost… enamored.

Dan's fighting successes came to a crashing halt when the demon managed to land a hard punch to his face sending him across the room.

"Uh, oh!" back at the pillar Peter's eyes widened, "Look out! Incoming Irishman!" Dan's body sailed past the pillar and crashed into the already damaged Xerox machine that Winston damaged earlier. After recoiling in sympathetic pain Winston sighed in a type of relief, "At least I wasn't the only one getting his butt stuck in that thing!"

Dan rolled off the machine and hit the floor, swearing under his breath between gasps for air. He was already exhausted, but even if he did want to go to sleep the pain wouldn't allow him to. He heard Winston calling out to him, "Dan! Dan, are you alright?" Dan was on all fours trying to stand. He heard a whimper come from the man as he tried to get to his feet. It was obvious he wasn't. He finally stood and saw all of the Ghostbusters tied to the pillar with the corrupted Love Chains. In a pain-induced huff and quickly made his way to them and tried to undo the chains.

Egon tried to interrupt him, "Daniel… Dan! It's no good! The chains can't be broken until that class seven crustaceous phantasm is contained!" He could hear the agony in his voice as the rookie continued pulling at the chains, "No, I need help! I can't do this by myself! I'm getting my ass kicked!" Egon saw it in his face. The shear pain he was in was actively telling him he was failing.

Egon got firm with him, "Dan, I need you to listen to me," Dan had his head down and was closing his eyes as his superior spoke, "You saved us before. You can do it again."

"No, I can't."

Those were the hardest words that ever came out of Dan's mouth and it scared him.

"I failed Lita. I did it again!" Dan started to cry, "I couldn't save Darien; all I did was kill him! I probably killed Mina, too! This whole thing is my fault!"

"Dan, will you shut the hell up?!"

Dan looked back up at Egon with shock. He was practically screaming at him, "Our lives are depending on you! You're one of the fastest thinkers I've seen come through our doors! So what if you made a mistake?" After a moment Egon started to hush his voice, "Someone I knew once said, 'It takes a big man to admit his mistakes…'"

Dan finished the phrase "'But it takes a bigger man to correct them.'"

"Daniel, I know it hurts," Egon finally spoke in his normal voice, "but you need to protect those girls," There was a scream. Everyone turned their attention back to the other side of the room before Egon stated it, "Dan, you can do it," Dan looked back to the physicist chained to the post as he finished his piece, "The Sailor Scouts trust you… And so do I." It was a hard affirmation. Something inside Dan became more resolved as he looked into his boss's eyes. Egon gave him a single nod before giving him a smirk. Him knowing Dan's secret he knew all he needed was his confidence back. Sailor Jupiter being abducted took the only driving force he had this whole call away from him, but getting that vode of confidence from one Dr. Egon Spengler…

Dan cleared his eyes before he nodded back, "I'll be back guys!" He turned and slowly started running toward the screaming. Winston was still lost as to what just happened, "I don't wanna pry, but what in the hell was that all about?" Ray looked to his side towards Winston's side of the pillar, "Boy, you have been out of the loop."

In one of the offices on the floor Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury stood in front of Sailor Moon to protect her. The demon that was released didn't wish to deal with them anymore; it grew tired of playing around. Sailor Mars was directly in front prompting her to be the first to be grabbed. A dark aura surrounded her like the others before and was being quickly drained of energy. She wasn't held long. After the beast had its fill she was thrown aside. Sailor Mercury began to wind up one of her attacks, "Shine… Aqua…" Being weakened as she already was, she was subsequently grabbed in the middle of the move and was also tossed aside. The beast set all four of its eyes on Sailor Moon and began slowly walking in.

She was all alone at this point. The demon was too close, too fast, and too powerful to take on by herself. She backed into the corner of the office until there was no more corner. The beast spoke in a very unnatural tone, "I am going to drain you dry." The demon grabbed Sailor Moon by her arms as the same black aura surrounded them as she moaned in despair. She was beginning to lose the strength in her legs…

A loud whistle rang out, making Sailor Mars lift her head from the floor and look where the whistle came from. She heard a voice, "Hey, ugly?!" The demon released Sailor Moon and turned to find the persistent rookie Ghostbusters behind it holding the Ghost Trap in his hand, "Catch!" Sailor Mars watched as he tossed the trap into the air, very quickly pulling back his hand, then threw it forward at the trap. An energy pulse flashed in his hand and suddenly the trap was sent at high speed into the demon's chest. The move surprised her as the demon shrieked in severe pain, grabbing the handle of the trap and trying to pull it out. Dan tossed the pedal on the floor and spoke in a very gruff voice, "Enjoy your stay in the Containment Unit." His eyes; Sailor Mars saw something disturbing in the man's eyes.

His eyes were glowing green.

Dan slammed on the trigger. The demon continued its shrieking fit and even became louder as the containment vortex opened inside its chest. The demon's torso split in half from between its legs as the upper portion started being pulled into the trap. The creatures webbed feet under the trap and the black and yellow doors closed, a small electric spark running across it's casing before it fell into the ground. The man picked up the device and sneered at it, "That's what you get for fucking with my friends, you prick!"

Sailor Mars weakly watched as the man dropped the trap to the floor again. He doubled over putting his hands on his knees and attempted to catch his breath. He looked over and found both Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury in the middle of the floor, Sailor Mars looking up at him. He walked over and reached his hand out to her, "Hey, you okay?" Although his eyes returned to normal, she was hesitant. She wasn't sure what the energy pulse was that he used that launched the trap at the demon, nor could she just simply forget that look in his eyes. After a moment Dan was starting to see the distrust from her and didn't understand why, "Raye, what's the matter?"

After realizing she was inadvertently shunning him, she shook her head and took the man's hand, "It's nothing." After getting her back to her feet she nearly collapsed prompting him to catch her, "Woah, easy!" Sailor Mars grabbed her head, "That thing took a bit out of me," she lifted her head back up and shook it a bit, "but I'll be okay." They heard a bunch of feet shuffling and turned to the noise to find the Ghostbusters walking onto their position. Dan called out to them, "You guys alright?"

"We're okay," Egon stated as he took point, "after you captured the entity, the energy that made up the corrupted chains dissipated."

Dan commanded, "Check on the Scouts." With that everyone split off and checked on the girls. Sailor Mars finally managed to get onto her own feet and was able to stand on her own. Once able she backed away from Dan. There was a fear that broadcasted loud in her violet eyes. She knew she could trust him, but after what she witnessed she was not sure how stable the man was. He took notice of this, clearly unsure of why he was being looked at in such a fashion, "What's wrong?"

"Venus isn't breathing!" The both of them turned to the sound of Sailor Mercury's voice. They rushed over to her along with everyone else in the room as they saw both Egon and Sailor Mercury on either side of Sailor Venus. Sailor Mercury had her computer out as her visor was scanning her over, "Her pulse is slowing! There's an obstruction in her bronchial pathways!"

Egon adjusted the meter Winston had and zeroed on the obstruction, "It looks like a remnant of the demon that was possessing her. The depossession must have caused it to shed some of itself inside her lungs." "Egon, Amy," Ray knelt down beside Egon as he started rolling up his sleeves, "back up and give me room!" Everyone backed away as Ray began CPR on her. Sailor Moon was being escorted by Peter and was weakly walking along when she saw what was going on. Ray began performing mouth-to-mouth as the fear for the worst crawled up the back of her neck, her turning into Peter's chest and starting to cry.

Ray moved onto chest compressions as he started counting aloud, "And one, and two, and three…" he kept counting as he kept pushing on the young girl's chest trying to dislodge the blockage that was slowly asphyxiating the Sailor Scout for a second time for the night. He stopped counting as he tried to beckon the girl to wake up, "Come on, Mina. Come back to us, please!" He started mouth-to-mouth again and after a couple more breaths Sailor Venus started coughing. Ray backed away as the glob of ectoplasm that was in her chest shot out of her mouth, it soon clearing allowing her to take a deep gasp of air. She looked up to Ray with wide eyes. She quickly sat up and wrapped her arms around the Ghostbuster before her, becoming emotional as he gripped his uniform, "I heard you! You asked me to come back!"

Ray returned the embrace in kind in an attempt to calm her down, speaking to her as she settled, "It's okay now. You're going to be okay. Like we told you, nothing's going to happen while we're here."

Dan looked away from the two of them on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief, soon after turning his attention to Egon, "She's about the only other one that's taken as much abuse as me tonight. These girls are much tougher than they make themselves off to be." Egon had the meter he got from off the floor to his face, once again taking readings around him, "I lost all of my recorded data when my meter exploded, but if my memory serves - and it often does - the base PKE of all of the Scouts…" he stopped a second before correcting himself, a blip of guilt coming over him, "I'm sorry, of the Scouts present," Dan winced at that. Egon saw it and knew it bothered him, so he pressed forward to get away from the truth as quickly as possible, "their energy levels have decreased significantly. That wasn't a mere attempt at their lifeforce…"

"Jedite's toying with them." Egon looked to the young man beside him and he saw that look again. The gears were turning and it was concluding something far from pleasant, "I don't like it, Egon. He's deliberately making them exhausted." he put his head into his hands as he moaned. Egon observed this, "Much like yourself. Perhaps you and the Scouts should rest?" Taking his head out of his hands, Dan shook his head and looked to his watch, "No. It's Ten-to-Eleven now. We have little over an hour to check the rest of the floors," he looked from his watch and called out to Sailor Mercury who was helping Ray get Sailor Venus onto her feet, "Amy, how many floors does this place have? I mean, exactly?" Sailor Mercury looked to the rookie and answered him, "Not including the roof, one hundred and eight."

Dan grumbled, "Shit. We barely found any of the abductees and we only covered half of this building!" "Perhaps…" Egon sighed. He knew his junior wasn't going to understand the logic, but he threw out the possibility nevertheless, "Perhaps, that's what Jedite wants." Dan immediately snapped his head back around and contorted his face into an expression of confusion, "What?!" "Think about it: Sailor Mercury explained to me Jedite's main job was to gather energy for the Negaforce, the true ruling force of the Negaverse. He knows of their weaknesses now that he's been able to observe them. Why ask us to be part of the fight if it didn't benefit him in some way?"

Dan's face was slowly becoming one of being disgusted. It was almost like he was losing trust in Egon again, "What are you saying? Egon, this isn't a research project for MIT; this is peoples' lives we're talking about!" "I know that…" "Do you?!" His voice boomed across the floor, everyone's attention on the very upset man before them, "Are you seriously suggesting we abandon people still in the building; the people that Jedite has under his control?! I can't in good conscience leave those people behind!" Egon got angry again, his voice picking up, "I'm not suggesting anything of the sort!" The younger man blinked in surprise as the physicist continued explaining in a projected voice, "Every time we destabilize a demon's hold on a person, the energy disappears. Same with the demons' corprotial constructs. With every release, the demons that remain become more resistant!" Dan was starting to understand, the look on his face changing to reflect that idea.

Egon started to lower his voice when he took notice that Dan was in fact starting to understand, "I don't want to leave these people, either, but this whole thing was an engineered failure. The demons weaken the Scouts; releasing the demons from the people burns up the power in our Proton Packs; equipment destroyed; we're weakened; we still wouldn't have made the deadline." Dan saw it. Right after the door locked a few floors below he realized Jedite was playing with him, but that was when Sailor Jupiter was still at his side and his mind was still somewhat functioning. The abduction and the blow to the head made him far more emotional than logical. He still wasn't back to himself, but he was seeing Egon's point, "Then what you're telling me is, if we go after the root; after Jedite directly…"

"We'll save the people… and Sailor Jupiter."

Dan's eyes went wide. He quickly turned to everyone in the room and started hollering, "We have 47 floors to scale! Let's move it!"