The young Ghostbusters skipped their classes that day. Luckily Egon was good friends with a couple of their teachers so he could smooth things over for them. Eduardo's reason was different than he rest of them, tho; rather than doing research or working on the proton guns, he slept all day. For once, no one gave him flack for it.
By evening, Roland and Garrett were satisfied that they had modified the beams to safely contain a living creature. Roland installed a cage in the back of the Ecto-1. When it was time to go, they would have to help Garrett into the back seat & fold up his chair. He would take Eduardo's seat.
Meanwhile, Kylie had found an entry on stopping lycanthropy . It stated that, unlike popular fiction depicted, silver did not harm a werewolf. Instead, it explained, contact with it locked them into their animal form, while contact with wolfsbane made them human. The two combined, however, such as a silver dagger laced with wolfsbane oil, would leave a wound that wouldn't fully heal and poison the beast. The result was the human and wolf sides warring to be in control, and, if the poor being survived the struggle, a nasty scar.
Of course, the Ghostbusters wouldn't use such a thing, but Egon was afraid Hunter might.
By late evening, they were ready to leave, Janine included. Eduardo was still out cold when they left...
***
Harold stood in the park, right where the werewolf had ambushed him. His own pack of wolves was milling about his legs. Each wore the silver collars he's put around their necks when he'd caught them. They all had a vacant look in their eyes.
"Soon, my pets, soon it will be feeding time..."
***
Ohhhhh boy, here we go again with the strange dreams... Eduardo thought. Like the night before, he had awakened to find himself in the body of a canis lupis. He hadn't been alarmed the first time because he thought he was deaming. He wasn't so sure this time. Funny, I don't feel like eating anyone.
He looked at the clock. 10:27 pm. The others were out werewolf hunting. The joker in him couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the situation-- them leaving to find what was right under their noses. He should have been relieved. If he was the werewolf, if he was here and they were gone, then both he and they were safe from each other.
But he couldn't shake the bad vibes he'd gotten from Harry. There was something the man was hiding, and it wasn't in regards to the werewolf. Something about how he acted towards Kylie. Eduardo tried to tell himself it was just jealousy, but he couldn't shake the feeling she was in danger. He had to find her.
He made his way down the stairs, finding it difficult to descend on all fours, but managing. The door out would be a bigger issue--
Except that the garage door was open.
Janine was usually the one to close it after they left in the Ecto-1. She must have gone with them, to take his place. It was rare that she helped with the actual ghostbusting, but she'd proven herself in the field before. They probably thought they could use all the help they could get...
A few people actually gaped to see a wolf lope down the streets of New York, not knowing it was hot on the trail of the Ecto-1.
***
It wasn't long before the Ghostbusters came across Harold. He was just sitting on a park bench, alone.
"I thought you were gonna go bag a big bad werewolf!" Garrett stated, somehow accusingly.
"I am," the dapper gent replied calmy. "In my experience, stay in one place long enough and the prey will come to you."
Kylie's intuition was going nuts. Part of her trusted Harold unquestioningly. Another, deeper part was screaming that something was desparately wrong. But which part should she listen to?
Harold patted the seat next to him. "Sit, my dear. It would have been better if you'd stayed away, but I confess that I am happy you did come."
Garrett kept looking around, like a shell-shocked soldier expecting to be hit any moment. "Aren't you afraid?!? That werewolf tore you to peices last time, and you still don't even have a weapon!"
"Don't I, now? Appearances can be deceiving, my boy."
There was a low growling from behind them. And in front of them. And to the left. To the right. Glowing eyes burst forth from he darkness, beyond the trees, followed by snarling wolves. They were surrounded!
So caught up were they in the appearance of the pack that they ignored Harold entirely when he pulled out a rapier from within his cane.
Garret started their usula signal to fire. "On three, everybo--"
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." Harold held the rapier to Kylie's throat.
"Geez, what a glory-hound!" Garrett kept his eyes on the pack, ready to fire if one attacted, while wondering what to do about this new wrench Hunter added. What a fruitcake!
***
Eduardo figured the first place his fellow Ghostbusters would look for him... er, the werewolf, would be Central Park, where all the sightings had been, and where they had encountered him. He lost the Ecto-1's trail quickly, so that was where he headed. When he was just a block or two away, he heard the howling. More wolves?!? The gang was in worse trouble than he thought! He picked up his speed, running faster than he thought his four legs cold carry him, which was ten times faster than his human ones ever could. Soon he reached the park. It was just moments more when he reached the clearing he'd confronted Harry at before.
And there he was.
So were the rest of the Ghostbusters.
Including Kylie, whom Harry had captive with a blade to her throat.
The world went red.
***
Another wolf burst through the trees.
"Hey, it's a slacker! Wolves got 'em too!" Garret shouted at the latecomer.
Oh, if you only knew, compadre', Eduardo thought.
The new wolf's sudden arrival set the other ones off. The original four attacked the Ghostbusters, who managed to trap them with their altered proton beams. The fith slipped past, heading for Hunter and Kylie as the team watched helplessly.
Reluctant to leave his protege' alone with a madman and a wild animal, Egon shouted orders to the rest of the group. "Janine! Roland! Drive your wolves to the Ecto-1 and get them locked inside! Then hurry back and help Kylie!" He hoped two of the beasts would fit. He hoped he and Garrett packs didn't run out of juice before he figured out what to do with the other two. And he hoped Kylie would stay safe, her two assailants keeping eachother at bay.
***
Eduardo didn't know what to do. Every muscle in his body ached to leap and attack Harry, but he was afraid that if he did, Harry would slit Kylie's throat faster than he could reach them. He paced back & forth in front of the pair, head low, growling a warning, trying desparately to think of something he could do with his brain fogged by his wolf side.
Harold removed his blade from Kylie's neck, shoving her forward. She just stood there.
"I was wondering if you were ever going to show up, boy..." Then, to Kylie, "Hit him with your proton gun!"
To Eduardo's horror, despite the fact that Harold had just taken Kylie's life into his hands just a moment ago, she hesitated only a moment before obeying. The wolf was already leaping at Hunter when he'd given the command, but was shot down by her proton beam and fell to the ground with a yelp.
Harold got ready to take a swing at the wolf with his blade. The sword glistened like it was already wet when he arched it over his head.P
***
There's something familiar about that wolf, Kylie thought through the haziness in her mind. She noticed the gold earring in it's ear. iIt's the same wolf that attacked us before!/i But there was something more to it than that. As she stared at it, she could hear a voice, one that echoed in her memory.
Excuuuse me for worrying about you!...
She wasn't really sure why, but suddenly she felt very protective of the wolf, and very angry with Harry. She let go of the trigger, releasing the wolf from the beam, and shot Harry instead.p
Only it didn't work.
Harry was not stopped by the proton beam. The wolf rolled out of the way as Hunter completed his swing, it's shoulder getting grazed by the sword.p
It howled in agony. It seemed to shimmer before her, and she swore she could see a man in it's face.
"EDUARDO?!?"
Harry moved to strike again. Kylie tried shooting him again, which did nothing but distract him. He laughed at her.
Roland ran up beside her,PKE meter out. "He's a ghost!"
"Well, it's about time one of you figured it out! Some Ghostbusters you turned out to be! Your little toys don't even have any effect on me! I hoped you'd be more sport than this!"
Roland immediately set to work on altering the settings on his proton gun back to what they once were. Janine took over for Egon, holding his wolf at bay with her slightly-more-charged pack.
"Don't worry," Egon told her before rushing off to help the others with Hunter. "I have a feeling that, once we defeat hunter, the wolves won't be a problem."
He ran over to Roland and started adjusting his own pack. Kylie threw hers to Garrett, then ran over to help Eduardo. His body was melting back and forth between wolf and human. She held him tight, terrified for him. She had realized that the wetness on Hunter's blade had been wolfsbane oil, his rapier made of silver. Eduardo was dying.
Please, Lord and Lady!, she begged. Please heal him! Please help me save him!
Harold tried to re-establish his control over Kylie, but to no avail. Still, neither she nor her wolf-boy posed a threat to him at the moment. He focused his attention on the two that were.
He struck at Roland first. Ro lifted his pack up and used it as a shield. Hunter's rapier went partially though it, severing wires. The burst of electricity that was released knocked Roland out cold. Hunter made to finish Ro off.
"Hold it, Hunter, or you'll never see your precious talisman again!" Egon held it up.
Hunter's eyes grew wide with the hunger for power. "My talisman!" he screeched. "Give it to me, human! With it I can make a world full/i of werewolves, and hunt them for eternity! Give it to me, and I will give you your friend's life!" He laid the sword at Roland's throat.p
"ATOH!" came Kylie's voice from behind them. She stood over Eduardo with her hands clasped in front of her face, as if in prayer. "MALKUT!" She drew her hands down, still palm-to-palm, in front of her chest.
"The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram? Are you serious?!?" The ghost laughed. "You haven't got an athame, and even if you did, you--"
Egon used the distraction to make one final adjustment on his pack. Then he opened fire. "Kylie! NOW!" he cried, as the proton beam immobilized Hunter.
Kylie threw the trap. In moments, the ghost was snug inside it.
Which was a very good thing, since Janine & Garret's packs gave out. The wolves shook their heads as they came out from under Hunter's trance. Then they tried to pull their collars off with their paws, whining like they were nothing more than big, friendly retrievers. The two Ghostbusters weren't sure whether they should help the animals or not.
Egon revived Roland, making sure the young man suffered no serious injury.
Kylie held a convulsing Eduadro-wolf in her arms, a hand pressed to the wound in his shoulder. She looked to the Moon, low in the sky, the tears in her eyes glistening in it's light. Dawn would come soon, but would Eduardo live to see it? She shed her moonlit tears on his slowly stilling form. After a little while, his struggles ceased entirely.
When she realized he'd stopped moving, she pulled back with a jolt. "Eduardo?" she breathed. "EDUARDO?!?"
The others came running over, the werewolves too. Egon had assured the other Ghostbusters that the werewolves posed no threat, and got them to go set the other two in the Ecto-1, loose then remove all the collars. With the moon setting, the beasts were slowly returning to their human forms. Now they all surrounded the pair.
The other Ghostbusters were shocked to find Eduardo lying there, instead of resting at the firehouse. Odder still to Roland and Garrett was that he was naked, like the werewolves.
Janine was quicker on the uptake. "Oh, Egon! We should have realized--"
"I know, Janine." he laid a hand on her shoulder. "But Kylie, why is he unconcious?" He figured she was crying simply from learning that the boy had been cursed. Eduardo had a gash on his shoulder, but it didn't look bad, and his nakedness didn't allow for a more serious injury to be hidden.
Kylie just sobbed.
An image of Hunter with the sword pressed to Kylie's throat flashed through Egon's mind. He realized what Kylie clearly already knew. He bent down, desparately looking for a pulse. He didn't have to look hard. "He's alive!"
Kylie looked up at him, hope blooming in her eyes. Maybe Eduardo's wound was shallow enough that his body was fighting off the poison.
"Lets get him back to the firehouse!" Egon barked, not elaborating. He pried the young man from a stunned Kylie's arms and gave him to Roland, who slung him over his shoulder and ran back to the Ecto-1, the others close behind.
Kylie got in first, and Ro handed Eduardo to her. The others piled in, Egon, Roland, & Janine up front, Garrett & his folded chair in the back seat with Kylie & Eduardo, & the werewolves, who were now more human than wolf, in the cage for lack of room. The werewolves put on the four extra suits that were kept in the Ecto-1, and they found a blanket to wrap Eduardo in. Roland put on the siren and floored it.
By evening, Roland and Garrett were satisfied that they had modified the beams to safely contain a living creature. Roland installed a cage in the back of the Ecto-1. When it was time to go, they would have to help Garrett into the back seat & fold up his chair. He would take Eduardo's seat.
Meanwhile, Kylie had found an entry on stopping lycanthropy . It stated that, unlike popular fiction depicted, silver did not harm a werewolf. Instead, it explained, contact with it locked them into their animal form, while contact with wolfsbane made them human. The two combined, however, such as a silver dagger laced with wolfsbane oil, would leave a wound that wouldn't fully heal and poison the beast. The result was the human and wolf sides warring to be in control, and, if the poor being survived the struggle, a nasty scar.
Of course, the Ghostbusters wouldn't use such a thing, but Egon was afraid Hunter might.
By late evening, they were ready to leave, Janine included. Eduardo was still out cold when they left...
***
Harold stood in the park, right where the werewolf had ambushed him. His own pack of wolves was milling about his legs. Each wore the silver collars he's put around their necks when he'd caught them. They all had a vacant look in their eyes.
"Soon, my pets, soon it will be feeding time..."
***
Ohhhhh boy, here we go again with the strange dreams... Eduardo thought. Like the night before, he had awakened to find himself in the body of a canis lupis. He hadn't been alarmed the first time because he thought he was deaming. He wasn't so sure this time. Funny, I don't feel like eating anyone.
He looked at the clock. 10:27 pm. The others were out werewolf hunting. The joker in him couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the situation-- them leaving to find what was right under their noses. He should have been relieved. If he was the werewolf, if he was here and they were gone, then both he and they were safe from each other.
But he couldn't shake the bad vibes he'd gotten from Harry. There was something the man was hiding, and it wasn't in regards to the werewolf. Something about how he acted towards Kylie. Eduardo tried to tell himself it was just jealousy, but he couldn't shake the feeling she was in danger. He had to find her.
He made his way down the stairs, finding it difficult to descend on all fours, but managing. The door out would be a bigger issue--
Except that the garage door was open.
Janine was usually the one to close it after they left in the Ecto-1. She must have gone with them, to take his place. It was rare that she helped with the actual ghostbusting, but she'd proven herself in the field before. They probably thought they could use all the help they could get...
A few people actually gaped to see a wolf lope down the streets of New York, not knowing it was hot on the trail of the Ecto-1.
***
It wasn't long before the Ghostbusters came across Harold. He was just sitting on a park bench, alone.
"I thought you were gonna go bag a big bad werewolf!" Garrett stated, somehow accusingly.
"I am," the dapper gent replied calmy. "In my experience, stay in one place long enough and the prey will come to you."
Kylie's intuition was going nuts. Part of her trusted Harold unquestioningly. Another, deeper part was screaming that something was desparately wrong. But which part should she listen to?
Harold patted the seat next to him. "Sit, my dear. It would have been better if you'd stayed away, but I confess that I am happy you did come."
Garrett kept looking around, like a shell-shocked soldier expecting to be hit any moment. "Aren't you afraid?!? That werewolf tore you to peices last time, and you still don't even have a weapon!"
"Don't I, now? Appearances can be deceiving, my boy."
There was a low growling from behind them. And in front of them. And to the left. To the right. Glowing eyes burst forth from he darkness, beyond the trees, followed by snarling wolves. They were surrounded!
So caught up were they in the appearance of the pack that they ignored Harold entirely when he pulled out a rapier from within his cane.
Garret started their usula signal to fire. "On three, everybo--"
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." Harold held the rapier to Kylie's throat.
"Geez, what a glory-hound!" Garrett kept his eyes on the pack, ready to fire if one attacted, while wondering what to do about this new wrench Hunter added. What a fruitcake!
***
Eduardo figured the first place his fellow Ghostbusters would look for him... er, the werewolf, would be Central Park, where all the sightings had been, and where they had encountered him. He lost the Ecto-1's trail quickly, so that was where he headed. When he was just a block or two away, he heard the howling. More wolves?!? The gang was in worse trouble than he thought! He picked up his speed, running faster than he thought his four legs cold carry him, which was ten times faster than his human ones ever could. Soon he reached the park. It was just moments more when he reached the clearing he'd confronted Harry at before.
And there he was.
So were the rest of the Ghostbusters.
Including Kylie, whom Harry had captive with a blade to her throat.
The world went red.
***
Another wolf burst through the trees.
"Hey, it's a slacker! Wolves got 'em too!" Garret shouted at the latecomer.
Oh, if you only knew, compadre', Eduardo thought.
The new wolf's sudden arrival set the other ones off. The original four attacked the Ghostbusters, who managed to trap them with their altered proton beams. The fith slipped past, heading for Hunter and Kylie as the team watched helplessly.
Reluctant to leave his protege' alone with a madman and a wild animal, Egon shouted orders to the rest of the group. "Janine! Roland! Drive your wolves to the Ecto-1 and get them locked inside! Then hurry back and help Kylie!" He hoped two of the beasts would fit. He hoped he and Garrett packs didn't run out of juice before he figured out what to do with the other two. And he hoped Kylie would stay safe, her two assailants keeping eachother at bay.
***
Eduardo didn't know what to do. Every muscle in his body ached to leap and attack Harry, but he was afraid that if he did, Harry would slit Kylie's throat faster than he could reach them. He paced back & forth in front of the pair, head low, growling a warning, trying desparately to think of something he could do with his brain fogged by his wolf side.
Harold removed his blade from Kylie's neck, shoving her forward. She just stood there.
"I was wondering if you were ever going to show up, boy..." Then, to Kylie, "Hit him with your proton gun!"
To Eduardo's horror, despite the fact that Harold had just taken Kylie's life into his hands just a moment ago, she hesitated only a moment before obeying. The wolf was already leaping at Hunter when he'd given the command, but was shot down by her proton beam and fell to the ground with a yelp.
Harold got ready to take a swing at the wolf with his blade. The sword glistened like it was already wet when he arched it over his head.P
***
There's something familiar about that wolf, Kylie thought through the haziness in her mind. She noticed the gold earring in it's ear. iIt's the same wolf that attacked us before!/i But there was something more to it than that. As she stared at it, she could hear a voice, one that echoed in her memory.
Excuuuse me for worrying about you!...
She wasn't really sure why, but suddenly she felt very protective of the wolf, and very angry with Harry. She let go of the trigger, releasing the wolf from the beam, and shot Harry instead.p
Only it didn't work.
Harry was not stopped by the proton beam. The wolf rolled out of the way as Hunter completed his swing, it's shoulder getting grazed by the sword.p
It howled in agony. It seemed to shimmer before her, and she swore she could see a man in it's face.
"EDUARDO?!?"
Harry moved to strike again. Kylie tried shooting him again, which did nothing but distract him. He laughed at her.
Roland ran up beside her,PKE meter out. "He's a ghost!"
"Well, it's about time one of you figured it out! Some Ghostbusters you turned out to be! Your little toys don't even have any effect on me! I hoped you'd be more sport than this!"
Roland immediately set to work on altering the settings on his proton gun back to what they once were. Janine took over for Egon, holding his wolf at bay with her slightly-more-charged pack.
"Don't worry," Egon told her before rushing off to help the others with Hunter. "I have a feeling that, once we defeat hunter, the wolves won't be a problem."
He ran over to Roland and started adjusting his own pack. Kylie threw hers to Garrett, then ran over to help Eduardo. His body was melting back and forth between wolf and human. She held him tight, terrified for him. She had realized that the wetness on Hunter's blade had been wolfsbane oil, his rapier made of silver. Eduardo was dying.
Please, Lord and Lady!, she begged. Please heal him! Please help me save him!
Harold tried to re-establish his control over Kylie, but to no avail. Still, neither she nor her wolf-boy posed a threat to him at the moment. He focused his attention on the two that were.
He struck at Roland first. Ro lifted his pack up and used it as a shield. Hunter's rapier went partially though it, severing wires. The burst of electricity that was released knocked Roland out cold. Hunter made to finish Ro off.
"Hold it, Hunter, or you'll never see your precious talisman again!" Egon held it up.
Hunter's eyes grew wide with the hunger for power. "My talisman!" he screeched. "Give it to me, human! With it I can make a world full/i of werewolves, and hunt them for eternity! Give it to me, and I will give you your friend's life!" He laid the sword at Roland's throat.p
"ATOH!" came Kylie's voice from behind them. She stood over Eduardo with her hands clasped in front of her face, as if in prayer. "MALKUT!" She drew her hands down, still palm-to-palm, in front of her chest.
"The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram? Are you serious?!?" The ghost laughed. "You haven't got an athame, and even if you did, you--"
Egon used the distraction to make one final adjustment on his pack. Then he opened fire. "Kylie! NOW!" he cried, as the proton beam immobilized Hunter.
Kylie threw the trap. In moments, the ghost was snug inside it.
Which was a very good thing, since Janine & Garret's packs gave out. The wolves shook their heads as they came out from under Hunter's trance. Then they tried to pull their collars off with their paws, whining like they were nothing more than big, friendly retrievers. The two Ghostbusters weren't sure whether they should help the animals or not.
Egon revived Roland, making sure the young man suffered no serious injury.
Kylie held a convulsing Eduadro-wolf in her arms, a hand pressed to the wound in his shoulder. She looked to the Moon, low in the sky, the tears in her eyes glistening in it's light. Dawn would come soon, but would Eduardo live to see it? She shed her moonlit tears on his slowly stilling form. After a little while, his struggles ceased entirely.
When she realized he'd stopped moving, she pulled back with a jolt. "Eduardo?" she breathed. "EDUARDO?!?"
The others came running over, the werewolves too. Egon had assured the other Ghostbusters that the werewolves posed no threat, and got them to go set the other two in the Ecto-1, loose then remove all the collars. With the moon setting, the beasts were slowly returning to their human forms. Now they all surrounded the pair.
The other Ghostbusters were shocked to find Eduardo lying there, instead of resting at the firehouse. Odder still to Roland and Garrett was that he was naked, like the werewolves.
Janine was quicker on the uptake. "Oh, Egon! We should have realized--"
"I know, Janine." he laid a hand on her shoulder. "But Kylie, why is he unconcious?" He figured she was crying simply from learning that the boy had been cursed. Eduardo had a gash on his shoulder, but it didn't look bad, and his nakedness didn't allow for a more serious injury to be hidden.
Kylie just sobbed.
An image of Hunter with the sword pressed to Kylie's throat flashed through Egon's mind. He realized what Kylie clearly already knew. He bent down, desparately looking for a pulse. He didn't have to look hard. "He's alive!"
Kylie looked up at him, hope blooming in her eyes. Maybe Eduardo's wound was shallow enough that his body was fighting off the poison.
"Lets get him back to the firehouse!" Egon barked, not elaborating. He pried the young man from a stunned Kylie's arms and gave him to Roland, who slung him over his shoulder and ran back to the Ecto-1, the others close behind.
Kylie got in first, and Ro handed Eduardo to her. The others piled in, Egon, Roland, & Janine up front, Garrett & his folded chair in the back seat with Kylie & Eduardo, & the werewolves, who were now more human than wolf, in the cage for lack of room. The werewolves put on the four extra suits that were kept in the Ecto-1, and they found a blanket to wrap Eduardo in. Roland put on the siren and floored it.