Author's Note: Welcome, foolish mortals. Are you looking for a story that will give you thrills, chills, and maybe a laugh or two? Well, if your answer is "yes" to all three, you've come to the right story!
Hi, everyone! I'm sorry I've been absent, but university assignments can be quite a pain. And, of course, there's working on the weekends to consider. But hopefully this more than makes up for it. Before we get started, I suppose it's only fair I tell you about how I came to know this overlooked child of the overall Ghostbusters franchise. I think I was still 11 or 12 years old, sometime after discovering "Godzilla: The Animated Series"; this was back when Netflix had a lot more choices of things to watch, including a cartoon series done by a company called Filmation. The title? "Filmation's Ghostbusters". That's right; "Filmation's Ghostbusters" was my introduction into the world of the Ghostbusters before the two 80's films, "The Real Ghostbusters", "Extreme Ghostbusters", and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" ever came into my life. And even when I watched "The Real Ghostbusters" years after the Filmation version had been removed, my mind sometimes wandered to that other animated series, one clear detail being the two main characters getting into uniform via a weird-looking room with a conveyor belt. Later, during high school, I found some of the episodes on Amazon Prime. That was when I started writing a fanfiction of the series set in first-person and inserted myself, Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy-Doo into it. I got pretty far, too; right up to the third episode of the five-parter that sets up the series. Unfortunately, attentions waver and it fell to the wayside for a number of years. And now, in honor of the spooky season this year (even though I may be a bit late), I'd like to try to "bring it back from the dead", so to speak. Of course, it's now undergoing a major revision, primarily turning it from first-person to third-person and expanding upon the going's-on in this particular corner of my fanfic-verse, as I'm sure this first chapter will show.
Now, I believe I need to address the elephant in the room. I mentioned that I inserted a certain character into my first version of this story, one who is not particularly loved by the world at large. In fact, his name is the title of a certain list of certain characters that have gained the hate of readers, TV-watchers, and moviegoers all over; a list that includes Godzooky, a character that I am quite fond of. Allow me to explain my reasoning: Some years ago, when both my paternal grandparents were still alive, I was watching cartoons on Boomerang at their house one day and the channel had an event called "Boomer-Royalty" going on, where cartoons featuring a particular character were shown for a length of time. The last time I was up there, it was the Pink Panther. This time, it was a little Great Dane puppy with quite a gung-ho attitude who turned out to be the nephew of Scooby-Doo. His name was Scrappy-Doo. Now, you have to understand that at the time I had no idea that Scrappy was such a hated character. I grew quite fond of the little rascal, the same way I grew fond of Godzooky. Ever since I discovered him, I made sure to include him in my cover band "The Scoobidinis" as an extra musician. Later, I discovered to my own shock that Scrappy was not an admired character; he had even been made the villain in the first live-action Scooby-Doo film. The fact that he had tried to kill Scooby in that movie made me hate him for a moment…but then the gears began to turn and when the series "Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated" came around, I decided to give the hated pup a second chance by having him redeem himself by assisting the Mystery Gang in the second season in finding and destroying the Evil Entity hidden deep within Crystal Cove. When I re-discovered "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and found a picture on Pinterest that featured Scooby, Shaggy, and Jack Skellington, I took things a step further and made the pup part of the Halloween Town community, the reasoning being that due to his exposure to the Daemon Ritus (among other unknown factors) Scrappy gained various supernatural powers and ended up being quite an important figure in a young Jack Skellington's life. When I re-discovered "Filmation's Ghostbusters", I decided to have Scrappy apply his new talents there on the side of the Ghostbusters. I also moved him from being "extra musician" to "special effects man" for "The Scoobidinis", as his newfound reputation made him an unwelcome presence on stage. So yes, I am aware that Scrappy isn't the most popular character on Earth, but, as with Godzooky, I'm sticking to my guns. And if that makes you unhappy, then you can just stop right here and find a different story to read. If you're willing to read on, my only suggestion is to leave a constructive review or don't say anything at all; flames will not be tolerated.
Now for the disclaimer: I own only my OCs, which in this case are Vicky and two girl ghouls based on characters that made a brief appearance at the end of the 1988 direct-to-video movie "Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School". I do not on the characters of the "Scooby-Doo" franchise; they belong to Hanna-Barbera—well, Warner Bros., really. I also do not own the characters of "Filmation's Ghostbusters"; as the title states, they belong to Filmation. And I do not own the characters of "The Nightmare Before Christmas"; they belong to Tim Burton and Disney. (Side note: I recently bought the TOKYOPOP manga "Zero's Journey" and the book "Long Live the Pumpkin Queen" by Shea Ernshaw; they are both pretty good reads and the latter was quite an insight into how Sally thinks as well as how the characters of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" world were brought to life in a book format. Hopefully I can use that knowledge in subsequent installments.) There are also instances of Brazilian Portuguese used here, so for those of you who are fluent, if I've used certain words/phrases in the wrong context, I apologize and please give me some pointers on how to correct them.
And now, let's begin this new version of the story I started back in high school, with a certain someone trying to get somewhere but getting nowhere fast…
Chapter 1
In an unknown world, in an unknown time, all was quiet. Until a very unusual sound went off. It was loud and sounded like many different sounds going off at once. Anyone who was possibly in that world would have no idea what it was, but anyone in our world would likely recognize it as organ music, for that was what was sounding off at different times in different worlds. But this was no ordinary organ, and the being playing it was anything but ordinary. The instrument in question was called the Bone Troller, and its player was Prime Evil, a spectral, robotic-looking, red-robed wizard who had been trapped in an alternate dimension for an unknown amount of time and was now looking for a way out.
"Chhrzzt! Bah! Still the wrong tune!" the red-robed specter growled as he hit a set of keys on the Bone Troller, only for a discordant sound to come out of the pipes and to arrive in the wrong place again.
He tried another chord; the notes came out discordantly once more as lightning flashed all around but the Bone Troller got nowhere.
"Wrong again! How many more centuries will it take to find the right notes?!" Prime Evil shouted.
Considering how long Prime Evil had been at this, you'd think he'd be a bit more patient, but that proverbial fuse went out a long time ago, so he was practically chomping at the bit to get to where he wanted to be.
Turned out he didn't have to wait long.
Prime Evil turned to another part of the keyboard, envisioned the appropriate keys he wanted to hit, lifted his metal gauntlet-covered, clawed fingers, lowered them, and…
Out came a perfect chord. Call it dumb luck or fate, but he did it.
"EE-YAA-A-A-I-I-I-I-IKES!"
The shrill scream that rang throughout the old Southern mansion was loud enough to wake the dead. Or at least wake up two ghosts.
"Good grief, Shreako; it's too early for this," groused the first ghost, who was wearing a yellow ranger's hat tied with a red band, as he "sat up" in mid-air. He then looked about to see that he was by himself. "Shreako? Meako? Now where'd you ninnies run off to?"
The sound of teeth chattering drew the brown-haired ghost's attention to a large window with a curtain; one of the drapes on the side was shaking rapidly.
"Come outta there, Meako; it was just Shreako doin' his shrieking bit again," the ghost said to the shaking curtain.
The drape only continued to shake, so the ghost reached through it and was about to say something to "Meako" when he found himself holding a thin ghost with a beak-like nose and wearing a green aviator's cap that looked scared out of his wits.
"EE! AH! AHH! WHOO-OO! DON'T HURT ME!" the ghost squawked in alarm.
"We're ghosts, Shreako; we can't get hurt," the first ghost pointed out. "And what's the big idea? You wanna wake up the neighborhood?"
"I didn't know we had any neighbors, Freako," Shreako remarked.
"Don't get smart," Freako warned as a grabbed the sides of Shreako's aviator cap and pulled it down over his head, the thin ghost exclaiming in response. "If you're here, then where's…?"
Freako trailed off when he saw the bed skirt quivering. He reached under the bed and fished out a translucent red cap.
"Meako, I know you're in there!" Freako called. "Get out here!"
"N-Nobody's ho-ome!" a nervous-sounding voice called back.
Freako rolled his eyes; he liked his brothers, but they often never ceased to drive him crazy.
"Will you come out already?!" Freako called, reaching into the cap.
The first thing that came out was an umbrella; Freako threw it like a javelin, making it go straight through Shreako and making the ghost giggle loudly. The next thing that came out was a tiny ghost wearing a bowler hat with a switch attached to the back; the old Demonstrator Ghost. The ghostbusting ghost trio had used it many times, most memorably when they first came to Beauregard Mansion after getting a call from a young man named Shaggy Rogers who had inherited the place; who knew it would have led them to making new friends in Shaggy Rogers, Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and Vicky, helping them solve the case of the Beauregard Treasure, and receiving the mansion as a place of their own to haunt.
Freako managed to pull himself out of his bout of nostalgia, put the Demonstrator Ghost down, and reached back into the cap. This time he had trouble pulling out whatever he had grabbed. He had to tug three times before he managed to fish out a portly-looking ghost by his tail-looking end.
He then put the nervous ghost "down" and almost shoved the red baseball cap into his hands before he asked, looking between his two brothers with a glare, "Now, would somebody mind tellin' me just what is goin' on around here?"
As if in answer, the wind began picking up outside, making the trees almost blow sideways and the mansion rock on its foundation. The drapes in the room where the Boo Brothers were in blew shut and the candle went out, making the ghostly trio go into a panic and run into each other in the dark. Once the light source was restored, the Boo Brothers found themselves in a clumped mess (again) and it took a few minutes (and much arguing and loud, shrieking laughs from Shreako) to get themselves untangled.
"Who-who-whuh-what-what-what was tha-a-at?" Meako managed to stammer.
My question exactly, Freako thought to himself as he looked around for any immediate clues.
Ever since Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and Vicky had left, aside from having to occasionally deal with the ghost of Colonel Beauregard and the occasional snooper either from town or the Scroggins property next door because somebody (Shreako) decided to get into some mischief, things had been pretty quiet around the Beauregard property. Until now, that is. As leader, Freako made it a point to always know what to do, but what had just happened mere minutes ago was stumping him.
"Maybe it's that kooky Colonel again," Shreako shrugged, really grasping for proverbial straws at the moment.
"Wasn't me."
"Oh. Well, in that case…" A look of fear came over Shreako's face as he suddenly realized that somebody had replied to his comment and he and Meako let out screams of alarm.
Freako rolled his eyes, took the heads of his two comrades, knocked them together, and said, "Will you two cool it? It's just the Colonel."
"Oh, uh… Heh, yeah… I-I knew that," Shreako smiled sheepishly. "Right, Meako?" he then asked, looking at his baseball cap-wearing comrade.
"Uh…uh, y-yeah. Of course," Meako answered in the same sheepish manner.
At that moment, Colonel Beauregard decided to make his appearance in the room. He was about average height with white hair and beard, glowing yellow eyes, and wearing a gray Confederate officer's uniform.
"Pardon for the intrusion," the Colonel began in his Southern twang, "but I thought it best to talk face-to-face."
"Well, y-you think maybe you could knock or somethin' next time? W-we're s-spooked enough already," Shreako snapped.
"Pipe down!" Freako ordered before returning his attention to the Civil War-era specter. "You know somethin' about this?"
"Not completely," Beauregard admitted. "But I do know whatever it is shook me to my core. And I have a feelin' we might not be the only ones."
"You mean there are some other spooks that got spooked like we did?" Freako inquired.
"I know I certainly was!" Shreako remarked. "I was soundly asleep when…BOO! It was like something jumped out at me, only I couldn't see it!"
"D-Don't forget the lights going out!" Meako added.
"And the wind; it was really blowin' out there," Freako put in.
"And it was chillier than I had ever felt it before, even in winter," Beauregard said.
"Huh, I was wonderin' why it was starting to feel like I needed a sweater," Shreako lightly chuckled, rubbing his translucent arms.
"So, what do we do?" Meako asked.
"We're gonna ask around," Freako answered, going into "leader mode". "If the Colonel's right, and we're not the only ones who experienced whatever this is, then we'd better gather all the information we can."
Some odd hours later, all four ghosts reconvened at the front stoop of the mansion to compare their finds. What they found was that all the facts they found pointed to nothing good.
"As I feared, whatever is happening is affectin' all ghostkind," Colonel Beauregard stated gravely. "Nothin' like this has ever happened for a long time."
"W-When was the last time this happened?" Shreako queried nervously.
"I-I don't think I wanna hear this," Meako said.
"Well, you're gonna have to," Freako told his nervous cohort.
"No-one's quite sure when, but ghost tale tells that there was once a very powerful spectral wizard who possessed great power and made life miserable for a lot o' folks," Colonel Beauregard began. "He seemed to even outclass the worst of the worst."
"Ya mean like Dracula and those guys?" Shreako asked.
"The very same," the colonel nodded.
The Boo Brothers nervously gulped; a ghost who was more powerful-and likely even scarier-than Dracula?! That was somebody they did not want to meet!
"But one day, somebody managed to defeat him and lock him away somewhere."
Meako sighed in relief. "Thank goodness!"
"'Til now, it seems," the colonel finished, making Meako panic again.
"Oh-ohh, I should've known there was a catch!" the nervous, cap-wearing ghost groaned as he shivered.
"You think all this bru-ha is 'cause of this ghost wizard comin' back?" Freako asked.
"I don't rightly know, but I do know that we ghosts are feelin' a mighty powerful presence that wasn't here before, and if nothin' is done, then we might find ourselves headed for a second death."
The three ghostbusting ghosts would have gone paler than they already were if it was possible; second death for a ghost meant that they would go out of existence…permanently.
"Then there's only one thing to do, and frankly, I'm a big enough ghost to know when to do it," Freako stated seriously.
"What's that?" Shreako asked.
"Run away?" Meako guessed.
"No; get on the Boo-Line and call for help," Freako answered.
"But we've never had to use it before," Shreako pointed out.
"What's this 'Boo-Line' ya'll are talkin' about?" Colonel Beauregard's ghost asked.
"It's a sort of help hotline for ghosts and ghouls," Freako explained. "It came around a few years back; nobody knows who came up with it, but frankly, we good ghosts are lucky they did. If there's a friendly specter in a fix, all he has to do is get on the Boo-Line and the word spreads."
"How does one get on this Boo-Line?" asked the ghostly colonel.
"From what I remember, you can use any phone; just dial the number and it'll put ya through. Come on," Freako beckoned the other ghosts into the mansion.
The leader of the Boo Brothers then went over to a French telephone—the very one he and his cohorts went through to get to the mansion the first time, as a matter of fact—dialed the Boo-Line number, which was 1-666-266-4357, and hoped that somewhere out there was someone who could solve this problem, and fast.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Transylvania's rolling countryside, a storm was brewing, and not the normal kind, either, as Ms. Grimwood of Ms. Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls had noticed. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who was noticing things were out of the ordinary.
"What's the matter, Sybella? Ya look kinda down," Winnie the werewolf noticed.
Sybella continued to pick at her lunch as she debated whether to tell her friends about what had been happening at home for the past day or so. Not that she couldn't trust her closest friends Winnie, Elsa, Phanty, and Tanis, or her new friends Gillia, the daughter of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Allie the alien; after all, they were a big help during the aftermath of the whole "Dracula-turned-her-old-gym-teacher-into-a-werewolf-against-his-will" incident. Sybella and her father had never really seen eye-to-eye after that whole mess, but her Ghoul School pals always got her back in good spirits.
But this was something different. It was like her father was ignoring everything entirely as of late; locking himself in the library and poring over old tomes. No-one in Castle Dracula knew what he was looking for in those books, but if whatever it was could set the mighty Dracula on edge, it had to be something horrifying.
"More daddy troubles?" Phanty asked without giving off her usual high-pitched giggle; this was a serious topic and she knew it.
"Phanty!" Winnie chided her phantom friend.
"Winnie, it's OK," Sybella assured the girl werewolf. "I'm not sure what's going on, but it's like my father's been on edge lately."
"Frankly, amiga, yours is not the only one," Gillia spoke up in a Portuguese accent. "Meu pai was very, uh… Uh… Oh, he almost didn't want me to come to school today," she confessed after having trouble finding an appropriate word to describe her situation.
"Same here," Winnie revealed.
Elsa, Tanis, and Phantasma also revealed a similar problem.
"I don't get it; why are your dads getting so jumpy all of a sudden?" Allie queried.
"You mean yours isn't getting worried by something?" Tanis asked.
"Well, he has been getting a lot of calls from home lately. I don't know what's going on, but it sounds like something's giving everyone the—Uh, what's that word you Earthlings use? The 'shivers'? The 'shakes'?"
"Heebie-jeebies?" Elsa offered.
"Yes, that's it. Thanks, Elsa," Allie said to the young Frankenteen.
"Gee, I just wish someone would tell us what's going on," Tanis pouted. "Maybe we could help; after all, we're not little anymore."
"Yeah, we're older and wiser now; we can take care of ourselves. Why does everyone have to leave us in the dark?" Winnie whined.
"Even Ms. Grimwood isn't talking," Elsa noticed.
The girl ghouls sighed in defeat. There had to be a way of figuring out what was going on, there just had to be.
Another clap of thunder went off outside, followed by a hard-blowing wind that made the school building creak loudly, sending not-so-pleasantly-frightening shivers down the girls' spines.
"Man, I used to get a real thrill out of hearing this place creak; that one just felt plain wrong," Winnie commented.
"Hey, wait an Earth minute," Allie spoke up. "I think I know a way to find out what's happening."
"If it's another loucra idea, Allie, I don't want to hear it," Gillia glared.
"Just hear me out, OK? Doesn't Ms. Grimwood keep a lot of books on the different ghosts and ghouls of the monster world?"
"Yeah, in the library," Elsa answered.
"Oh, of course!" Phantasma cackled, loudly, prompting the other ghouls to shush her.
"But lunch will be over soon; we don't have time," Tanis pointed out.
"Then we'd better hurry, then," Sybella said seriously, standing up. "The sooner we start looking, the sooner we can find the answer to this mystery."
"Ooh, this is fun! We'll be just like our gym teachers!" Phantasma giggled.
"You're right," Sybella smiled, remembering being regaled with tales of her four teachers' mystery-solving adventures. "So, let's go, gang!" she declared, borrowing a phrase from one of her teachers' friends as the girls made their way into the library.
After combing through practically every bookshelf, the girl ghouls found themselves no closer to finding answers than when they started.
"I don't get it," Elsa said as she and her friends sat down at a table in the library.
"What don't you get?" Winnie asked.
"There were lotsa books in here before; I've read almost all of 'em."
"Same here," Allie concurred.
"So?" Winnie trailed.
"So, some of them are missing," Allie said.
The implication that left made the girls worried and suspicious.
"You don't think Ms. Grimwood…?" Tanis trailed.
"I don't think she overheard us. 'Sides, judging by the empty spots, it looked like most of them were removed recently," Allie pointed. "As in, maybe yesterday. The next question is, where'd she put—?"
Gillia cut the alien girl off with a torrent of Brazilian Portuguese, saying things along the lines of, "Are you crazy?!", "That is a stupid idea!", "I can't believe you!", and "You are just asking for trouble, aren't you?", among other things before Elsa put a gentle but firm hand on the female Creature's shoulder to calm her down.
"All I was going to ask was where she would put them!" Allie said defensively.
"Which, knowing you, would lead us to doing something that would get us in trouble," Winnie responded.
"Then how are we supposed to find out what's going on?" Tanis asked.
"Why not just ask?" Phantasma offered.
"But what if she doesn't answer?" Elsa pointed out.
Sybella slammed her hands on the table and stood up, a serious look on her face. "Then we'll keep asking until we get what we want," she decided. "Whatever is happening is our problem, too! How can we learn to defend ourselves from bad stuff if we don't learn about it?"
"A very wise point, Sybella."
All seven ghoul girls quickly looked to the entrance of the library in alarm to find Ms. Grimwood, along with Matches the dragon, who by now was slightly larger, standing there.
Phantasma let out a nervous giggle before sheepishly saying hello to her headmistress.
"You were saying about her not hearing us?" Gillia glared at Allie.
"To be fair, I only came in when Gillia lost her temper again," Ms. Grimwood admitted as she came in, brought another chair, and sat down with the girls, Matches sitting beside her on the floor. "One would think that after the incident with Revolta, we'd have learned our lesson about keeping you girls out of the loop 'for your own protection', but you're not the ghouls you used to be after all this time," the headmistress told the group as Sybella sat back down. "Not only are you older, but also stronger and smarter, even if there are still some things you all need to learn. As much as most don't want to admit it, you're all growing up, and I think it's time for another step towards you doing just that."
"You won't get in trouble for telling us, will you?" Tanis asked in concern.
"You would all likely be told sooner or later; I've just decided for it to be sooner," Ms. Grimwood assured the girl mummy. "You all know the stories of various ghosts and monsters from the past, including the acts of your own families?" she asked as a way to segue into the topic.
The girls nodded, Winnie and Sybella looking the most ashamed, the latter because of what her father did to Shaggy, and the former because Vicky and some friends of hers had been terrorized by an ancestor of hers, which had made the human girl extremely wary of the young werewolf at first.
"Well, there are two beings that anyone in the world of the supernatural hardly talk about anymore: A Sumerian deity by the name of Gozer, and a ghostly red-robed wizard named Prime Evil. Prime Evil's origins are unknown, as no-one really put them in documentation, but he possessed great powers, including his Bone Troller, which is an instrument known as an organ."
Sybella and Phantasma, having organs in the own homes, got the idea of what Prime Evil's Bone Troller might have looked like.
"For a long time, Prime Evil's wickedness went unchecked. And it wasn't just the mortals who suffered; spirits of weak will were drawn into Prime Evil's cause. Even the strongest of all ghosts and spirits couldn't put him away. One day, however, someone managed to banish Prime Evil to another dimension far, far away, even managing to break the Bone Troller in the process."
The girl ghouls were amazed by the story and worriedly wondered how their respective fathers had fared against Prime Evil back then. They were also glad to hear that Prime Evil had ultimately been banished from their world, but with the story having been told, they made the connection: The reason everyone was so tense was because somehow, after all this time, Prime Evil had come back.
"Quão terrível," Gillia gasped.
"Oh, Papa…" Winnie whimpered.
"What can we do?" Sybella asked Ms. Grimwood.
"What a lot of people are likely doing right now: Spreading the word and looking for help," Ms. Grimwood answered. She then called, "Octo, bring the phone and dial the number for the Boo-Line!"
Responding to the headmistress's command, a giant purple octopus with red hair and a black bowtie entered the room with the needed item and proceeded to put in the number for the Boo-Line on the rotary dial. Once that was accomplished, Octo handed the receiver to Ms. Grimwood, and thus began the wait.
Two hollow eyesockets narrowed as they inspected the series of images being shown in the Viewing Cauldron: One was Count Dracula in his castle home, his eyes distant and worried. Another showed the Boo Brothers and the ghost of Colonel Beauregard at the Beauregard Mansion as the latter was telling the three ghostbusting ghosts something that had them looking scared. A third showed Ms. Grimwood looking out the window of her school nervously at some ominous storm clouds outside before the scene became her telling seven worried girl-ghouls about something. Many others were of various spectral beings discussing something in hushed whispers amongst themselves, some casting dirty glances at their neighbor.
The observer of all this fuss, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington, began thinking back to what had occurred just an hour prior in the Pumpkin Patch: Nathan, a young zombie, Wither, a winged demon that almost looked like a bat, and Ramses, a young mummy boy, had been helping Behemoth tend to the pumpkins when swarms of ghosts came pouring in. Alarmed, the child trio, along with Zero, who had been disturbed from his grave by the ruckus, ran for town and the faithful ghost dog alerted his master. Jack had gone to see the scene for himself and saw that the boys had been telling the truth. Not only that, but there were groups of ghosts here and there heckling a few others. Jack had had to loose a rather unearthly shriek just to get everyone's attention; the noise had been that bad. The Pumpkin King then had called the Chorus Ghosts-Alberto, Pietro, Luciano, Sophia, and Maria-and asked what was happening. They answered that "he" had come back and many were looking for sanctuary in Halloween Town, although, according to some, many of them didn't deserve it because they had aligned with "him" in the past. When prodded for clarification, Jack was told the story of Prime Evil and his reign of terror. Jack began thinking back to the adversaries he had faced so far-the Sanderson Sisters, Oogie Boogie, Lady van Tassel, and the Rogue's Gallery of Gotham City when he and Scrappy had joined up with the Dark Knight and requested their former Scoobidini bandmates Salas, Bolt, and Scooby (and later a former LAPD cop of Salas's acquaintance) to join them and become Batman's "additional backup", so to speak-and based on the information he had been given, Prime Evil seemed to even outclass the immortal human Ra's al Ghul. Then again, Ra's was a human (immortal, but human nonetheless) whereas Prime Evil was a ghost. The tall skeleton had then thanked the Chorus Ghosts for their assistance and asked them to help the frightened newcomers get settled before heading back into town. Once there, Jack had called for Helgamine and Zeldabourne to activate the Viewing Cauldron to see how far these effects had spread. The land of the living was quiet, but the realm of the supernatural was in a panic.
"Oh my, this is dreadful! And not in the good way!" the tall witch Helgamine exclaimed, shaking her head as each scene played out.
"I don't think something this big has ever happened since… Can't remember when!" Zeldabourne, the short witch, added.
Jack honestly couldn't think of anything that had ever affected the supernatural plane on this scale, either; any time there had been any major fuss, it had mostly been localized to the town.
"This is just terrible! What are going to do?!" the Mayor panicked, his pale, frightened face showing. "Jack, surely you have a plan!" the literal two-faced politician pleaded with his superior.
"Frankly, Mayor, since this is unlike anything we've ever come across, the best course of action is to keep alert and see what assistance we can provide to our guests in the Pumpkin Patch," Jack said after a blink.
That blink was not missed by Sally, a living ragdoll created by Dr. Finklestein and Jack's closest, dearest friend in Halloween Town. It told her that something was wrong, but she decided to wait until they were alone; that would give her plenty of time to think of a good way to bring it up.
"Schedule a town meeting for later tonight," Jack continued. "I need to do some more research to plan for any other steps we may need to take."
The Mayor's head turned to its "happy" side and he said eagerly, "Of course, Jack! I'll spread the word right away!" With that, the Mayor trotted off.
Jack couldn't help but smile and shake his head.
Teach was right; Shaddix's impulse to please is almost as bad as mine, the tall skeleton thought.
Turning back to the witches, he instructed them to keep an eye on things in the Viewing Cauldron to see if any changes occur so that any new information could be brought up at the meeting before departing for his house, Zero and Sally close behind.
Once the three of them were inside, a sense of urgency quickly filled the room and Jack was skipping more steps than usual on his way to the observatory. Sally was a bit taken aback by the suddenness, but she slowly followed him up, Zero close by to help if she stumbled. She almost did when a small flurry of papers flew down.
What in Halloween's name…? "Jack?" Sally called in concern.
A frustrated shout of "Where is it?!" was the only answer she got.
"I know I left it up here!" Jack continued, looking around at the clutter of plans from previous Halloweens and messages from friends. "I really need to learn to file things once a Halloween is over," he groaned.
"Can I help?" Sally offered.
Jack quickly turned and almost seemed startled to see her there.
"Oh, yes, of course," he said hurriedly. "I, uh, seem to have lost track of my Communicating Crystal Ball," Jack admitted sheepishly, scratching the back of his skull.
Sally remembered the item as Jack had shown it to her once: It was a gift from Scrappy-Doo when he had left the year before the whole Christmas fiasco to use to keep in touch or to use in emergencies.
"Who do you need to call?" Sally asked. "Everyone seems to be calling everyone else for help."
That's because they don't know who to call like I do, Jack responded silently.
"Jack?"
Sally's voice drew the skeleton out his momentary daze and he found her looking at him in concern.
"Is something wrong?" the ragdoll asked gently.
How do you say "I really don't know what to do against a being that even the Legendary Monsters are afraid of" without giving away the fact that you're scared?
Jack walked over to a rather mottled sofa and sat down with a sigh. His legs were so long that his knees were up a bit high. Sally sat down next to him and waited for her beloved to gather his thoughts.
"I realize that there are those who know about what's going on, but when I said that this was unlike anything we'd ever come across…I wasn't just referring to the town. And I know that I've gone up against some pretty tough customers, but much of that was something affecting the mortal world or just this town. This is…" Jack took a moment to find an appropriate phrase before deciding on: "This is, as some mortals say, 'A bit above my pay grade'."
"You really think Scrappy can help?" Sally asked.
"I may have certain tricks up my sleeves, but none of them can compare to what Teach can do," Jack admitted, using the nickname he had given Scrappy when the pup had begun teaching him the way of scaring. "You've seen some of it," he added.
Sally nodded, remembering when Oogie had taken over Halloween Town; Scrappy had displayed quite an array of abilities, including levitation, super strength, shadow travel, and knowledge of various spells.
"I may have been existing for hundreds of years, but when Teach arrived and I saw that even Oogie was scared of him, I knew that I had a long way to go in learning how to scare. That's why I asked him to teach me in the first place. And that's why I know that if there's anyone who might know how to solve this problem, it's him."
"Arf!"
Jack and Sally looked to the source of the bark to find that it was Zero, and in front of him was a large, clear orb that he was nudging with his jack-o'-lantern nose.
"My Communicating Crystal Ball! You found it!" Jack exclaimed happily. "Good work, Zero!" he praised the ghost pup, patting him on the head as he picked up the crystal.
I hope I won't be catching him in the middle of something, Jack thought as he began muttering a spell under his breath to activate the Communicating Crystal Ball.
EE-EE-EE-EE!
"Ohh… Mmf… Knock…knock it off, huh?" a small figure muttered sleepily.
EE-EE-EE-EEEE!
"Aw geez, if this is some kinda joke one of you guys are pullin' on me…"
"Teach. Teach! Can you hear me?"
"HUH?!" That had the small creature out of bed fast. "That's no practical joke, that's Jack Skellington!"
The tiny, brown-furred Great Dane leaped off the bed and levitated towards a set of doors that had a green glow coming out from behind them, the eerie noises and Jack's voice also emanating from there. He opened the doors to find his own Communicating Crystal Ball, the twin of the one he had left with his skeleton student, glowing brightly.
"What in the supernatural plane is goin' on?" Scrappy asked, rather surprised at the racket the crystal ball was making. "Jack? Jack, I'm here," he called after giving the crystal a few rubs with his paws.
A couple seconds later, the image of Jack Skellington sitting in his observatory with Sally sitting beside him came into view.
"There you are! Oh, am I glad to see you, Teach!"
"Pleasure seeing you too, Bone Boy, but I don't think this is a social call. What's goin' on? I've never heard the Boo-Line connection scream this loud before."
"It's pandemonium over here, and not the good kind," Jack frowned. "Apparently, some ghost wizard named Prime Evil just made a comeback, and it's sending waves of panic. Do you know anything about him?"
Scrappy was hoping that he wouldn't have to say what he was going to have to say to Jack's expectant—and frankly, pleading—look, but he had to be honest: "Not much. I may have skimmed over something about him a long time ago, but… I'm sorry, Jack. Truly," he added, shaking his head sadly as he watched a shadow of despair come into Jack's eye-sockets. "When did all this start?" Scrappy asked, deciding to gather some facts.
"We had swarms of ghosts coming into the Pumpkin Patch almost two hours ago," Sally reported.
"From what I've been able to gather, there were ominous feelings starting as early as yesterday, but it's only been today that it escalated into near-total panic," Jack added.
"Then that can only mean one thing," Scrappy began gravely. "He's already here."
A burst of light later, Prime Evil and the Bone Troller materialized in a rather rocky and deserted area. The red-robed wizard looked around at his surroundings and the realization of where he was hit him quickly:
"The world of mortals! I did it!" Prime Evil shouted. "I found the Lost Chord!"
The silence that filled both rooms, even with the crystal ball still making some noise, was deafening.
They had had little to no warning, and now it was apparently too late to set up a countermeasure. The mortal and supernatural worlds were done for.
Unless…
"What are you thinking, Teach?" Jack asked, having noticed a look in the tiny Great Dane's red-tinted dark eyes that meant that the gears were turning.
"If what I'm thinking is going to happen is going to happen, I'm thinking we're going to need some additional help," Scrappy answered.
"Are you sure that's wise?" Sally asked. "Has she ever gone up against anyone like Prime Evil before?"
"Like Jack, she's gone up against some pretty tough customers, a good number of them, as a matter of fact," Scrappy pointed out. "She won't be alone, of course; and frankly, there's only two people that, one, have experience with the supernatural, and two, that I explicitly trust to go with her. And before you say anything, you're right; they won't appreciate being brought under false pretenses, but the more people we have on our side, the better."
"You keep mentioning 'we'. Who's 'we'?" Sally queried.
"Remember Teach's last message? He said that he had gone into a ghost business of some sort," Jack reminded his lady love.
Scrappy chuckled. "Close. It's a ghostbusting business. Basically we go around sending troublemaking ghosts back to limbo for a while. Don't worry, I've been with these guys long enough so that they know who to zap and who not to," the tiny Great Dane added reassuringly.
"Can they handle Prime Evil?" Jack asked. "I mean, I know you've said that they're resourceful…"
"It'll be a tough job, I'll grant you that, but give the guys a second wind and they'll be all over it."
Scrappy then paused, a frown coming over his face as he remembered something.
"What I'm really concerned about are the boys," the supernaturally-powered dog finally admitted. "Though, they're a bit too big to be called 'boys' by now," he added with a chuckle.
It took a couple of seconds for Jack to remember who "the boys" were.
"Oh, them! Goodness, has that much time passed already?" Jack smiled.
"Yep," Scrappy smiled back. "I've gotta remember to send a picture of how they look now one of these days. In fact, tomorrow's the big day; they'll be starting to get some actual field experience. Of course, since this a training exercise more than anything else, the job's a simple one. Wait a sec," the small dog continued, a bolt of inspiration hitting him, "that'll be perfect! I'll send the invites tonight, and when they arrive, they'll be able to see what we do without too much danger!"
"But what if…'You-Know-Who' shows up?" Jack asked.
"I've been thinking about that, but with all of us working together, we'll be able to come up with something. I know that's not much of an assurance, but until Prime Evil makes a big enough wave now that he's here, we'll have to play it by ear. In the meantime, try to get the business in the Pumpkin Patch straightened out, offer what help you can without thinning your own defenses, keep in touch with whoever you can, and it wouldn't hurt to get your skills with the Soul Robber and your Pumpkin Fire back into shape, OK?"
"All right, Teach," Jack nodded in affirmation. "Good luck on that job."
"And good luck to you guys, as well. Keep me informed."
"Will do. And…tell everyone I said 'hi', huh?" Jack asked, smiling his famous skeleton grin.
"Sure thing, Jack," Scrappy chuckled. "Take care."
With that, the call was ended. Once Scrappy put his crystal ball back where he had found it, he immediately got to work. Once he had written the message, he went outside, levitated to the roof, and let out a series of shrill screams, each lasting two seconds.
As if on cue, a barn owl flew out of the night and landed close to where Scrappy was. After relaying instructions on where to take the envelope, the owl took the message in its beak and flew off.
"Hey! Everything all right up there?" called a male voice from below.
Scrappy looked down to see that some of the lights were on and a man with short brown hair wearing a brown nightgown looking out one of them.
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that, Jake. I was doin' a barn owl call," Scrappy explained as he came down. "I woke Eddie up, didn't I?" he asked sheepishly.
"A little bit," Jake chuckled. "Actually, he woke my son up which woke us up."
"Figures," Scrappy smirked, rolling his eyes. "Hey, Jake, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind having company on the training exercise tomorrow. Just some friends of mine from mystery-solving days."
"Why?"
"It's been a while since I saw them last and I thought it'd be neat to show 'em what I've been doing," Scrappy explained. "That, and… I've been getting a feeling that something big is going on; it wouldn't hurt to have additional numbers on our side."
The man took in and thought over what the little dog had said. He had to admit that he had been wanting to meet these friends of Scrappy's for a long time now, and the boys' training mission did sound like the perfect time to show them what they do, but when Scrappy had mentioned that something "big" was going on, Jake had become concerned. Ever since he and his ghostbusting partner had met Scrappy, they had learned that whatever "feelings" the formerly reckless pup had were on-the-nose as Jake's own ghost-sensing nose. And if it was true, the brown-haired man didn't want to drag any innocent bystanders into danger. On the other side of the coin, though, Scrappy had told them all about his friends' supernatural exploits, including a couple times they went up against real supernatural beings, so this would really be nothing to them and they would know how to take care of themselves.
After weighing the pros and cons carefully, Jake nodded and said, "Why not? Besides, I think it's time we all met, anyway. I take it you already sent a message?"
"Yep," Scrappy affirmed with a chuckle. "I would've used bat-mail, but I figured owl-mail would be better considering our environment." The dog and the man had a slight laugh over the puns before the former continued, "In the meantime, we'd better get some sleep; it's gonna be a big day tomorrow."
"Now I shall bring together all ghosts and creatures of the night! Under my rule, we shall easily conquer the Earth!" Prime Evil cackled. "No one would be foolish enough to try to stop ghosts!"
Meanwhile, in the town of Coolsville, a rather fatigued barn owl swooped down to the window of the town post office, pecked a lock off a window, flew into the mail sorting room, and dropped off an envelope addressed to Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, Scooby-Doo, and Vicky Lynn before departing.
And…done! Not bad for a start, I think. At least, I hope it was good for all you readers out there. The scene in the original material is only a minute or so long and in the original version, since I was doing it in first-person, I skipped it entirely, but here I expanded it quite a bit. I figured since Ghostbusters and Scooby-Doo have a focus on the supernatural, why not feature places and characters that are in the supernatural plane, not to mention ones that Vicky and the duo of Shaggy and Scooby have come across? And, yes, this means that the worlds of "Scooby-Doo", "The Nightmare Before Christmas", and even "Filmation's Ghostbusters" to an extent are part of my overall fanfic-verse (don't worry, you'll find out how Scooby and Jack each cross paths with Godzilla at some point).
Oh yeah, that reminds me: This story takes place before Jack meets Godzilla, but by now he's had other adventures since defeating Oogie a second time, namely first helping Inspector Ichabod Crane try to solve the mystery of some rather grisly going's-on in the town of Sleepy Hollow, which happens to be the old stomping grounds of the Headless Horseman in the Tim Burton movie "Sleepy Hollow", and then using those new skills and more in assisting Batman himself, starting with the 1989 Tim Burton film and continuing into the Warner Bros animated series alongside Scrappy and his other friends Salas, Bolt, and Scooby, also picking up a former LAPD cop for the latter-mentioned series. As for Scooby's side of the story, Shaggy and Scooby are already acquainted with the saurian and his family, having encountered them in an adventure in New York that featured a parade on Thanksgiving and dinosaurs (yeah, more on that later); this also takes place after the finale of the series "Mystery Incorporated" and the mystery-solving dog's stint with Batman (I'll go into it in-depth at some point, I promise!). As for Vicky, she's just come out of a tour of duty in Starfleet with the Godzilla family who, along with three other friends of Godzilla's named Raphael, Gabriel, and Renae (all siblings), served aboard the original Enterprise (I'm referring to the live-action series done in the 60's, the animated series done by Filmation from '73-'74, and the films that featured the main cast from said live-action series). So when it's said that someone has gone up against some "tough customers", if you know any of those shows and movies, I think you can guess what that character went up against.
Some little notes before I forget: I honestly tried to be random with the phone number for the Boo-Line, mostly using the letters that each number is associated with, so 1-666-266-4357 becomes 1-666-BOO-HELP. However, it appears that the 666 area code is real, so if I've used an actual phone number, I apologize. And if you're wondering where on Earth did I find names for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" characters that had bit parts in the movie, the ones for the "Chorus Ghosts", the two witches, and the zombie child I found on the Internet where I found that apparently a card game based on the movie provided names for these characters. As for the mummy boy and that one creature that look like a bat walking on its wingtips, I picked those names myself. As for picking "Shaddix" for the Mayor, not only is it a nod to his voice actor, but it's also a nod to its use in a story called "Skeleton Anne" by Author Corona Pax. Their story as well as a series of stories by Author Aria of Life has really opened my mind to other elements in the world of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" besides what I've already come up with (as well as stories by Authors rainbowthefox, Azure129, & NintendoGal55), and I seriously can't wait to explore them for myself.
One thing I do hope that I did OK is the expansion of certain one-off characters such as the Boo Brothers and the Ghoul School girls, as they each appeared in only one direct-to-video "Scooby-Doo" movie and that was it; especially the OC characters of Gillia and Allie (if anyone is wondering why Gillia speaks Brazilian Portuguese, look up the Universal film "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and pay attention to where the film is set). A few side notes: Recently, my brain finally made me realize that there was something familiar about Boo Brother Shreako's voice; turns out, he's voiced by Rob Paulsen! Raphael the Ninja Turtle actually had a stint in the Scooby-Doo franchise! Not only that, but Pat "Mona Lisa" Musick did too, as Elsa Frankenteen in "Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School" and Susan "Arcee" Blu was Sybella in the same movie! Is that amazing or what?! And just to add on, the movie's got a slight "Star Trek" connection via Remy Auberjonois, the son of the late, great Rene Auberjonois AKA Constable Odo in "Deep Space Nine". Man, the names you find in the credits of films of the past.
Anyway, Prime Evil (terrifically voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) has made a comeback and it's sending the supernatural realm into a tizzy. It seems that no-one but Jack Skellington knows just who to call, and luckily, his contact and old friend/teacher is currently living with a possible solution to this brewing problem: The Ghostbusters. But even Scrappy knows that they might need a little more help, so he sends for three friends of his. The question is, will they be enough against this new threat?
Speaking of questions, despite this chapter being quite long, there's not too many here, but:
If you were at any of the locations shown in this chapter (Beauregard Manor, Ms. Grimwood's Finishing School, Halloween Town), what would be your plan to figure out what's going on?
As a follow-up, what would your plan be to prepare to face this new threat?
If you were Jake, what would you say to Scrappy's request to bring some old friends of his to visit and possibly assist? Explain your reasoning.
Despite the small number, I look forward to your responses. Meanwhile, the chapter after this one will delve into Shaggy, Scooby, and Vicky's arrival, their introduction to the Ghostbusters and what they do, and an uninvited (but expected) guest drops in.
However, I also have another new story that I'm working on that I have the prologue ready for that features an adventure with Vicky and the Godzilla family (I'll explain what it's about once I have the notes typed up) and I've somehow managed to get back into writing my fanfiction version of the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla series after all this time, and the first chapter of the episode "The Seaweed Monster" is typed and ready to edit. So, you could actually be seeing either of those before I even put up the next chapter for this story, time depending. Either way, I hope you look forward to it.
As always, please read and review. Thank you!
