Constance was in the kitchen cooking eggs when Gordon and Jefferson woke up in the morning. She placed the sunny-side up delicacies onto three separate plates - two per plate - and headed out to the dining room table. She slid the two plates on her left arm directly into position on Jefferson and Gordon's placemats as the men sat down before placing her plate down in front of her.
"ʻAʻole wau manaʻoʻiʻo!" Gordon exclaimed after he had taken a bite out of his eggs. "This tastes amazing! My Mama would be dying to get your recipe, Constance!"
"She definitely wouldn't be interested in Constance's family's Ferocious Fondue Casserole Recipe," Jefferson replied, not looking up from his copy of Tobin's Spirit Guide that he brought to the table with him. "It would kill your huna faster than a bullet."
"Oh, everybody's a critic," Constance said, glaring at Jefferson. "It was obvious that you never tried a casserole made from ingredients found in Rio."
Jefferson merely shrugged in response to Constance's accusations. The three of them ate in silence for several minutes before Gordon spoke up.
"Wait, where's Hogarth?"
"He went home last night," Constance answered. "He does have a life outside of the job. He should be back this morning."
At that moment, they heard the sound of the giant front door slam, and seconds later, Hogarth came up the stairs with his school backpack slung over his shoulder. He dropped the bag next to his chair and walked by without glancing behind him.
"I hope nobody ate that bagel I put in the freezer," he said. "I've been looking forward to eating that since I went to bed last night."
"And why would any of us want to have something you eat?" Jefferson asked.
"Hey, that bagel came from the Four Seasons Cafe, and they make the best bagels in town. Besides, I seem to be blessed with that kind of bad luck anyway."
At that moment, the Ghostbusters heard the voice of their receptionist, Amy Wilde, calling them to her desk. Leaving Hogarth to make his "prized bagel," the three Ghostbusters quickly slid down the firepole to the bottom floor. A man in his late thirties was seated in front of Amy's desk, dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt, with his John Deere hat resting in his lap. He stood up as he saw the Ghostbusters slide down.
"Am I glad to see you folks!" he said. "My name is Guy Farnsworth. I'm a trucker, and I could really use your help getting my rig back!"
"With all due respect, Mr. Farnsworth," Jefferson said, "if your truck was stolen, you should report it to the authorities rather than come to us. We specialize in eliminating paranormal entities like ghosts."
"But that's just it: I lost my truck because it's been possessed!"
"What?" Constance exclaimed.
Guy quickly told them what had happened to him at the truck stop the night before.
"Interesting," Jefferson stated thoughtfully. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That the man is a lōlō?" Gordon replied.
"No," Constance answered, "we're dealing with what could be a free-roaming Class VII phantom vehicle - one with partial demonic possession."
"Sure," Gordon said, "that makes much more sense."
"Guys," Amy called, "we got a problem: I'm getting multiple phone calls from people claiming their trucks are coming to life and attacking them. What do you want me to do?"
"Give us a list of all the calls and where they came from," Constance told her. "And would somebody find out what's taking Hogarth so long to get his bagel ready?"
Gordon had to practically drag Hogarth down the stairs to the ground floor, and he was complaining about how he did not have the chance to enjoy his bagel in peace. A few minutes later, Hogarth was shifting Ecto-1SF into gear, bagel in hand. The car roared out of the firehouse, lights blaring, turning the corner of the building in half a second.
"Let me get this straight," Hogarth said before taking a bite out of his bagel. "You're telling me that trucks throughout the San Francisco Bay Area are coming to life and attacking their owners? Do you have any idea how much that sounds like a Stephen King story?"
"This isn't a joke, Hogarth," Jefferson said. "Certain phantom vehicles have the ability to manipulate vehicles of the exact same status to utilize as weapons. You should be lucky that it's a tanker truck we're dealing with instead of an army tank."
"Okay, go ahead, believe that crazy story. But even though I have seen every kind of spook and specter from a cartoon cat to an evil medieval sorceress, there is no way I am going to believe that trucks have been coming to - YAAAH!"
As Hogarth was making a turn at the intersection, a large, black tractor-trailer came rushing at Ecto-1SF out of nowhere. He was forced to swerve the car out of the way and onto the curb, barely missing the truck by mere inches. Turning to his left, Hogarth's eyes widened in horror as he saw the truck's grille snarl menacingly at him as if it were a real mouth. The semi let out an unearthly roar before turning away and thundering down the road.
"Now do you believe us?" Constance asked.
"Ask me after I've cleaned up my face," Hogarth answered.
Constance, Jefferson and Gordon had to cover up their mouths to keep from laughing as Hogarth turned to look at them. During the incident, Hogarth's bagel was sent flying into the air and landed right on the center of his face. It did not please him to see his friends finding it to be an outright gutbuster.
With a sigh, Hogarth reached into the glove compartment to grab a wipe, only to let out a yelp upon opening it: Muncher came flying out of the glove box and zipped several times around the cab of Ecto-1SF before landing next to Hogarth and letting out a cry of joy at seeing his friends. Between having his bagel go splat on his face and an ectoplasmic-dripping metal-muncher in his beautiful car, Hogarth was barely able to keep his temper in check.
"No one said you could come along, Muncher," he snapped.
"You never said he couldn't come along, either," Gordon replied from the backseat.
Hogarth squeezed the steering wheel, barely able to control his temper. In a swift motion, he spun Ecto-1SF around in a quick U-turn and sped after the semi. Fortunately, the truck had not gone far, and they caught up with it in a matter of minutes.
"All right, Hogarth," Constance said, as he pulled Ecto-1SF along the left side of the truck, "take it nice and easy. I need you to send me out so I can blast the tires, and then-"
"HANG ONTO SOMETHING!" Hogarth suddenly screamed, and he slammed on the brakes, causing Ecto-1SF to slow down just as a pickup truck came roaring at them from the side. It barely missed T-boning them and instead collided with the semi's trailer. Hogarth quickly swerved around the wreck as the pickup was crushed beneath the trailer's wheels.
"A little warning next time, Hogarth!" Jefferson yelled.
"I'm sorry," Hogarth said, "but I was a little busy trying to avoid getting hit by an out-of-control pickup truck!"
"Uh, guys," Gordon said, his head looking out the window at the view behind them, "you might want to see this."
Jefferson and Constance turned around, while Hogarth looked in the rearview mirror: Trucks of all kinds, from pickups to garbage trucks to cement mixers, were bearing down on top of them and coming closer with every second. Each of them had grilles and headlights like vicious, enraged faces of pure evil.
"Hogarth, get us out of here!" Jefferson roared.
Hogarth did not need to hear Jefferson's order to comply. He floored the gas pedal and Ecto-1SF roared forward, speeding past the black semi. With a sharp spin of the wheel, he managed to pull them out onto Taylor Street. Muncher let out a shriek of terror and flew straight back into the glove box to hide.
"Talk to me, guys!" Hogarth exclaimed. "Where do I go now?!"
"We need to get off the streets!" Constance shouted. "As long as we're on the road, these trucks will keep chasing us!"
"Incoming!" Gordon bellowed, pointing ahead.
Several yards in front of them, a rusty old tanker truck was barreling straight towards Ecto-1SF. Its headlights had a menacing glare and the grille was constantly opening and closing shut like a giant set of teeth. Undeterred, Hogarth shifted Ecto-1SF into higher gear and drove the gas pedal into the floor.
Hogarth ignored the shouting of his comrades to slow down and to not foolishly play a game of chicken with the oncoming semi. At the last possible second, he swerved out of the way, causing the tanker to collide with the pursuing horde of trucks that were chasing the Ghostbusters.
"See guys?" Hogarth said. "When you ride with me, there's nothing you need to worry about."
The annoyed glares on his friends' faces caught him by surprise.
"What?"
"We can't go back to the firehouse," Jefferson said. "Those trucks will attack us before we'll be able to make it."
"Well," Hogarth said, "I have a place that we can stay at for now."