Chapter 4

Gabriel woke up that Wednesday with a wide grin, last night had been awesome! They beat the Hellions, Guards! Guards! Was fantastic; even better than the book, and last but not least he and Abby had managed to sneak in a little alone time with each other after the movie. After his exercise regimen and shower Gabriel checked himself in the mirror and noticed that Abby had left a hickey on his neck. "Oh crap," he moaned, if his parents saw that then they would flip! His family was REALLY conservative in matters of sex in some ways, and pretty liberal in other ways, but if they saw that hickey they might start monitoring him and restricting his time with Abby. Gabriel checked the weather report on his phone and was happy that it would be a pretty cold day today, he could wear a turtleneck and no one would wonder about it.

He got dressed and went downstairs to see his Dad making breakfast, full of energy unlike yesterday. "Whoa, what got you in a good mood Dad?" Gabriel asked. Jerry smirked and said, "The Government has agreed to let us aid in their investigation into the Purifiers, last night some informants from the Ghost Zone agreed to help work with us. Apparently the Purifiers have been hunting ghosts, and they won't let them get away with it." "What do you need me to do?" Gabriel asked. "You mean us," Michael said as he walked up behind his twin brother. Jerry stopped smirking at this and said, "Nothing for now. This isn't something you kids can help with; this is something that requires finesse and strategy, not rushing in fists flying." "Aw man," Gabriel groused. "Come on Dad, we're smarter than that…well I am anyway," Michael said. Their Mom came down and said, "No, that is final, these people are serious, and from what the ghosts have told us they're even more dangerous than we previously thought. Those people that kidnapped Alice were small fry; we're going after the higher ups in the Purifiers. According to the ghosts they're a lot more dangerous than anyone we've faced before."

The boys snapped their fingers in frustration but remained silent as their family sat at the table and ate their breakfast together. Jerry drove the kids to their schools and Gabriel tried to bring up helping him against the Purifiers and Jerry shut him down preemptively with a "No." With that, Gabriel and Michael headed for Trigonometry and Mr. Fayed had the class take notes. Gabriel managed to sneak a note to Abby, who he noticed was wearing a pretty tight green turtleneck and tight black pants and shoes, at that class, he had ignored her Monday and Tuesday because of how focused he was on beating the Hellions. Had a great time last night Abs, but next time go easy on my neck. Five minutes later Abby managed to pass a not on to him. You didn't sound so worried last night. "That's true," Gabriel whispered, then the bell rang and he walked up to Abby on the way to her next class.

"Hey Abs," he said and snuck in a kiss. "Hey Gabe, what was so wrong with a little love bite?" she said with a chuckle. "My parents, that's what. They're paranoid about me and Michael turning into one of those, and I quote from Mom, 'another billionaire playboy with 5 girlfriends at once with the brainpower of a drunken sloth'," Gabe said, snickering at the end. Abby chuckled too and said, "They might have a point, you do tend to act like a baboon in heat sometimes." "Ouch, my pride," Gabriel murmured, "Yeah, we just gotta not be so physical from now on, after all, cheating on a test led to Grandpa Danny turning evil in an alternate reality." "Alright, so, see you at Lunch?" Abby asked him. "Yeah, knowing Mrs. Grant I'm gonna need your help on something," Gabriel said and she gave him a small peck on the cheek before they went their separate ways.

Gabriel just made it to his desk before the bell rang and Michael whispered, "That's what you get for trying to make a booty call between classes." "It wasn't a booty call, it was a conversation," Gabriel retorted and Mrs. Grant cleared her throat. "I am assigning a project to all of you, due Monday. You will make a video, slideshow, or a timetable, with pictures, showing the long term effects of a volcanic eruption on the surrounding area, using either the eruptions of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 C.E., Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E., or Krakatoa in 1883 C.E. as inspiration. Do you have any questions?" For the rest of the class Michael and Gabriel worked together to research the eruption of Krakatoa, Michael was going to do a timetable and Gabriel decided on a slide show. The bell finally rung and Gabriel came out of class, walking as fast as he could to the cafeteria and Abby.

He saw her talking with some other cheerleaders and walked to her table, "Hey Abs," "Hey Gabe," they greeted and ate their lunch before they walked outside to sit under an old ash tree. "Alright, so, what do I have to help you with now?" Abby asked him. "Alright, I need to make a slideshow for the eruption of Krakatoa for Geography, can you help me out?" Gabriel asked as he opened up his cyber textbook on his phone and showed her some of the pictures on it. "How many pictures do you need?" Abby asked as she looked. "About ten, but there's only four in our textbook," Gabriel told her. "Alright, you need to get more pictures online," Abby said and turned on her phone and started typing on the screen. Gabriel's phone beeped and he opened it. Abby told him, "Those are three websites you can use for the project." Gabriel wrapped his wiry arms around her waist and kissed her then said, "You're a lifesaver Abs."

Just then Gabriel's Ghost Sense went off and he spotted three… "Oh you gotta be shitting me!" Gabriel said as he saw what looked like three DEMONS flying through the school! Actual demons, brown with cloven hooves and forked tails and batwings and pitchforks! Gabriel went Ghost and flew up at the three demon looking ghosts and saw Michael appear too. "Can you believe this?" Gabriel asked as they blasted ghost rays at the demon looking ghosts. "Well, our Grandfathers were a superhero and a supervillain," Michael said, then they dodged fireballs that the demon looking ghosts threw at them, "So why not demons?" Gabriel formed a snowball in his hand and hit one of the demons square in his chest, and the snowball evaporated! "Well ice powers are out," Gabriel commented. Michael blasted electricity at all three demons, they absorbed it in their pitchforks and blasted it right back at them, Gabriel and Michael raised an ecto-energy shield to deflect the lightning up into the sky.

"So is electricity," Michael said as the three demons charged at them. "So what now?!" Gabriel asked as he dodged a stab and kicked the demon back and Michael pulled one demon's pitchfork and threw the demon at the third one. "I want to try something; you remember that prayer asking St. Michael for assistance?" Michael asked him. The twins dodged another charge and Gabriel said, "Yeah." "Follow my lead," Michael told him and they flew around the three demon looking ghosts to where all three were between them. Michael crossed his arms in front and made a cross made of ectoplasmic energy in front of him and Gabriel did the same. The three demon ghosts screamed and tried to fly away, only for Michael and Gabriel to make copies and surround them.

The demon looking ghosts grabbed their heads at the sight and screeched while Michael started the prayer, "Holy Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle!" Gabriel said the next line, "Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil!" The twins finished the prayer in unison and their copies joined in, "May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do you, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander around the Earth seeking the ruin of souls!" The three demon looking ghosts actually shrank as the prayer continued until they were the size of dragonflies. Gabriel took out his Thermos and sucked them in as he and Michael ended the prayer, "AMEN!" They absorbed their copies and Gabriel asked, "How did you know that would work?!" Michael scratched the back of his head and said, "I didn't know it would do that."

"SAY WHAT!?" Gabriel yelled. "I didn't know if it would work, I just figured that it was worth a shot. I figured that if they were demons, it could work, or if they only ghost that thought they were demons that it would distract them for long enough that we could use the Thermos," Michael explained as they floated down. The bell rang just then and they stayed in their Ghost Forms as they flew through the halls to English Literature. Kory and Lucas sat down next to Gabriel and Lucas said, "Dude, what was the deal with those demons? Are you guy's exorcists now?" "I have no idea," Michael said. "I think we'll show them to Dad after school and he can see what they are," Gabriel suggested. Nothing special happened the rest of the school day.

After Gabriel took his after soccer practice shower he went Ghost and flew straight home and saw his Dad…and Mom… He quickly left. He saw Michael and Anna coming and flew to them, "Mom and Dad are indisposed." "Got it," Michael said, "Say no more," Anna also said. "So…what can we do?" Gabriel asked. Michael scratched his head and said, "Well, one of us has to take Anna…Gabriel, please. Alice and I had plans…" Michael was mumbling that last part and his face turned a darker shade of green. "Alright, I'll take her to the Gamer's Lounge, but you owe me one," Gabriel told him. "Can I get a snack?" Anna asked. "Sure," Gabriel said, and he and his sister flew to the Gamer's Lounge.