Epilogue: If There's Something Strange In Your Neighborhood...
Two Weeks Later
"She's dead, Jay!" Diana yelled. "It's time to face facts and move on."
"No!" J.G. retorted. "I love her. And I'm not gonna give up."
"What's the point, dude?" Kim asked. "She's gone forever and never going to come back, no matter how much you try to believe it."
"I paid $50,000 for this old rust bucket, Venkman!" Stantz pounded his fist on the hood of the still heavily wrecked Ecto-1, which was parked in the repaired garage area of the partially reconstructed firehouse headquarters. "So don't tell me she cannot be fixed!"
Kim and Diana shook their heads over the youth's naivety as Spengler walked out from the basement with Christina Melnitz, Alex Russo, and the former Ajax Exterminators. "I can't believe you used the old Ghost Trap tactic I taught you," Sean told Christina. "I never expected you to actually pay attention to what I was saying about it."
"Well, of course, Sean." She said. "What else did you think I was paying attention to?"
"My epidermis, perhaps?" Sean remarked with a grin.
"Eww!" Alex cried.
"Uh, that's another name for your skin, Alex." Mickey alerted her.
A sheepish look appeared on Alex's face as she realized her blunder. "Oh," she said before her disgusted expression returned again when she added, "But still…Eww!"
There was an electronic ring tone to the Ghostbusters' company theme song heard from Spengler's cell phone in the right pocket of his beige pants. As he pulled it out and answered it, Cody Martin walked through the half of the entrance that still had a gaping hole in it; he had a bright smile on his face upon walking in. "Cody Martin! Reporting for his first day of duty as an honorary Junior Ghostbuster!" The boy stood up straight and performed a salute to the senior members.
"You're in the Ghostbusters business, dude…not the army." Alex jested.
Mickey chuckled over Cody's enthusiasm. "Oh, boy! It sure does feel great being the very first Junior Ghostbusters."
"Yeah!" Donald gleefully cheered.
"We get to wear purdy uniforms, too." Goofy added.
"Well, not yet, you don't." Christina said as she reached into her purse and pulled out five buttons that had the famous "No-Ghost" insignia; she handed them to Alex, Cody, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, who all seemed slightly distraught. "Hey, it's only temporary…at least until we find sizeable flight suits for kids, mice, ducks, and…man-dog…things."
The new Junior Ghostbusters turned to each other and shrugged their shoulders, just feeling glad that they were on the team. That was when the thought of being newcomers reminded Mickey of another: Alexis Embers. "Gosh…I really hope Miss Embers is O.K."
Christina let out a deep, worried sigh. "So do I, sweetie. She really sacrificed a lot to save everyone. And, to be honest, she's more of a legend than any of us turned out to be."
They heard Sean nearby thanking the person on the other line before hanging up the phone; he then turned to everyone in the garage and said, "That was Dr. Sung. He says that Alexis has made a full recovery and is checking out of the hospital right now."
Kim and the others looked extremely surprised by this update. "For real? Well…that's…that's awesome news!"
J.G. urgently turned his attention away from the Ecto-1 and towards Spengler. "When he said 'full recovery,' you mean…she's totally healed from all of her burns?"
Sean seemed a bit hesitant to answer Stantz's inquiry at first, looking towards Christina, who instantly noticed his look of concern; finally, he answered, "According to Dr. Sung…she looks like a woman who'd never been in an accident her whole life."
Stantz smiled and sighed in relief; he felt a hand touch his shoulder and looked to his right to see that it was Kim, who also smiled, sharing his moment of relief and happiness. "How about we go give our girl, Alexis, a visit?" Kim suggested. "I'm sure that's a fine way of saying 'Excellent work.' Wouldn't you think so, Jay?"
J.G.'s smile grew larger and brighter. "Yeah. I think it's an awesome idea."
"Well, let's go congratulate our hero," said Diana as she reached inside a newly constructed locker, lined up right next to hers and the other three Ghostbusters, and pulled out a fresh, clean flight suit that had the name "Embers" stitched in red on a black nametag, "And our newest member of the team."
"Hey! How come she gets a uniform?" questioned a jealous Donald.
"Well, when you put your life on the line for all humanity, perhaps you'll get one." Cody defended.
"I don't know who'd honestly want to wear a uniform with the name 'Duck' on it." Alex bantered, which generated laughter from everyone, except for Donald himself.
The duck squawked a long line of cursing as they all exited the firehouse, heading to J.G.'s parked Volvo outside. Christina stopped once she noticed that Sean was still standing where he was, staring off into space and lost in thought. "Aren't you coming?" she asked him, but he didn't respond right away. "Sean? Are you okay, hon?"
Suddenly, he snapped out of his trance when he noticed Christina walking towards him. "Huh? I'm sorry. Did you say something?"
Her focus shifted from his handsome brown eyes, hid behind glasses that glimmered when the light hit them, to the cell phone that he still carried in his hand. "What else did the doctor tell you about Alexis?"
Again, Spengler hesitated with a direct answer. "He mentioned that he'd never seen a normal human being recover so quickly from the burns she sustained in the accident in his entire career."
One word in that sentence truly stuck out to Melnitz as peculiar. "What did he mean 'normal'?"
"There were blood tests done in the seventh day of recovery, at which Alexis's third-degree burns had rejuvenated to those in the first degree with no help from any medication or remedies of any kind." Sean informed. "The tests came back as 'unknown,' but they found bizarre anomalies in the blood, as if they had been taken from someone who had recently been…deceased."
Christina couldn't stifle a chuckle. "You've got be kiddin' me!" She stopped once she saw how serious he was. "Sean, she's checkin' out of the hospital today, alive and kickin'! It's impossible to take blood from a dead person, especially somebody with a heartbeat and a pulse!"
"According to Dr. Sung, she doesn't have either of those." Sean remarked, which got a stunned reaction from Christina. "I'm starting to believe that something extraordinarily bad occurred on that rooftop when Alexis's Proton Pack overloaded. The amount of explosive power in that machine is equivalent to a total protonic reversal."
"You mean like when you guys cross the streams?"
"Precisely."
The two shared a concerned feeling to this revelation. Christina was just starting to see Sean's fear in what could've possibly happened in the aftermath of Alexis Embers' accident; but, despite much of the concern, she still made an attempt to be rational with this situation. "Even science couldn't explain this kind of a miracle, and I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth."
"Still, I…"
HONK! HONK!
They heard the rumbling of J.G.'s Volvo outside, just as Kim ran back inside and shouted to the two, "Hey, c'mon! We're burnin' gas out here! And in today's economy, that don't come cheap!"
Sean and Christina rolled her eyes, annoyed by Venkman's impatience, but also delighted that she snapped them out of their moment of caution. Silently deciding to put the topic on hold for a more reasonable time, they followed Kim out of the firehouse and hopped into the Volvo. As he sat in the back of the vehicle, Sean seemed highly impressed of how much room there was in it. "You know, Jay…there's enough space in this car to give it a full enhancement for another Ecto model."
"I still believe the Ecto-1 can be fixed." Stantz declared.
"Okay. Seriously, dude…let it go," said an annoyed Kim.
The Volvo roared down the street, moving faster than most of the other vehicles traveling down it; however, none of them took notice of the strange activity occurring right in the middle of it as a manhole cover started to shift on its own. It suddenly rose up, unleashing the foul septic odor that it contained in the sewers. If there was any clue of how this manhole cover moved on its own, it had to be the skeletal hand that popped out from under it, clawing at the concrete; this and the dark, heavy voice that echoed the word…
FREEDOM!