"Weird Science"

All of the registration forms from the new recruits were finally filled in, meaning they were officially applicable to be "Junior Ghostbusters" at the moment. It also meant that Christina could finally get back to watching her program, without any interruptions. In the meantime, J.G. led the recruits downstairs to the basement, where Dr. Sean Spengler was in the process of upgrading the team's state-of-the-art Proton Packs and fitting it with the same functions that made Alexis Embers's advanced version such a treat to use.

There was a large metal worktable right across from the Containment Unit that he operated from, wearing his uniform beneath a welder's mask, apron, and gloves while carving into certain areas of the four-foot, forty-five pound particle accelerator. Fiery sparks flew to the right and left with each carve he made with the small blowtorch, some of them bouncing right off his mask.

Stantz made sure to keep himself and the recruits back from a safe distance, as Spengler was hard at work. "Uh, as you all can see, this is where we store our ghosts once they're…" He stopped as soon as he noticed a female hand rise up from the crowd of recruits. "Yes, you have a question, Miss…"

The recruits parted faster than the Red Sea to allow the one that raised her hand to be seen by J.G. "Tully…Meagan Tully."

"Your parents must've been pretty weird to give you the same first and last names," uttered Kuzco, with a scoff. He was suddenly elbowed in the ribs by Malina for his ridiculous comment. "Ouch! What did I say now?"

Rolling his eyes at the young emperor, Stantz returned his focus on Meagan. "I'm sorry. Please continue."

"Well, I…I just w-wanted to ask if I could see…"

"Jay?!" A somewhat muffled voice came from near the worktable, as Sean Spengler turned and looked to the group, his mask still obscuring his face. Between that and the blowtorch still flaming in his grip, it brought out a slightly intimidated feeling over the recruits, especially Meagan, who had completely forgotten her question. "What's all of this?"

"These are the new Junior Ghostbusters for Venkman's program." Stantz explained. "I'm giving them a little tour of the headquarters that they'll be staying in over the summer."

"Oh, that's right!" Sean exclaimed, right before he shut off the blowtorch and lifted his mask, revealing his friendly yet stern face to the recruits, who began to calm down a little. "I would have expected there to be more of them."

Stantz looked over the small group of rookies before him and smiled. "Well, it's not much now. But with a little more believing, I'm sure we'll have more by at least the end of June."

Out of the crowd came two of the smaller and younger recruits named Phineas and Ferb, who ran directly up to Spengler with a surge of energy that could only be found in their age range, which seemed "less than fifteen" to Spengler. "Dr. Spengler, Ferb and I are big fans of your work! You invent the coolest weapons for the Ghostbusters. Our favorite's got to be the Ghost Traps. Ferb thinks that with the right amount of frequency on the force field, the trap could possibly open the gateway to a parallel dimension."

Spengler couldn't help but to stare at these two boys for a long moment and wonder out loud, "Aren't you kids a little young to be Ghostbusters?"

"Yes," replied Phineas, almost instantly. "Yes, we are."

Nearby, Candace just rolled her eyes over her little brother and stepbrother's enthusiasm over ghost-hunting technology. "F.Y.I., it was not my idea to come here. I just need a good summer job to earn enough money to buy a digital camera that I can use to bust my brothers for good." She was telling this to no one in particular; although the only person listening seemed to have been Isabella.

"Good luck with that," she said with a hint of sarcasm that could barely be deciphered, due to her sweet, high-pitched voice.

After Phineas and Ferb got their moment of idolizing Sean Spengler, Maximilian and P.J. approached the worktable and gawked over the half-completed Proton Pack sitting there. "Whoa! Awesome!"

"Be careful not to touch that machine, boys." Spengler warned. "It is extremely hot and contains high levels of nuclear radiation that, if released, could have severe side effects on the body."

Max and P.J. stared blankly at him, before they again responded by saying, "Whoa! Awesome!"

"A-hyuck! I wouldn't worry too much about Maxie, Dr. Spengs." Goofy said, as he approached his son and placed his hands on his shoulders. "Da Goof family has been known ta take many bumps and falls." He stopped for a minute and pondered over something, placing a finger over the tip of his chin and looking upward to the ceiling. "But, uh, can't recall if we ever went through radiation poisonin'."

Sean grinned, as he removed his mask and apron. "Trust me, Goofy. It is one thing that I don't believe any member of your family would survive from."

"Tell them what it'd be like handling one of these toys, Spengs." J.G. suggested to which the grin on Spengler's face grew ever so slightly, as he reached underneath his worktable and pulled out a Proton Pack that he had recently repaired.

Once he had it strapped to his back, he moved over to the large Ecto-Containment System and dialed in a six-digit number on a keypad to the left of the machine that automatically opened the slot through which the Ghost Trap should be inserted to fully contain the captured ghost. But Spengler did not open the slot to insert a trap; he purposely left it exposed to do the complete opposite of the system's primary function.

"What I am about to do I suggest for none of you to reenact, while you're serving on the Ghostbusters staff." Spengler declared, as he entered another series of numbers into the keypad.

Within the Unit's slot there came a bright purple light that grew rapidly in a matter of seconds. It shot out from the slot and across the room, stopping at the very center. J.G. and the recruits watched in disbelief as a human-shaped form began materializing before their eyes, from bottom to top. However, once it finished doing so, they quickly realized the subject wasn't as human as they believed, when it became more detailed.

What Spengler had realized from the Containment System turned out to be a horrifying creature of the supernatural—a half-dead pirate with pale blue decaying skin on one half of his body and nothing more than bones on the other. His clothes were tattered and reeked of alcohol and blood. In his skeletal hand, he carried a long, sharp sword that he held up high, desiring to attack the mortals before him.

Stantz's eyes widened in shock upon seeing what Spengler had unleashed back into the living world. "You had to release one from our bust at the docks, three years ago?!"

"I figured I'd like a bit of a challenge," said the confident Spengler.

The half-dead pirate roared with fury, as it charged towards J.G. and the Junior Ghostbusters, who all had screamed in panic. When it leaped high into the air, clutching its sword in a stabbing position, Sean opened fire and contained it within the confines of his particle stream.

"Have any of you ever been fishing before?" He asked, while wrangling the ghost in his stream. None of the recruits responded to his question, so he asked again, only this time more aggressively. "Have any of you ever been fishing?! Yes or no?!" Slowly, a few hands started rising from the crowd, mostly from the boys. "When you're fighting to keep a ghost withheld in your stream, it is the equivalent to catching a bite from a fish."

"So what do you do once you've caught it?" Justin asked.

"Simple," said Spengler, as he detached a Ghost Trap from his pack. "You simply pull it out of the water." He then threw the trap across the floor and stopped it beneath the captured ghost. Phineas and Ferb looked upon it with huge smiles, waiting with much anticipation for the next part—their favorite part. With a brief stomp on the footpad, the Ghost Trap flew open and sucked the half-dead pirate into it, howling once more as it vanished into the device.

After the ghost had been trapped, Stantz walked right over to the device, which began to smoke and give off an odor that was far worse than the half-dead pirate's. He picked it up by the cord, dangling it in front of the recruits, who each held their noses in disgust. "And that, boys and girls, is how you successful contain a ghost during a bust."

Spengler walked right up next to Stantz, attaching his particle thrower to the right side of his pack with a confident grin. "After a series of tutorials, you will eventually be able to bust a ghost with as much ease as I have just done."

Kuzco scoffed at Spengler's words. "Who needs tutoring? That looks like a piece of cake."

"It might look simple, but there are risks that must be taken into consideration when handling this equipment." Spengler stated.

"But you said it yourself that it's like fishing." Max Goof indicated. "And my dad and I go fishing almost every summer."

"Er…yes, but…"

"Soooo, just strapped me up with one of those puppies, and I'll take it from here." Kuzco arrogantly said.

"Ohh, no, you don't." Malina disapproved. "You're not gonna fry half of New York City with your inexperience."

"Apparently, someone's forgotten the fact that I have an underground laboratory beneath my palace. I don't need some dumb tutorial to show me how to work…uh…whatever that thingy's called."

P.J. chuckled. "For real, man. Tutorials are for video games."

"You guys are gonna realize the hard way that what we do out there on the streets is no game." Stantz remarked.

"Looking at the entertainment value of your occupation, however, one can possibly consider creating a video game based on your lives." Ferb unexpectedly stated, with such preciseness and clarity through his British accent. "It would make for a delightful virtual experience."

Silence had fallen over the room for a brief period of time before Phineas proudly declared, "I know what we're going to do next summer!"

A series of rapid footsteps were suddenly heard from the nearby staircase, as everyone turned to see Christina enter with a look of great concern over her face. "Guys! Diana just contacted me over the phone! Something went wrong during the run that she and Alexis went on!"

Stantz and Spengler looked to each other, highly worried about what Melnitz had just told them. Immediately, they headed out of the basement with the recruits, not long after Spengler removed his Proton Pack. As soon as they arrived upstairs and approached Christina's desk, J.G. picked up the phone and spoke directly to Diana Zeddemore.

"Dye, what's wrong? What happened out there? Is Alexis alright?"

A huge sigh came over the receiver, as Diana responded rather sarcastically. "Gee, Jay. I'm doing just fine. Thanks for askin', man!"

"Sorry," he said. "Christina just informed us of your situation. Is Alexis okay? What went wrong?"

"Well…remember those demonic canines that we encountered while fighting Gozer, five years back?" Zeddemore said. "They're back."

"Say what?!" Stantz exclaimed.

"Yeah…don't ask me how, because I'm not the parapsychologist that you guys are." Diana insisted. "I just know that it's here, and it just kicked our butts really bad!"

J.G. sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead in despair. "Okay, but where is Alexis right now? Is she still…?"

All of the sudden, there was a high-pitched scream heard in the background, followed by a monstrous roar. Diana's voice then came in and viciously shouted, "Back off, you butt-sniffing biscuit breath!" The sound of her particle thrower firing its powerful stream sounded over the phone, forcing J.G. to move it from his ear, due to the loudness of it.

"Diana? Hello? Are you still there?!" He worriedly cried.

Soon there was silence over the phone, and the next thing Stantz heard was a recording of the phone service. "Your call has been disconnected. Please hang up and try again. If you need help, please contact your…"

Not bothering to listen to a pointless recording, J.G. hung up the phone and turned to Spengler, sweat starting to pour from his forehead. "Diana and Alexis are in trouble. They're fighting those beasts that Gozer unleashed over Manhattan years ago."

"The Terror Dogs?" Sean remarked in surprise. "That can't be!"

"Well, it has, and they need our help." Stantz boldly said.

Spengler nodded in agreement, before he headed downstairs to retrieve a couple of Proton Packs to take with them. While doing so, Stantz was approached by Meagan Tully, the girl whose question he had yet to receive. "Dr. Stantz, could I please come with you and Dr. Spengler? It's real important that I see…"

"I'm sorry, but that's totally out of the question." J.G. neglected. "You recruits are to remain here in the firehouse. You'll find your new quarters upstairs on the fourth floor."

Hearing what Stantz just said, Christina reacted in complete surprise. "We have a fourth floor now?!"

While Stantz went over to the Ecto-1 (the second vehicle parked in the garage, next to his own car, the Volvo), Meagan watched him in disappointment, wondering when she would ever get to her wish to talk with…

"Meagan." She heard a voice whisper to her from the left. Looking downward, she realized it was Phineas, who had a huge grin on his face. "I know how we can get you to whoever it is you want to see, without being spotted by Dr. Stantz and Dr. Spengler." Ferb, standing next to his stepbrother, nodded in support of his offer.

Regaining her confidence, Meagan smiled and listened to whatever scheme the boys had in mind.