"O.K., Who Brought the Dog?"
The immense heat of the Proton Gun was beginning to take a large toll on Diana Zeddemore's hands, regardless of the fact that she wore her huge, black rubber gloves while handling it. She felt it singeing through and eventually making extreme contact with her skin. But she wouldn't stop firing, until her comrade, Alexis Embers, did. There was no doubt in her mind that she was going through the exact same agonizing issue, which her determination greatly overweighed.
Neither of the two women could've believed what they were firing at: a completely identical and highly realistic representation of the demonic "Terror Dog" species they once faced while taking on Gozer the Gozerian. Although Alexis had never before encountered it, she heard enough stories from the Ghostbusters themselves to know just how to fear and conquer it.
Diana turned to her companion, who she worried of growing weak from this intense bust just from seeing how pale her complexion was. "Get back to the car, Alexis! I'll deal with this monster!"
Alexis scoffed at her orders. "You're just trying to play hero again, Dye! You really think I'm gonna let you…"
BRRRRAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!
Their eyes opened wider in shock, as they watched the demonic canine totally elude their protonic streams by leaping twenty feet into the air and descend straight toward them. Quickly dodging out of harm's way, they avoided the monster in time for it to land right on the hood of the Volvo and practically cave it in. Seeing the massive damage done to J.G.'s car, Diana knew that he would be more than upset when he arrived to see it. However, from the way he sounded on the phone a little while ago, worried about Alexis's safety, she doubted that he would've even cared.
The dog let out an unearthly growl, as it darted its glowing red eyes towards Diana. She felt a chill go down her spine upon looking into them, almost like this monstrous animal was burning a hole through her soul. It was her preview of hell—an endless fiery pit to pain and suffering. Whatever supernatural force that created this demon must have intended for it to be a warning for a poor, unfortunate being…or some kind of punishment.
And what happened next seemed to have proven that theory for Zeddemore, once the canine directed its attention towards Alexis.
Lifting her particle thrower up high and aiming it directly at the monster, Embers attempted to fire another powerful stream. Unfortunately, the lightning-quick moves of the horrible beast robbed her of the opportunity to get another shot, as it charged at her and tackled her body right through the window of a nearby pawn shop. From a large distance, Diana watched this action done with such ferocity that she wondered if Alexis might've possibly been killed from the impact.
"Alexis!!!" She screamed, while getting to her feet and running to the pawn shop, where a mixture of Alexis's scream of fear and agony and the Terror Dog's howl of viciousness and monstrosity sounded from.
Before she even reached the pawn shop, a series of blue and red lights flashed in the corner of her right eye, following the familiar wail of the Ecto-1's sirens. She turned her head and was thankful to see the signature vehicle of the Ghostbusters pull right up next to the wrecked Volvo. Never in her whole life did she think that she would ever be so glad to see that ridiculous company logo of theirs.
Zeddemore didn't wait for Stantz and Spengler to completely climb out of the vehicle, before she approached and alerted them of what happened. "Guys, it's got Alexis! It's attacking her inside that shop over there!"
Hearing this, J.G. instantly went to the rear of the car and opened the door, pulling out his Proton Pack. Meanwhile, Spengler had already gone to work on his P.K.E. meter, scanning the empty neighborhood for anything that would explain the reappearance of the demonic canine. His readings were showing something that he couldn't properly figure out; because it seemed that he was receiving several different readings all at once, making matters quite difficult and confusing.
"Are you getting anything?" Diana asked him.
Spengler just shook his head negatively. "It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. There appears to be more than several supernatural forces bouncing off one another in this area."
Before Diana could have questioned what that meant, J.G. dashed right in between them, his Proton Pack humming powerfully on his back and particle thrower gripped firmly in his gloved hands. He was going in the ravaged shop with such determination to get Alexis out safely that he failed to understand one crucial bit of information that Diana had to give about the situation.
"Jay, wait! Your stream won't work against it!" She cried, but Stantz didn't seem to have listened, as he was too focused on his goal.
However, before he could have entered the pawn shop…
CRASH!!!
A human-shaped object flew out through the window of the building's third floor and descended from a height of twenty feet. It crashed face-first on top of a parked car, shattering the windows and caving in the roof on impact. Only when Stantz, Spengler, and Zeddemore noticed the still-functioning Proton Pack did they realize it was Alexis.
"Oh, no." J.G. silently said to himself, as he went over to the body of his friend, feeling all too certain that she was immediately killed or severely injured from the huge drop.
However, just as he attempted to remove her body from the damaged vehicle, she started to move completely on her own, moving one arm and a leg at a time. It was certainly hard to believe that she was doing this, considering the extent of the fall and the way she landed on the vehicle. But what was even more difficult to comprehend, once she rolled herself off the car and stood up straight, was the fact that there wasn't a single scratch on her—not even any blood drawn. It just seemed to be her uniform that suffered the brunt of the Terror Dog's attack, being heavily tattered and exposing parts of her unscathed flesh.
And despite this miraculous miracle, Alexis seemed to be focused more on her anger towards the monstrous canine that attacked her. "That is without a doubt the last time I allow myself to become a dog's personal chew toy!" While observing the damage done to her Ghostbuster uniform (which seemed to have been missing the nametag displaying her last name), she couldn't help but to detect some awkwardness in the sudden moment of silence following her comment. She looked to see the astounded expressions registered on the faces of her teammates. "What? What's going on?" And yet, at the same time, she couldn't help but to notice something on the roof of the Ecto-1. "Why are there kids on our company car?"
All heads turned directly to the Ectomobile, where Meagan Tully stood atop of the vehicle with Phineas and Ferb, much to the chagrin of J.G. Stantz. "Oh, no, no, no, no! What're you recruits doing here?!"
Meagan spoke quickly, before anyone or anything else could have interrupted her. "Dr. Stantz, I really need to talk to…"
"Oh, there you are, Perry." She suddenly heard Phineas say, as a green, orange-billed and orange-tailed platypus passed right by on the nearest sidewalk. "I wonder how he got all the way out here."
Ignoring the oddity of the platypus named Perry's sudden appearance, Diana focused more on that of the two pre-teenaged boys and bespectacled young woman on top of the car. "So now we're inviting children on our busts? Is that it?"
"They're part of Venkman's new 'Junior Ghostbusters' program, Dye." J.G. explained. "And they were supposed to be taking space within their new quarters at the firehouse!" He made that last statement with a look of fury directed at the three figures on the Ecto-1's roof.
As he saw them there, Spengler wondered aloud, "How did you three get up there, without us seeing you?"
"We'd installed a special compartment between the photon emitter and the wave analyzer." Phineas answered. "There's enough room for at least four people up here. It took us only ten seconds to set it up. That's quite a record for Ferb."
Spengler rubbed his chin with his left index finger with a hint of interest in what Phineas just told him. "Fascinating."
"'Fascinating' is the last word I would choose to describe this." Stantz sternly stated. "You recruits disobeyed a direct order from a superior, during a time of crisis! What've you got to say for yourselves?"
Meagan, Phineas, and Ferb looked to each other, not entirely certain what to say in defense of their disobedience. All Meagan wanted to do was see the Ghostbuster of her current interest about something that obviously could've waited until after this crisis was adverted. But since she was already there in the middle of it all, she took this opportunity to bring it up.
Unfortunately, the moment was suddenly interrupted with a sudden, horrendous noise…
BRRRRAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!
Nearly leaping out of their skins from the howl of the Terror Dog, they all looked upward to see its enormous, terrifying head poking out through the same window that Alexis had crashed through and glaring at all the mortals down below. It climbed out afterwards, digging its razor sharp claws into the concrete structure of the building, and headed up to the rooftop, evidently no longer interested in dealing with the Ghostbusters any further. They watched the monster as it continuously leaped from one rooftop to another, seeming to be headed in the direction of Downtown Manhattan.
"Where's it going?" Alexis asked.
"How much you wanna bet it's going back to its original habitat?" Zeddemore inquired.
It didn't take very long for J.G. to realize what she meant. "The Tipton Hotel! Of course! Something we did back there, months ago, seemed to have re-unlocked that door we sealed between our world and that of Gozer's."
"Yes, and this 'Terror Dog' seems to be the only fragment of what's escaped from it." Spengler deciphered. "Its high energy levels represent a sort of dimensional resurrection that was brought from our confrontation with Maleficent, which is why I was getting such complex readings."
"That could also explain why Alexis and I weren't able to take it down with our particle streams and ended up with our butts handed to us on a silver platter in the process." Diana stated.
"Precisely." Sean affirmed. "It's grown much stronger now—possibly even stronger than Gozer and Maleficent combined."
Alexis scratched her head, deeply confused and beginning to lose hope in their situation. "So how do we stop something you guys have faced and foiled before, but now cannot stop?"
"And please don't say 'cross the streams'." Diana demanded.
"Obviously not." Spengler remarked. "What we're dealing with here is something that cannot be closed from within our world." He scratched his chin for a brief moment and then took out his P.K.E., taking another reading of the area again. This time, however, the readings seemed to have been aiming to a particular direction—one opposite from which the demonic canine went into. "We have our heading."
Stantz nodded in approval. "Great! You, Dye, and I will go and investigate the cause of this disturbance." He then turned to Alexis, whom he still had some worry over, regardless of the fact that she appeared totally unharmed. "Lexi, you take the recruits back to the firehouse and make sure everyone there is in line."
Her face registered a look of disappointment from this order. "But I want to come with you guys! I'm part of the team now, remember?!"
"You were just attacked by a half demon/half dog monster."
"But I'm apparently okay! See?"
J.G. let out a deep sigh, before he finally said, "That's the second mystery I'm going to figure out, right after this one."
She looked at him in great confusion, as he, Sean, and Diana all climbed into the Ecto-1, shortly after Meagan, Phineas, and Ferb were ordered to get down from its roof. Her despair increased once she watched her teammates drive away into the direction that the P.K.E. instructed them to go to find their source.
Nice…I'm stuck babysitting the newbies now, she thought to herself, while looking towards the recruits, who just waved at her with the oddest expressions on their faces.
Right at that moment, her cell phone began playing an electronic jingle to their company theme song from the left pocket of her uniform. She took it out and pressed the "Send" button, placing it near her mouth and ear. "Hello?"
"Alexis, is that you?!" The voice of Christina Melnitz was on the other end, sounding incredibly urgent and panicky. "We've got some huge problems over here, girl! Is there Sean, Diana, or Jay there with you?"
"No, they've just left to find whatever caused the Terror Dog to return." She answered. "Why? What's going…"
"If you've still got a Proton Pack strapped to ya, we could sure use it right about now!" Christina exclaimed. "One of the recruits here just did the most stupid thing ever!!"
Alexis rolled her eyes in aggravation; it was one thing for her to be left babysitting three rookies, but it was a completely different thing with a bunch of others. "I'll be there as quickly as possible, Christina. Just…hang tight." After hanging up the phone, she turned to Meagan, Phineas, and Ferb, with a wave of seniority coming through her like never before. "Alright, you newbies! Get in the Volvo with me! Apparently, another one of you screw-ups just made our day even worse!"
"Undoubtedly it was Kuzco." Ferb briefly stated.
Meagan glanced at the Volvo vehicle that she and the boys were ordered to get into, seeing the wrecked condition it was left in from the current battle. She wondered if it was even still drivable. Although before she could even point this out to Alexis, the still-inexperienced Ghostbuster decidedly climbed in and revved it up—apparently the engine was still functioning.
Once Meagan and the boys were onboard, Alexis started driving forward; however, because the front was so caved-in, the underbelly dragged against the concrete and made the Volvo move extremely slow. Fiery sparks shot out from the left and right and the sound of grinding metal sounded loudly through the neighborhood, as Alexis drove in the direction of the Ghostbusters' firehouse headquarters.
Unfortunately, because of all the excitement, Phineas and Ferb failed to remind themselves to bring Perry along, leaving the platypus still standing on all four at the sidewalk. However, this was an advantage of Perry's as he, whenever none of his owners were around, switched to his secret agent alter ego, "Agent P," by donning a brown fedora and standing on his hind legs. With coast entirely cleared, he disappeared right through the nearest manhole, going on his next super-secret mission.