"The Best of Both Worlds"

It wasn't very often when Peck and Hardemeyer took (or even shared) a taxicab, as they were normally escorted by the police or riding in the back of a limousine with the mayor. But having to take a taxicab to whatever it was that they needed to go in order to find Alexis's escaped ghosts was the drollest thing for former associates of the government to do. And the worst part of it was the three of them being crowded in the backseat.

"Any reason why we're all packed together in the backseat of this sardine can of a vehicle?" Louise asked, trying not to sound too ungrateful near their taxi driver, who looked almost exactly like Robert DeNiro (the last thing she needed was for him to ask if she was talking to him).

John barely heard her question, as he was trying to fight off the numbness in his right leg. "Maybe it's because of all the crap he's got lying around on the floor up there!" Obviously, Hardemeyer wasn't all too concerned about offending the driver. And clearly hearing his harsh criticism, the cigar-smoking driver looked down at all of the leftover burger wrappers, French fry boxes, half-burnt cigarettes, and exotic magazines. He just shrugged off Hardemeyer's criticism and continued minding his own business.

"What happened to the car you blokes usually drive? That…um…Ecto-1?" Peck asked Alexis.

"It's being used at the moment," answered Alexis, who was fighting off her own numbness while sitting between Louise and John.

"You should really consider getting another company vehicle or something," suggested the frustrated Hardemeyer. "Having to deal with this type of transportation every day is just a sin!"

It was that comment that greatly offended the driver, as he pulled to the side of the road and turned angrily to his passengers. "Alright, buddy! That's it! You and your girlfriends get outta my cab, right now!!"

"Sir, just ignore him." Alexis pleaded. "He's just upset because he's been unemployed and currently being forced to live with his mom."

Hardemeyer glanced her way and said with a bewildered, furious expression, "EXCUSE ME?!?!"

Unfortunately, Alexis's words (or John's retort for that matter) didn't help give the driver a change of heart, thus explaining his harsh tone as he demanded, "GET OUT!!!"

Immediately, the three of them piled out of the taxicab and stood out onto the nearby sidewalk, not long before Alexis removed her Proton Pack from the trunk. They watched as the driver screech away in the taxicab, not even bothering to ask for their fee. Strapping on her Proton Pack, Alexis felt very angry with John for blowing the precious time they needed to spend on searching for Slimer and the Lonesome Ghosts.

Louise Peck didn't feel all too pleased herself. "Thanks, John! I didn't expect to get much exercise tonight!"

"Who cares?!" Hardemeyer snapped. "It wasn't like we were going anywhere! Just circling around the city for hours and piling up the amount of our fee!" He then turned to Alexis and glared at her as he added, "I'm starting to think this so-called Ghostbuster is just wasting our time with this cruddy mission!!"

Alexis glared back at him and was about to tell him off, before she spotted something across the street that begged her attention more. She realized that the taxi driver had dropped them off near Madison Square Garden, which apparently was where Hannah Montana was performing that night (according to the marquee). It was a safe bet that their escaped ghosts might've gone there for their little night of fun and chaos.

"How big are you two on Pop music?" Alexis asked with a grin.

Miley Stewart could almost hear the millions of fans in the arena chanting her name…well, the name of her pop star alter ego, Hannah Montana. She was only in half of her usual H.M. garb, with the exotic clothes and fine jewelry. But it was her long brown hair that was slightly contradicting her appearance, due to the fact that Hannah was a well-known blonde. She had the wig there near her dressing room mirror, sitting over a foam mannequin head, as she was putting on her makeup.

While doing so, she was accompanied by her best friends Lilly Truscott (under the alias of "Lola Luftnagle" and disguised in a short, bright red wig, loud-colored clothes, and jewelry to help protect Miley's secret identity) and Oliver Oken (disguised as "Mike Standley III" with a fake goatee, aviator sunglasses, an upside-down visor, sweatpants, and a zip-up hoodie), both eating different flavors of ice cream and getting some on their faces.

Between licks, Lilly smiled and told Miley, "Man! Do I ever feel glad that I talked you into allowing free ice cream to everybody for this concert!"

"If I remember correctly, Dad was the one who convinced me it was a good idea." Miley confirmed. "You just stood by, salivated, and said, 'Oh! Oh! Please do it! Please do it!'."

Lilly rolled her eyes, somewhat embarrassed of being wrong. "You'd be salivating, too, if you often got that bad of a sugar rush."

Miley shook her head and grinned at her best friend, just as there was a knock at the door to her dressing room. "Miley, it's me," said the voice of her father and manager, Robby Stewart. "Just wanted to let you know that you've got fifteen minutes before you're wanted onstage."

"Alright. Thanks, Daddy." Miley remarked. She expected him to walk off afterwards; but when she heard the door open, she instantly reached for her blonde wig and put it on. "Daddy! What're you doing?! People gonna see me without my hair on!"

Robby had his head partially inside, wearing his own disguise to protect his daughter's secret in the form of a fake mustache and brown bucket hat. "Just wantin' to see if ya'll aren't eatin' too much of that ice cream. Especially you, Miley. You know how bad you get when eatin' before singin'."

"Oh, don't worry, Mr. Stewart." Lilly assured. "Oliver and I are doing most of the eating."

"Yeah, uh, speaking of that…Oliver…" Robby gestured to the space around his lips, as he gawked at Oliver strangely.

Oliver, noting the odd expression on his face and the gesture he made, touched around his lips. He soon realized that his goatee was missing, and when he tried to look around for it, he spotted it in the middle of his scoop of chocolate ice cream. "Oh! There it is!" He snatched it up and placed it back on his face, despite how it was still covered with the ice cream. "Thanks, Mr. Stewart."

Robby wanted to tell him to clean it up some, before keeping it on his face any longer. But he saw no point in it, since most of Oliver's face was already a sticky mess. "Uh…yeah…sure thing, son," he said before leaving the dressing room.

After her father left, Miley checked the mirror and straightened out her wig, which was a little lopsided after the rush she had to put it on. It was at that moment when she spotted a greenish glow at the top left corner of the mirror. She glanced at it and spotted some type of transparent, gluttonous, onion-headed figure with very skinny arms hovering right behind Lilly and Oliver.

"What the…?!" she cried as she quickly turned and looked towards her friends. She didn't see the transparent figure there behind them.

Lilly heard Miley's cry and glanced at her in concern. "You okay, Miley?"

"You guys didn't see that funky-lookin' thing creepin' up behind you?!"

Holding her nose and making a disgusted look, Lilly responded, "I don't know about funky-looking, but I smell something really funky." She turned to Oliver, who was practically slobbering over his ice cream, and didn't have to guess the smell was coming from him.

Oliver noticed the accusing way she was staring at him, after hearing her claim of a foul stench. "What? It wasn't me this time! I swear it!"

Miley waved her hand in front of her face as fast as she could, trying to clear away the foul smell that was coming into her nostrils. She held her nose while moving away from her mirror and towards the door. "Well, whatever it is, I hope it gets on outta here after I'm done. See you guys later."

Lilly and Oliver waved to Miley as she left. Once she was gone, Lilly continued badgering to Oliver over the foul odor that he had supposedly given off. "Dude, you seriously have to get some more fiber in your diet. I think your lactose-intolerant or something."

"I'm telling you…it wasn't me!" Oliver defended himself, as he started smelling the odor himself and getting a little sick from it. "Ugh! Whatever it is, it sure isn't manmade!"

While they were looking all over the dressing room for the source of the smell, the gluttonous, transparent form of Slimer began manifesting right behind them. He spotted an ice cream cart across the room, and his mouth salivated from the delicious sight of it. A mixture of ectoplasm and saliva dripped to the peach-colored carpet below, straining it with green. Slimer went to the ice cream and started gobbling up each flavor by the bucket.

After Lilly and Oliver stopped their search, they turned in the direction of the cart to get some more ice cream to eat. Unfortunately, they soon realized that their snack was being consumed by an even hungrier force—a green, slimy ghost! Lilly and Oliver froze in place, dropping the ice cream they had already been consuming to the carpeted floor, and they stared at the creepy sight before them, mouths and eyes wide opened in shock.

Slimer sensed the stares of the two mortals behind him and turned to face them, his mouth full and dripping with ice cream. Swallowing it whole, he allowed it to digest within his translucent form. Lilly and Oliver could practically see it doing so, becoming very disgusted at the odd sight. As soon as the ice cream had been digested, Slimer let out a massive belch that overwhelmed Lilly and Oliver, knocking off Lilly's wig and Oliver's fake goatee. An even fouler smell overcame the area as the two youths screamed in horror, while they immediately ran out of the dressing room. Slimer wasn't very far behind, chasing after them while excreting the ice cream he had digested, leaving a trail of green and brown ectoplasmic fluid.

A visit to the ticket booth proved futile for Alexis, Louise, and John, after they attempted to purchase some tickets to the Hannah Montana concert, only to discover they had all been sold out—even ones for the nosebleed section. Alexis even tried to convince the booth guy that there might've been four dangerously crazy ghosts inside the arena and her ghost-busting expertise was needed. But the booth guy just figured she was using her occupation to con her way into a free show, just like the "last woman."

And Alexis didn't have to do much guessing to figure that "last woman" was Kimberly Venkman. Again, she screws things up for me!

The three of them stood near the entrance to Madison Square Garden, feeling hopeless of the situation that could be brewing within the building, ready to explode at any moment. It was John who presumed at the moment, "Maybe once they pile out of the building in shock, that'll give us the opportunity to go in there and bust these guys."

"Brilliant idea, John," said a sarcastic Louise. "And once we get ourselves unstuck from the floor, we can consider trying to bust these blokes from the nearby hospital!"

Hardemeyer gave Peck a confused stare, wondering what she meant from that witty remark. But it was Alexis who cleared things up when she told him, "The point is not to cause a riot, Hardemeyer. We have to get in there, while the concert is in full swing, so that no one will suspect any chaotic activity happening backstage…which is where I'm guessing our little friends to be right now."

"Well, we certainly cannot get backstage any less near the stage." Louise indicated. "So what do we do?"

Alexis took a moment to think long and hard about it, and as she was doing so, she heard the nearby voices of two boys engaged in a heavy argument—one sounding older, while the other sounded younger. She, Peck, and Hardemeyer went around near the back of the building to find a 15-year-old Latino boy and a 20-year-old Caucasian boy with a southern accent. It appeared that the Latino boy was scalping some Hannah Montana concert tickets, much to the southern kid's chagrin and confusion.

"I don't see what the heck ya need to scalp tickets for!" The Southern kid exclaimed. "Don't your parents give ya enough as it is?"

"Listen, it's very complicated for your feeble brain to get, so if I bothered tellin' ya, then you'd just get lost like always!" The Latino boy retorted. "So, please, just let me handle my business." That was when he spotted Alexis, Louise, and John approaching and smiled as he said, "Step right up, folks. Buy some tickets for the Hannah Montana conce…"

The southern kid suddenly stepped forward and covered the Latino kid's mouth, trying to prevent him from making any more deals with the three. "Don't listen to him. He's just desperate for attention. You know how kids can be these days…just the craziest little things."

Alexis felt a hand come down on her shoulder, having an intense grip to it. At first she was afraid that it might've been the police; but she turned and noticed it was just John Hardemeyer, acting like the political figure he used to be again. "You are not actually considering buying scalped tickets, are you? It's illegal on so many levels!"

"Oh, stop being such an arrogant divvy, Hardemeyer!" Louise yelled in frustration. "Do whatever you can to get us in, Alexis."

As much as Alexis wanted to buy the tickets, her conscience just wouldn't allow her. But she needed to get inside to bust Slimer and the Lonesome Ghosts, before they caused any panic. However, the sudden noise of girl screaming nearby might've not only given her an excuse not to purchase the scalped tickets, but also confirm her worst fears.

Detaching her Proton Gun from the Pack, she said in frustration, "That's it! I'm getting in there, with or without any darn tickets!" She then stomped her way towards the back entrance, with Peck, Hardemeyer, and the two boys following.