"That's So [Insert Here]"
One of the backdoors to the Madison Square Garden arena violently swung open the moment Alexis's heavy black boot kicked it in. With her Proton Gun firmly gripped in hand, she pointed straight ahead of her and boldly declared, "I'm gonna bust every single one of these ghosts, even if it takes all of the breath I have in me!"
Little did she realize at the time of her declaration that she was aiming her Proton Gun at a group of backstage workers who were right in the middle of a McDonald's meal. When they took notice of her brash entrance, they blankly stared and one of them remarked (with a mouth full of food), "Well, good luck with that…weirdo." The group bellowed with laughter, making Alexis feel slightly embarrassed.
"I thought you said that you didn't want to cause a panic," said the sarcastic Hardemeyer, who seemed to have taken pleasure in Alexis's moment of embarrassment.
"Shut up." Alexis uttered.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
The laughing backstage workers immediately fell silent at the time they heard the loud, high-pitched scream. They quickly consumed the rest of their meals (some of them just stuffed sandwiches into their mouths and carried them as such), while they were running away from the direction of the screams.
"Those screams sound like they came from Miley's dressing room!" The southern boy exclaimed in great concern.
His Latino friend turned to him in curiosity and asked, "In who's dressing room?!"
The southern kid realized his blunder and tried to cover it up the best way he could. "What was it that I said? I meant Hannah's dressing room…Hannah Montana!"
Louise looked up and down at the boy, seeming to have recognized him a little. "Are you Jackson Stewart? I've heard that you and Miss Montana were once like two peas in a pod."
"At one time, yes. But, sadly, business came before pleasure."
"And speaking of business," said an impatient Alexis, "we should focus on our current situation, before it gets even more out of hand!"
"Well, we'd be happy to oblige, if we knew how to get around this place!" Hardemeyer retorted.
The Latino kid then stepped forward and acted real cool and calm as he said, "Allow me to be your guide. I've gotten enough backstage passes to this place to know every nook and cranny there is. Just follow Rico and you just might come out of this smelling like a bed of roses."
Rico led the group further down the backstage area, including a very skeptical John Hardemeyer, who harshly stated, "We're following a pubescent kid through an arena full of other pubescent kids and possibly dangerous, hungry ghosts. Can this night get any weirder?"
It wasn't too often when Raven Baxter and her friends hung out with her brother, Cory Baxter, and his new friends out of Washington, D.C. And what a better way for them all to hang out than at the Hannah Montana concert in New York City, getting tickets at the earliest time possible…thanks to a precognition from the psychic mind of Raven.
The Baxter siblings sat together with their respective best friends: Eddie Thomas, Chelsea Daniels, Newt Livingston III, and Meena Paroom. They had gotten to know one another only recently, when Raven offered a trip back to the Tipton Hotel, where she crossed paths with Hannah Montana herself once or twice. This was pretty evident from the countless questions that Chelsea asked Meena, regarding her home country of Bahavia.
Her questions continued right onto the moment they took their seats in the arena, as Chelsea asked, "What kind of cheese do they eat in Bohavia? Do they get to watch American Idol at the same time that we do? How many Starbucks coffee shops do they have there? What do they call a Quarter Pound with Cheese?"
"CHELSEA!!!" Meena exclaimed, her frustration finally boiling over. "I respect your great interest in my Bahavian culture. But with all due respect, I've just come to have fun and rock to some Hannah Montana."
"For real, girl." Cory uttered. "Just chill for a moment."
Chelsea seemed slightly hurt from the negativity coming at her. "Alright…sheesh, man. I can't help it if I'm curious to know what time New Year's is celebrated in Bohavia."
"IT'S BAHAVIA! BAH, BAH, BAH!!" Meena retorted.
"Ohhhh, so the national animal of Bohavia is the sheep." Chelsea said, with an intrigued smile. "Very cool."
Newt, whom had been listening in on the conversation (along with most of the other people sitting around them), seemed intrigued himself over what Chelsea just assumed. "Awesome! I did not know that. See, Meena? Asking a lot of questions does help you learn new things."
Overwhelmed by the naïve behavior of the two, Meena sunk down deep in her seat and rubbed both of her temples, fighting over the growing headache. Nearby, Cory was whispering to his sister, "This is gonna be the last time we hang out together, isn't it?"
"Oh, yeah." Raven abruptly answered.
But it was soon that Raven's mind was completely off the situation taking place a few seats away from her and on the concert entirely, as she received another one of her visions of the future. It flashed before her very eyes when she least suspected it, taking away all that was going on around her and replacing it with a totally different setting. Albeit things appeared very bright and blurry, she could see things clear enough to make out what the future held.
In Raven's vision, there was a Ghostbuster (one she did not recognize as one of the original four that started the business) being chased by a demonic dog of some kind in the backstage area of Madison Square Garden. Her friends were there as well, trying to attract the monster's attention, presumably to keep it off the Ghostbuster's back long enough for her to capture it.
"Come here, little doggy! Come here!"
It was Chelsea's voice she heard in the vision, obviously treating the demonic canine like some type of normal dog. Unfortunately, this dog was beyond normal, with long, razor-sharp horns in place of where its ears should be and eyes that were red as blood. It looked like a strange hybrid of a bull and a dog. And that seemed to have been the way Newt was attracting it in her vision, when he said…
"Toro! Toro! Toro!"
He was waving a red cloth, just like a bullfighter, attracting the monster's attention in a way that didn't seem quite so suitable. It worked a little too well, as the demonic dog roared viciously at Newt and charged at him with such speed and ferocity, there was no way Newt could dodge in time to avoid it. He stood there and screamed in terror, as the monster leaped high over the air, pouncing straight at him.
The last image Raven had seen in her vision was Newt's horrified face, before she snapped out of her vision and returned to the present time. The precognition gave Raven the chills, unlike most of the ones she had experienced in the past. She couldn't enjoy the rest of her evening, knowing something like that was going to happen sometime that very night.
She turned to her brother and their friends, opening her mouth to tell them what she just saw in her vision. But she stopped and thought for a moment—if she told them what would happen, then she could be running the risk of getting them involved and possibly making her vision come true. Instead, all she told them was, "I've got to go to the bathroom."
The others glanced over at her in surprise.
"Are you serious?!" Cory asked. "The concert is about to start in two minutes. By the time you get back, we'll all be up out of our seats and dancing."
"I know, but I've really got to go," said Raven, squirming in her chair for added effect.
"Well, I'll go with you, so that you won't get lost on your way back," Chelsea offered. "I'll buy some popcorn, so I can leave a trail behind." She pointed to her head and smiled, feeling proud of her bright idea.
Raven nervously chuckled, thinking fast of an excuse that would draw off Chelsea. "Um…no, Chelsh…it's cool. I'm psychic, remember? I'll just let my mind guide my way back here."
Chelsea seemed rather surprised at this sudden revelation. "You can actually do that? Wow!"
"Amazin', ain't it, girl?" Raven said with a grin, right before she left her seat and headed out of the arena.
The first thing Raven had done after heading out was come up with a good plan to get backstage, without being caught by any security, which were practically covering the entire building. Normally in situations like this, she would work up the best disguise possible to fool anyone that stood in her way. But which disguise should she use for this problem?
That's when she spotted a mustached, plus-sized janitor going into the unoccupied women's bathroom, with a mop and bucket. It wasn't exactly a reasonable disguise for going to save a Ghostbuster and confronting a demonic beast. But as long as it could help her get past security, then she didn't care how blue collar she appeared to one of the hottest (and only) paranormal exterminators in New York City.
Being extremely careful not to be seen by any security personnel, Raven tiptoed her way over to the janitor's quarters, which was left partially open after the janitor went to his regular duties. She went inside dressed in her average colorful attire; but she came out dressed in navy blue jumpsuit, a fake mustache, and a cap that hid her long, black hair to give her a male appearance. In addition to her costume, she carried an extra mop and bucket from inside the quarters.
She was just on her way to the backstage area, trying not to look too suspicious, when a security guard spotted her from behind and said, "Hey, you!"
Raven stopped dead in her tracks. She didn't bother turning around to face the security guard, fearing that he would see right through her disguise. Instead she popped up her collar to hide half of her face, while she partially turned to the guard and answered in a deep voice, "Uh, yeah…what's up, man?"
"You're heading backstage, aren't ya?"
"That's where I'm goin'. Is there a problem?"
"Not at all. Just wanted to wish you good luck. 'Cause you're gonna be spending some serious time trying to clean up the mess in Hannah Montana's dressing room. It appears somebody had way too much ice cream."
Raven cringed over the thought of the mess in there. She couldn't imagine Hannah Montana ever being that messy, especially for a girl who prided herself on looking good before giving a concert. It had to have been the monster, already beginning its destruction through the backstage area. But no one must've been aware of its presence yet, if the security guard didn't seem too alarmed.
"Uh…thanks for the pep talk, my man. I'll be shovin' off now." Raven told him, before continuing on her path.
However, the security guard seemed too anxious to get the last word, as he shouted to her while she was walking, "Hope you've got a gas mask hidden in that bucket. You're gonna need one." He followed his statement with a laugh that Raven couldn't help but to find annoying and bizarre.
Luckily, the laugh subsided as soon as she went through the set of double doors that led to the backstage hallways. But right after she entered them, she found herself trampled by a couple of people in business suits. And one of them didn't seem all too apologetic about it, as he rudely said, "Why don't you watch where you're going, you clueless fool?!"
Offended by this unruly stranger, Raven retorted, "Oh, no you did not just call me a fool!" And she realized all too late that she spoke to this man with her usual feminine tone of voice, which the two formal-suited people quickly took notice from.
"Sounds as if puberty totally missed this bloke," said the blonde British woman, with a raised eyebrow.
Before Raven could explain herself to the two black-suited figures, a loud electrical sparkling noise sounded from across the hallway. Raven's eyes widened with surprise when she noticed the same Ghostbuster from her vision, firing at what appeared to have been a fat, green ghost and four others in bowler hats floating high in the air, right above the heads of four frightened kids that were cowered in the corner. Upon seeing the ghosts that the paranormal exterminator was fighting, Raven quickly realized that neither of them were the same one from her vision. This confused her greatly, as she wondered just how many ghosts were in the building.
Of course, Raven needn't to wonder much longer, as she and the two black-suited strangers heard a deep, ominous growling noise right behind them. Chills moving up and down their spines, the three of them slowly turned and were met with the terrifying eyes of the same demonic creature that Raven had seen in her vision. It snarled at them with humungous, sharp teeth and drooled with saliva that was hot enough to burn a hole through the floor when drops of it hit.
Only two words expressed the fright that Raven and the two black suits felt upon seeing the creature: "Oh, snap!"
The Hannah Montana concert was in full swing, with Hannah herself onstage and singing her most recent hit song, "Ice Cream Freeze." Several teens and preteens in the crowd were wildly cheering for her, while rocking along to the beat of her song. There was only one group of kids in the crowd that were an exception, and their names were Cory Baxter, Eddie Thomas, Chelsea Daniels, Newt Livingston, and Meena Paroom. They were all heavily concerned about Raven, as she had been gone for nearly half an hour.
"We'd better go look for her," suggested Chelsea, who seemed a little nervous. "She might've run into some problems."
Cory sighed, a little frustrated how his sister was ruining the good time that he should've been having there at the concert. "Alright, fine! But just two of us are going. And I'm not missing out on the free ice cream they're serving in a little while!"
"It's no problem if I go." Newt offered. "I'm lactose-intolerant anyways."
Newt and Chelsea both agreed to be the ones to leave the arena and search for Raven, unbeknownst of the fact that they were both key players in the most frightening vision of her life.