"God Help The Outcasts"

Quasimodo fought to keep his hands from shaking under the intense nervousness that he had been feeling, ever since his master, Judge Claude Frollo, insisted on their visitors—the two children and the three adults with the unusual devices strapped to their backs (one of whom reminded him of someone special from his past)—stay for a feast, which Quasimodo was preparing for them. He thought, upon grabbing the wine, milk, bread, and turkey from off a nearby counter, if his master would intend on harming these kind souls.

Frollo had already done quite a bit to J.G. Stantz already, after hypnotizing him only a moment ago. He sat there at the large, squared dinner table with Frollo, Diana, Sean, and the Daring siblings, rubbing his eyes and his temples while his face registered a slight discomfort.

Noticing the look on his face, Diana concernedly asked him, "Are you doing alright, man?"

Stantz gave a small nod. "Just don't ask me what's the square root of one thousand right now, and I should be fine."

"Of course you will be," stated Frollo, still maintaining a calm demeanor. "I don't intend harming any of you, before I can have the opportunity to explain why I have brought you to 'The Seventh Circle'." As Frollo was speaking, Quasimodo brought over the food, handing plates to each of the table's occupants. The misshapen bell-ringer hoped that what his master was telling their guests was the truth, as he had been known in the past to go back on his word.

Regardless of the good-looking food that was placed before them, neither the Ghostbusters nor the Daring siblings had too much of an interest in eating. That was at least until Todd began munching down on the turkey and bread and gulping down heavily on the milk. After a short while, he began to notice the others staring at him awkwardly, and he said in defense, "What? I ain't gonna let this all go to waste! I'm hungry, man!!"

While Riley shook her head in embarrassment over her brother's weak sense of morals (as well as his poor table manners), Spengler focused on the subject of their current location. "So why exactly have you brought us here, Your Lordship? Certainly you have better things to do than interfere with the living."

"I assure you, Dr. Spengler, that all here in the Circle are very much living." Frollo remarked. "Our earthly forms might be deceased, but it is the forms we take once we've crossed over that are resurrected for special purposes."

"Special purposes?" J.G. repeated those last puzzling words in his statement, trying to figure out their meaning. "Like what? Coming into our realm and wreaking havoc with a demonic canine?!"

Frollo raised an eyebrow at Stantz. "I have not the slightest idea what you're talking about, my boy. Not to my recollection have I summoned any 'demonic canine' to your realm nor would I have the power to do so."

"But you do in fact have the power to summon a 'Headless Horseman' like in the story of 'Sleepy Hollow'!" Diana retorted.

A small chuckle emerged from within Frollo, as he admittedly said with a grin, "I must say that I am guilty as charged. How intrigued I was in meeting him, when I first entered the Circle. He's just the man I need to enforce my law, as soon as the new world has been created."

"This new world you speak of is only going to tear apart the fabric of space and time, ending all life on both forms of reality." Spengler informed. "One ghost has attempted it even before!"

"Yes, the once-powerful sorceress, Maleficent," uttered Frollo, who surprised the three Ghostbusters with his knowledge of her. "She along with myself, Ursula the Sea Witch, and Shan Yu of the Hun army became the enforcers of the Circle, once we all had deceased from the mortal world. We were each granted extraordinary powers from the almighty Chernabog, who had seen us as potential keys to bringing Armageddon upon your realm. Unfortunately, only one of us could have entered as a half-mortal, as the door to the Circle had been sealed for centuries beneath your city."

J.G. began to think back to the previous year, when he first met "Vanessa," the mortal form of Ursula. It dawned upon him that at the time they first met in his bookstore, it was then that Chernabog's master plan for Armageddon must've come into fruition. He sighed as he stated, "It was right in front of me the whole time, and I was totally oblivious to it."

"Yes," said Frollo, with a grin and a nod. "You and your friends were the only thing standing in our god's way, Dr. Stantz. By eliminating each of you, we were granted a chance at placing our reign into your realm for all eternity. But, unfortunately, one other party's revenge plan also stood in our way…"

"Hades." Spengler said.

The grin on Frollo's face faded while he uttered the God of the Underworld's name. "Hades…his revenge against what you all had done to him and Gozer, four years prior, tangled within our plans. He was only useful with his godlike powers, something much needed for bringing about Armageddon."

"But the Underworld is of a higher circle than the Seventh," remarked Spengler, reaching back to the knowledge gained from Tobin's Spirit Guide. "It would be unimaginable for both circles to coexist or else there would be unwelcome anarchy, especially considering your forms of existence."

Frollo's grin returned once more. "You are the brightest one of the group, Dr. Spengler."

"Coming from you, I'd doubt that as a compliment." Sean remarked.

"Fair enough." Frollo stated. "But, yes…the Underworld consists of the dead souls, while the Seventh Circle contained ones that were still partially living. Neither can coexist or their spirits would end up in forever limbo. However, Maleficent maintained a power that could corrupt any soul, even that of a God's. And it was that power that allowed her to overshadow Hades."

"For only a limited time." Diana boldly added. "Once we shut that power down, not only did we take the witch out of the god, but we also took out the witch herself soon afterward."

"For a price, no less." Frollo contradicted.

"Yeah, yeah…we re-unlocked the door between our world and that of the Underworld, which is the reason there's a ten-ton demonic canine out there," said Diana, not sounding that all intimidated. "You're not telling us something we don't already know, bucko."

Frollo shook his head negatively and then focused upon Sean and asked, "You still haven't told them about Alexis Embers, have you?"

J.G. and Diana exchanged a quick confused glance. They looked towards Spengler and J.G. asked, sounding very concerned, "What about Alexis?"

Sean seemed a little worried of telling them and had to force himself to do so, otherwise he would run the risk of Frollo revealing it instead, which was something he didn't want to bring upon his friends. He wanted to wait for a more reasonable time to tell them; but considering all that they had been through that evening, that time might as well have been a better time than any other.

"Because…" He began, taking a deep breath, "…because of the strong levels of energy within the advanced, untested Proton Pack I had given her to fight Maleficent with, a part of Alexis died that night on the roof of the Tipton. But the intense psycho-kinetic energy from the dimensional portal Maleficent came through that counteracted against it had left the remaining half of her still living."

J.G. and Diana could not believe what Spengler was telling them. "Are you telling us that Alexis is…" Diana began her question, knowing full well that the last part of it was going to sound totally ridiculous, yet she just couldn't bring herself to finish it.

Instead, J.G. did with a panicked tone of voice. "…A ZOMBIE?!?!"

Spengler shook his head. "No, not a zombie. She still has her conscious mind. She's just…" He hesitated with an explanation, because he had none to give for them. This was something that was beyond the usual paranormal science that he studied, and it confused him greatly.

"It is no matter of explaining, Dr. Spengler." Frollo stated. "The Underworld will claim of their new member, as soon as the war comes."

"Oh, perfect. Another one!" Diana exclaimed, with rolled eyes.

"This is not another of your feeble mortal wars, gyp…I mean, Miss Zeddemore." The slip of the tongue in Frollo's statement perked up Diana's ears slightly, wondering just what he was intending on calling her. "This will be a war unlike any you've witnessed before. That is why your world must come to an end tonight, so that no mortal souls may stand in the way of it."

On that note, Diana shot up from the table and detached her Proton Gun from her pack, aiming it directly at Frollo. "I'm sorry to say that will not happen in my book, Your Lordship!"

Frollo smiled at her, not showing the slightest bit of coercion. "How impressive it is that you resemble that gypsy witch, when you are like this. My dear, you are the spinning image of Esmeralda…a reincarnation, just as the great Chernabog predicted to me. You're strong-willed and brave, just like her."

Diana looked at Frollo with such bewilderment and confusion that she could barely even believe a word of what he was saying. "You are one crazy dude…even after death, you are still insane."

Frollo glared heavily at her, the same way he had done so with J.G. Her body suddenly went rigid and the Proton Gun gripped in her hands was suddenly pointed towards J.G., Sean, and the Daring siblings. The four of them stared at her in fright, knowing exactly what was happening and not having any idea of how to stop it.

Quasimodo, seeing what his master was doing to her, suddenly panicked as just what he feared would happen was about to. He reached down at the bottle of wine that he brought along with the milk for the feast, popping the cork and spraying its contents all over Frollo's eyes. The minister of justice screamed in agony, as he felt the citric acid stinging his eyes and dropping his hypnotic hold over Diana.

She blinked twice and cringed over the sudden headache she felt, while her friends quickly removed themselves from the table. With Frollo distracted from the pain in his eyes, Quasimodo urged the Ghostbusters and the Daring siblings to follow him. "I'll help you escape from here," he told them, as they were practically leaping their way down the stairs.

Frollo was forced to use the cloth from his robe to wipe the citric liquid from his eyes. Once it was completely out, he opened them wide and allowed the glowing red energy to emit from them. He viciously growled in anger, cursing the name of the person responsible for his pain in a deeper, darker side of his own voice. "Quasimodo!!!!!!!!"