"You Dropped A Bomb On Me"
Inside the first floor of Notre Dame, Quasimodo and Jonathan Barrett had been tied to one of the pillars along with the Daring siblings, while Drs. Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler were tied to one across from theirs. They had all been tied up for nearly an hour and a half, with the possessed Diana Zeddemore standing before them and staring into space the entire time. Quasimodo still could not get pass how nearly identical to Esmeralda Frollo made her out to be, neither could he figure why he did.
Between the outfit and the way she was blankly staring their way, Kimberly couldn't shake off the creepiness that she was getting from it. "Dye, could you please look towards somewhere else? You're like one of those mannequins from JCPenney during the late night hours!"
Diana just continued to stare their way, as if she hadn't heard a word that Venkman just said.
"It's useless trying to reach her, Kim." J.G. stated. "Frollo's gotten her under total control."
"Well, how do we snap her out of it?" J.B. asked. "This has just got to be like torture for her."
Before anyone could've provided some type of suggestion for J.B., they heard footsteps descending from the staircase. All was silent as Frollo appeared in the room, his eyes no longer glowing as they were before, although she still wiped them on occasion. He had a very serene look upon his face as he entered, approaching Diana and smiling as he grabbed a lock of her hair and sniffed it, getting some sort of sick vibe from it.
"You, Mister Frodo, are one sick dude, ya know that?" Venkman uttered.
Frollo glared in Kimberly's direction and grumbled, "The name is Frollo! And you'd be wise to not upset me, if you know what's best for you, Doctor Venkman."
"What is it that you want from Diana?" J.G. asked. "You want to control her? Turn her into your own personal slave?"
"'Love slave' is more like it." Todd said, which got a snicker from Kimberly.
"SILENCE!!!" Frollo demanded of his prisoners. "What I do with your friend is my business and my business alone!" He then eased his tension and calmly added, "If I were all of you, I would be more concerned about what Lord Chernabog shall do with all of you, once the merger has been completed."
Sean shook his head negatively. "You cannot let this happen, Your Lordship. The rift will just end all realms together, and Chernabog won't have to worry of what to do with us, because he'll be vanquished himself!"
"Hold your tongue, Doctor Spengler!" Frollo snapped. "You will not speak of the God of the Seventh Circle in such a manner, as long as you remain here in our world!"
Spengler said no more on the subject, as Frollo was too pompous to listen to any objectionable thing. He only sighed and hoped for some brighter side to come from this, which seemed highly implausible, considering where they were and the lack of allies they had.
Outside near the front doorsteps of Notre Dame, Allha led the massive group that consisted of Alexis Embers, Louise Peck, John Hardemeyer, Pete, Phil Diffy, Keely Teslow, Captains Barbossa and Hook, and the pirates to the cathedral that was their primary destination. Everyone seemed so perplexed that she had taken them there, as they expected to find the one responsible for the merge in some unholy place. But Notre Dame – even if it were some type of manifestation – was very surprising.
"Are you sure that you hadn't made some mistake, Allha?" Alexis asked.
"No mistake! This is where he is!" Allha exclaimed, just before she morphed back into her Terror Dog form and dashed towards the front entrance to the cathedral.
Watching Allha as she moved in her true form, Alexis and the others stared in disbelief (despite Alexis already aware of it). Embers turned to the others, seeing their mouths gaped open in shock and eyes widened in surprise, which she assumed must've been the way she looked upon first witnessing it. But she quickly stopped admiring the irony and focused back on their mission.
"C'mon, guys! Let's not just stand around!" Alexis said. "Let's get in there and kick this guy's booty!"
Barbossa's mouth nearly salivated from the last word she said in her command. "Ya mean he's got some in there?!"
"Okay, maybe 'booty' was the wrong word to choose…but, anyway…LET'S GO!!!"
The pirates roared barbarically, as they followed Alexis towards the cathedral. Louise, John, and Pete hesitated in doing so, not wanting to rush into their presumable deaths. However, the pirates standing behind them would've cared less what they wanted to do and pushed them ahead – it had taken nearly ten pirates to push Pete's bulbous form.
Allha was obviously the first one to arrive upon the front door, leaping toward it and crashing right through. She let out a ferocious roar that echoed throughout the inside of the cathedral, scaring the living daylights out of everyone, except for Diana – but especially Frollo.
"NO!" He cried upon seeing the Terror Dog's brash entrance.
"Frodo meet Allha…Allha meet Frodo." Kimberly jested.
The demonic canine leaped high across the air and tackled Frollo to the floor, growling and drooling all over him while glaring into his eyes, which started to glow viciously again. "I will not let the forces of the underworld prevent our master's forthcoming event!"
At the same time his eyes glowed, the eyes of the stone gargoyles perched around the upper halves of the cathedral began glowing as well. They then came to life and glided down to the street, just as Alexis and the others neared the doorway. They were just about to enter, until the roars of the gargoyles caught their attention, looking upward to see them advancing their way.
"You boys take care of those things the best way you can," ordered Alexis, as she stood closest to the entrance. "I'll take care of him."
Barbossa nodded in agreement with her order. "Much obliged, me lord! We be lookin' for action like this for hours now! ARRGH!!" He then took out his pistol and fired at one of the gargoyles square in the chest, blowing it to pieces, and engaged in battle with the other pirates against the gargoyles.
"Embers! Wait for us!!" John pleaded.
"No, stay out here! It'll be much too dangerous inside the church!"
"Like it isn't all that much out here?!?!" Louise frantically exclaimed, as she, John, and Pete ducked down and plugged their ears from the booming pistols, roaring gargoyles, and screaming pirates – all while hoping not to be too caught up within the fierce battle.
Alexis stepped right inside the cathedral and was met with one surprising sight. "Whoa! It even looks like Notre Dame on the inside!"
Her moment of awe and wonder was soon cut short by the alarming voice of J.G. Stantz as he told her, "Watch out, Alexis!!!"
Out of nowhere came the swinging blade of an extremely sharp sword that nearly connected with her head, if she hadn't ducked the moment J.G. warned her. She looked up to see whom was wielding it, and she was shocked to see that it was Diana Zeddemore, a woman that she only hours ago had worked with to fight the Terror Dog that she was (ironically) joining forces with at the moment.
"Dye?!" She exclaimed in shock. "What're you doing?!"
Zeddemore took a swing at her again, and she dodged in time to avoid the blade, as it struck the concrete floor, generating a few sparks. Alexis rolled and stopped near the pillar that Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler were tied to. "Alexis, Diana's been possessed. You can't possibly connect with her in this state," informed Spengler.
Noting this, Alexis removed her Proton Pack and nervously gazed upon Diana, as she advanced her way with glowing eyes and the sword held high above her head. "What should I do? I can't just kick her butt, can I?!"
"Drastic times call for drastic measures, sweetie." Venkman stated, before Diana took another swing at Alexis that she dodged from. The blade connected with the ropes that bound the three scientists to the pillar, cutting them free instantly. Kimberly then smiled and commented at this, "Did I call it or what!"
With the Ghostbusters freed, they focused on any possible ways of snapping Diana out of the trance that Frollo placed her under. It was then when it dawned upon Spengler what the key was in bringing her back to reality. "I've got an idea," he told his colleagues. "Grab your Proton Packs!"
They dashed over to the corner of the room, trying to avoid the "battle" between Alexis and Diana, and grabbed their Proton Packs, which had been placed into a pile by Diana herself. Strapping them on, Stantz and Venkman followed Spengler's lead, as he detached his neutrona wand and aimed it to where Frollo had been wrestling with Allha.
"As soon as Allha has gotten off of Frollo, open fire on him." Sean ordered.
The Ghostbusters waited as he continued to wrestle with the beast. While doing so, J.G. couldn't help but to look back at Alexis, seeing how she was reduced into defending herself only with her neutrona wand, deflecting the blade from Diana's sword with it. Even though she had somehow become indestructible, there was no telling what sort of supernatural capabilities that sword in Zeddemore's hands had, if it was strong enough to possibly kill her. He dared not to think about it, as he refocused his attention back to the other battle taking place.
Frollo was successful able to get Allha off from him, after reaching for a staff with candles on top and whacking Allha on the side of the head with it. As he was getting to his feet, he noticed a flash of colors in the corner of his eye. When he turned his head to see what it was, he realized all too late that the Ghostbusters had opened fire on him, hitting him square in the chest. He screamed in immense pain, as his smoking body was thrown against the wall – the power dwelling within him slowly escaping.
After striking Frollo with their wands, Stantz, Spengler, and Venkman all turned to Diana and Alexis, as the two were struggling to get the upper hand over one another. Fortunately, in the midst of the struggle, Diana's eyes ceased from glowing and the blank expression that had been masked upon her face started to show signs of life. And then, after a few seconds, she was herself again.
"Wha…What?" She stammered, looking down to see Alexis at the mercy of a sword that she was evidently holding. Quickly reminded of her fear of extremely sharp objects, she immediately moved the sword away and threw it down to the floor. "Um…okay? Definitely don't wanna know what I've been doing with that!"
"It's a long story, Z." Stantz said, while he was freeing Quasimodo, J.B., and the Daring siblings from their rope. "We'll talk about it over some Starbucks, as soon as we've…"
A weak gasping noise abruptly cut J.G. off, as he and everyone else turned to see the fallen Frollo – a smoking hole blown right into his abdomen – using whatever strength he had left in him to sit up. His eyes were glowing heavier than they had before, but his skin tone grew dark and very grey. "Y-You…mortals really…" He let out a heavy cough that resulted in smoke shooting out from his mouth before he spoke again. "You really believe…you've put an end to me?! Have you…a-already forgotten…t-the secret th-that I have revealed…a-about the Circle?!"
"Oh, shut up!" Kimberly snapped at him, growing annoyed. "Why can't you just lie down and die like a good little ghost?"
Frollo sneered at Venkman's words. "As you shall soon see, Doctor Venkman, I am not just some 'good little ghost'!" On those last three words he uttered, his voice became deeper and more menacing. His body refrained from smoking any further, and it instead started to grow bigger – his skin turning dense and rocky.
It was then that the entire cathedral began to shake violently. Quasimodo could hear the bells in the tower ringing in a way that would make them too unstable. And this was clearly evident once one came crashing through the room's ceiling, landing across from where the group stood. "We must get out of here! The bells will surely crush us!" The bell-ringer warned, and the group didn't stop to think twice on the idea.
They hurried out the building, with Allha following close behind, and regrouped with the pirates outside. Barbossa, Hook, and their men were all covered in dust and gravel, as were Louise, John, and Pete – who looked more stunned and horrified than they had in the previous hours. Only a few of Frollo's gargoyles remained but were soon self-destructed, exploding in midair with their remains only floating instead of falling.
A heavy vortex was unleashed from the sky and engulfed Notre Dame, ripping every section of it to shreds. The floating remains of the stone gargoyles were instantly sucked in, joining the swirling chunks of debris. From within the chaos, there came deep, wicked cackling – something ominously gigantic had grown in the rapidly decaying church. Once the vortex had ceased and all of what was left of Notre Dame had turned to rubble, the only thing that remained was a twenty-foot tall, stone-cold gargoyle with broad wings and a face that was reminiscent to that of Claude Frollo.
Only a closer look told the people that were observing it from down below that it was in fact Frollo himself, using the power granted unto him by Chernabog to take the only form that he was all too keen over. His eyes maintained their eerie glow and, in addition, his mouth gave off black smoke that smelled like brimstone to the observers below. And his voice matched the tone that he had spoken from earlier when he said, "FOOLS! NOW YOU WILL BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUE POWER OF THE CIRCLE!"
And on these words, he flapped his massive wings, blowing everyone below away like an air jet. His enormous form lifted off the ground and then flew away from the island. Watching him as he departed, Allha morphed back into the form of Meagan Tully and stated, "He is heading to the mountain. That is where he will complete the final stage to the merge by absorbing a fraction of Chernabog's power."
"Then Bald Mountain is where we're heading!" J.G. declared.
"Aye! Let's make haste to our ship!" Hook ordered.
"First we gonna go pick up the Ecto-1." Kimberly suggested. "Believe it or not, I think we've still got some payments on that thing."
Spengler pondered for a second of the vehicle's true importance in what's to come and an idea struck in his brilliant mind. "I would think of another excellent reason for bringing it along with us, Venkman. But I'm not sure if you-know-who would like it all that much." He glanced in the direction of J.G., as he stood side-by-side with Alexis and Diana.
The three of them glanced at one another before simultaneously pointing to themselves and mouthing, "Me?!"