I don't not own Ghostbusters.
I own Kitty and Angie Reed.
The news casters had been there for hours, hoping for a slip up from one of the Ghostbusters as they were set for trail. Clambering outside the courthouse, the judge wouldn't let them be inside. He didn't want the law to be turned into a 'three-ring circus'. The Ghostbusters just barely got into the courthouse this morning, trading in their grey jumpsuits for a three-piece suit and tie.
The defense had settled in, sitting along the table Egon, Ray and Kitty sat, more or less with their heads in their hands, giving up on the idea of freedom. They were guilty, plain as that. Peter was the only one giving up a fight, urging the three of them on. They were guilty, but they didn't do anything wrong. Sure, drilling a hole in the middle of the street was a bad thing, but it was for a good cause! The three of them sat silently as all hoped that Peter wouldn't take the stand.
Winston and Angie made sure to be there, staring at the ceiling of their rooms, respectively, waiting for the digital clock to read nine o'clock. They were there today, though worse for wear as they kept yawning from the lack of sleep the night before. Despite Angie's message of peace by showing up today, Kitty wasn't having any of it, ignoring the young woman as soon as she walked through the doors into the courtroom. As Angie made her way around the defenses table, Kitty shot up from her seat to join Peter's side as he razzed on the prosecution, not even acknowledging her presence as she walked right by.
Angie knew this was going to happen, the passive-aggressive tenancies not completely out of character for Kitty when she didn't get what she wanted. She'd cross her arms and pout a little, throwing her version of an adult temper-tantrum. This time she resorted to ignoring Angie for not helping her out of this bind.
Filling the empty chair beside Ray, Angie sat down in haste as the Honorable Judge addressed the patrons of the court.
"Before we begin I want to get one thing very clear." The honorable Judge Stephen Wexler shouted over the court, silencing the light chatter from the room. "The law doesn't recognize the existence of ghosts. I don't believe in them either. Don't wanna hear a lot of malarkey about goblins and spooks and demons. We're gonna stick to the facts and leave the ghost stories to the kiddies, understood?"
"Wow. Sounds like a pretty open minded guy." Winston said, resting his hands on the defenses table. Egon leaned in close, whispering as he did "Yeah, they call him The Hammer."
"What can we do?" Ray asked, shrugging his shoulders. "It's all in the hands of our lawyer now."
As if on cue, Louis strolled into the picture, slamming a large pile of books on the table as he admitted "I think you guys are making a big mistake." Angie silently agreed as he continued. "I mostly do tax laws and probate stuff occasionally. I got my law degree at night school!"
Ray strained as he smiled weakly. "Well, that's okay, Louis. We got arrested at night." With a thud his head met the table as the sound echoed of the chamber walls.
Angie bit her lip watching Ray in turmoil, killing her slowly. Without realizing what she was doing, she placed her hand on his back, rubbing up and down his spine, lightly dragging her nails across the fabric of his suit.
Confused, Ray lifted his head and peaked over his shoulder at her as she smiled a bright smile. She hadn't said two words to him in two days and she's being comforting? And to add insult to injury, she smiled one of her bright smiles that made his heart melt. His heart ached a little while as he recalled the last time he'd seen that smile.
"Alright!" The judge shouted over the mundane sound of chattering back and forth. "Let's get on with it."
Louis Tully addressed the court first. His hands fidgeting inside his pocket, he began sweating profusely from his brow; causing his glasses to have little sweat drops on them. Louis walked across the well of the courtroom to address the judge and jury.
"Your honor, ladies and gentleman of the—Of the audience. I don't think it's fair to call my clients frauds! Okay, so the blackout was a big problem for everybody, okay? I was stuck in an elevator for two hours and had to make the whole time. But I don't blame them! Because one time I turned into a dog and they help me. Thank you."
Louis finished his opening statement quickly, returning back to the defenses table. The Judge sat with his mouth agape, staring at the worst opening statement for a defense he'd ever seen in his twenty something years on the bench. Sitting down, Egon leaned over to Louis and said "Very good, Louis. Short but pointless."
The four of them, five including Louis, sat in their chairs as they cringed. This day wasn't going to go as well as they'd hoped.
As the trail went on, the prosecution did well, bringing up the Con Edison supervisor to the witness stand. The prosecutor slithered up to the witness stand, her frizzy hair only matched by her oversized glasses, three sizes too big for her face as it gave her a bug-eyes effect. She slithered up, her long legs working their way across the well as she address the aging supervisor.
"Mr. Fianella, please look at exhibits A through F on the table over here." The snake of a woman said as she pointed to a fold-up table they'd set up on the other side of the room. The table itself littered with proton pack and traps, as well as a small tub with a pink substance filled half way to the top. The con Edison man looked over at the equipment before nodding his head.
"Yeah. That's the stuff the cops took from their truck."
"Do you know what this equipment is used for?"
"I don't know… Catching ghosts, maybe?" The Con Edison man said, shrugging his shoulders at the prosecutor. With a smirk, the prosecutor turned on her spiked heel and faced the defense.
"May I remind the court that the defendants are under a judicial restraining order that strictly forbids them from performing services as paranormal investigators or eliminators?"
The young woman walked across the well to the prosecutions table and pulled a blue file from the many folders she had spread out across the table. Her heels clicked as she walked up to the bench, meeting Louis as he stumbled to the bench. She handed the judge the file, the judge pulled out a condensed amount of papers being held together by a paper clip and handed it to Louis; it was like clockwork! The courtroom was like a well choreographed ballet, if only the end result wasn't jail time. The Judge nodded from behind the bench. "So done.
Her heels clicked on the flooring as she approached the table of evidence against the Ghostbusters, picking up the tub of pink ooze as it sloshed in its container. "Now, Mr. Fianella." The Prosecutor said, placing the tub on the edge of the witness stand. "Can you identify the substance in this jar marked Exhibit F?"
He eyed the substance in the jar as he nodded once in agreement. "Yeah, that's the stuff alright. Your Honor, I've worked under ground with Con Ed for twenty-seven years. I never saw anything like this in my life. Whatever's down there, they must have put it there!"
"No we didn't!" Ray shouted, standing up from his seating position.
"Shut up!" The Judge shouted, he had just about enough of the Ghostbusters as he banged his gavel on the bench, the sound echoing off the chamber walls. Ray could handle being in court for something they had done, but to say they'd planted evidence of the paranormal was a slap to the face; a complete disregard for everything they had done in the past five years.
The slime bubbled.
With Ray's outburst, the prosecutor knew she was getting to them. With a smirk, she dismissed the supervisor and handed the reins to Louis, who was frazzled to say the least. When he rose from the chair, he knocked over all the books he'd sat down earlier, spilling them across the well of the chamber as the crowd of spectators laughed at his misfortune. The snake-like, cocky grin appeared on her face as she let Louis bury himself and his defense as he let Peter to the witness stand.
With a groan from the others, Peter walked up to the witness stand and sat down, almost kicking his legs up and reclining if he could. His rebellious attitude not quite as humorous as he'd once hoped before watching Louis walk to the side of the stand.
"… So you were just—"
"Trying to help a friend" Peter mumbled against his lips.
"—Trying to help a friend!"
"Who was scared of what was happening"
"—Who was scared of what was happening to her, when you're scared—what?"
"There was no evil intent."
"-There was no evil intent, no malice. Because you live here and when you live in a place you love it and you love it like you do you don't want nothing bad to happen.-"
"Because it'll never happen again."
"—Because it'll never happen again! It's an isolated incident, it's a one shot deal."
"Objection, Your Honor." The prosecutor shouted from her desk. Louis pulled away from Peter as the witness stand to walk half way across the well of the courtroom. "What?" Louis groaned, getting tired of Miss Perfect's interruptions.
"He's leading the witness." She exclaimed, earning a stiff scoff from Angie as she tried to sit quietly behind the defense. Not sure if he was leading the defense or if the defense was leading him!
Louis went for broke. "Give me a break, we're both lawyers."
"Mr. Tully!" The judge shouted, earning Louis full attention as he addressed the bench. "Do you have any questions that might have some bearing on this case?"
Louis looked to Peter. "Do I?"
"No, I think we've helped them out enough already."
"No Your Honor." Louis addressed to the Judge as he spun on his heel. As he crossed the well he turned to the prosecutor as she sat with a smug, diabolical look on her face. More begrudging then he meant, Louis turned to her as growled "Your witness."
The young woman snaked her way in front of her table, leaning against the corner as she eyed Venkman. The leader of Ghostbusters, huh? He didn't seem so tough. Besides parlor tricks, and manipulating his lawyer, there was nothing to him. He was just a man.
"Dr. Venkman," She called out from the other side of the well, her tongue burning with the use of his formal name. Doctor. "Would you please tell the court why is it you and your co-defendants took it upon yourselves to dig a very big hole in the middle of First Avenue?"
Peter racked his brain, searching for the right words. "Well, there are so many holes in First Avenue; we didn't think anyone would notice." Perfect!
"Keep that up mister and I'll find you in contempt."
The slime bubbled again.
"I'm truly sorry, Your Honor."
"I'll ask you again, Dr. Venkman." The Prosecutor repeated herself, getting angry with Venkman as he made a mockery of what she'd spent seven years at University for. "Why were you digging the hole? And please remember you are under oath."
"There are some things that go way beyond human understanding. Things that can't be explained. Things some don't even want to know about! That's where we come in." Peter explained in a relatively normal fashion – a straight answer. Ray beamed, turning to Egon as he nodded, proud in what they do for a living.
"So what you're saying is that the world of the paranormal is your exclusive providence?"
"Kitten," Peter called the prosecutor as he went to hold her hand. She pulled back, repulsed by the thought as he continued. "I think what I'm saying is that: sometimes, shit happens, someone has to deal with it and who yah gonna call?"
The courtroom exploded in cheers from both sides of the courtroom. Ray, Egon and Kitty turned around in their seats to see the people of New York behind them, cheering for them as they had once before. Even Angie stood up, cheering as she had only five years earlier as when they went to face Gozer, the memory fresh in her mind.
The judge banged on the gavel hard on the bench, the deafening sound somehow ringing over the cheers of the crowd as the Judge shouted "shut up!"
After "long" and "hard" deliberation, the Judge had made his mind up. He placed his glasses on the edge of his nose before summoning the Ghostbusters. "Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, Egon Spengler, Katherine Reed stand up!" He growled at them.
Reluctantly, the four of them stood up from their chairs. Kitty gave a silent prayer to whoever was listening that she wouldn't have a similar sentence. Jail time just wasn't going to work with her current schedule. "You too, Mr. Tully." He barked at Louis, causing the already high-strung lawyer to jump at his name being called.
"I find you guilty on all charges!" He barked. Kitty's heart dropped. In a single sentence her freedom was gone. She got the same amount of punishment that they had, and she didn't drill a damn thing! Kitty never had a poker face, so her emotions were clear on her face. The boys, however, didn't seem to react, knowing deep down the sentence before they even entered the courtroom this morning. "I order you to pay fines in the amount of $25,000 each!"
The Slime bubbled once more, finally earning the attention of an increasingly curious scientist. Ray did a double take, not sure he'd actually just seen what he had. The Slime bubbled! It reacted with something, but what? "I sentence you to eighteen months in the city correctional facility at Rikers Island!"
"Iggy!" Ray said, hitting his friend in the arm. "She's twitching!"
"I'm not finished!" The Judge barked again, his booming voice towering over the courtroom as he continued on his rampage. "On a more personal note, let me just go on record as saying there is no place for fake, charlatans—"
"Uh, Your Honor?" Egon interrupted, pointing to the gurgling slime
"Shut up!- and tricksters like you in decent society."
"Your Honor this is important!"
It continued to bubble, the bubbles growing in size.
"You prey upon the gullibility of innocent people!"
"Yes, sir—"
"Be quiet!"
"But—"
"And believe me, if my hands were not tied by the unalterable fetters of the law! And I would indulge in the tradition of our illustrious forbears…" He continued, as he began foaming at the mouth.
The slime bubbled uncontrollably, shaking it's container at it danced on the table in front of them. The three Ghostbusters shared a look, all seemingly reading the other ones thought process as they began to crouch under the table. Slowly they lowered themselves, as to not cause too much a scene during the Judge's angry rant on them. Peter grabbed the arm of Kitty's sweater and began pulling her under the table. She didn't resist, currently in a state of shock still from the sentencing.
Angie watched from the back as the defense started to crouch under the table. Her brows furrowed as she watched them hide under the table; surely the rant wasn't that bad.
"… Reach back to a purer, sterner justice, and have you burned at the stake!"
The slime burst out of it container, no longer able to contain itself in the small confinements of the Tupperware. With a boom, the slime erupted; from the eruption two Class IV specters appeared, cackling in the center of the courtroom.
"Wow!" Ray exclaimed, taking in the show before him.
The crowd looked on in horror, many taking the wisest move and leaving post-hast, trampling several other witnesses in the process. Most of them ran for the hills, while the rest were dragged there. The color from the Judges face drained, looking white as a ghost (No pun intended) as he said with a sober voice. "Oh my God, it's the Scoleri brothers!"
The two entities roamed the center of the courtroom, cackling over the sound of their electric chairs cracking, the last sound that they heard while they lived. With the supernatural force they didn't have while they lived, they broke from the containment of the electric chairs and went after the Honorable Judge Steven Wexler.
He jumped from the bench, hitting the ground hard before the Scoleri brothers attacked his desk, a massive explosion emanating from the result as the Judge crawled over to the under the defenses table.
"The Scoleri brothers!" The Judge exclaimed once again.
"Friends of yours?"
"I tried them for murder! Gave them the chair!" He explained, shouting over the gusts of wind in the seemingly windless courtroom. The two ghosts roamed around, destroying the courtroom in search of the Honorable Judge.
" You have to do something!"
"Why don't you just tell them you don't believe in ghosts?" Egon suggested, only about half kidding. Suddenly, the defense's table lifted from the ground; the pair of specters peeking under the table as the six of them ran for the back, the Judge leading the way as the Scoleri brothers threw the table across the room.
The Judge ran straight for the back, banging on the door with his full fist as he cursed the people inside for not letting him in. With a flash of blue electricity and a high-pitched cackle from the courtroom, the Judge turned white. He'd have to ask for help from the people he'd just put away, sentenced to prison and fined to the farthest extent of the law. He'd told them he wanted to burn them at the stake, only now to be begging for they help. The Judge turned to Ray, grabbing him by the collar of his suit before shaking him back and forth.
"You gotta do something! Help me!"
Ray had a smirk on his face, as he looked at the Judge down the bridge of his nose. "Don't talk to me, talk to my attorney."
"And that's me!" Louis exclaimed. "My guys are still under a judicial mistrangement order! That blue thing I got from her! They could be exposing themselves!"
"And you don't want us exposing ourselves!" Peter added, pointing a finger in the Judge's face. Kitty nodded furiously; the last thing they needed, on top of the ghost problem in the courtroom, was for the Ghostbusters busting in the buff.
A screech emitted from the courtroom, shaking everyone's train of thought as they ran around the iced glass partition. Peeking around the corner, they all watched as the prosecutor, the young woman with snake like charm, now was being lifted out of the courtroom by her dainty foot.
Gravity doing its part in the fight, lifted her skirt to around her waist as she was dragged inside the courtroom by one of the Scoleri Brothers, screaming the whole while through.
The Judges eyes widened as he walked back to the doorway, his head in his hands as he realized the severity of the situation. Venkman's comment only helped drive home the point: "You're next bubbles."
With a regretful growl, the Judge shook with anger as he exclaimed "Alright! Alright! I rescind the order! Case dismissed!"
"Hooray! We won the case-!" Louis cried, a flash of excitement on their faces before the Judge shouted at them.
"Now do something!"
The Ghostbusters walked out from the behind the iced glass partition, a certain bounce in their step as they walked to the 'evidence' table covered in their ghost busting gear. They all made their way to the table, grabbing their individual proton pack. Ray helped Egon with his pack, holding the 35 pound nuclear accelerator as Egon strapped himself to the pack, the straps a little tighter around his mid section than he remembered. With a deep groan, Peter grunted as he slung the pack around his back, grabbing the over strap and latching it to the other side.
"Oh! I always hated this part of the job." Peter complained as he clicked the latches together around his waist. Stumbling over the added weight on his back, Peter hopped along to the middle of the well before straightening up. Egon helped Ray into his own pack before joining Peter in the center of the courtroom.
Kitty stayed back behind the glass partition, using Louis as a human shield as she shouted from the corner. "I'm gonna stay back here, if you need me."
Egon nodded. "I think that would be best."
Peter grabbed for the neutrona wand from the back, whipping in over his shoulder as an evil little thought popped into his head. "You know, it's been a couple years since we've used this stuff. I hope it still works."
"It should," Egon explained. "The power cells have a half-life of five thousand years."
"Well there's no time for a bench test. Heat 'em up!"
With a flick of the switch on the wand, the proton pack buzzed, purring as it did five years ago. No hiccups, no stutters; just a pure hum from its base. Peter smirked as he sang a single note. "Do…"
Ray smiled as he flipped the switch on his pack. "Ray…"
Egon followed suit, his pack humming along with the others as he exclaimed "Egon!"
Peter looked over to the scientist with a look of concern for his mental health, only to be reaffirmed by Egon's perverted smile. Only Egon could take something as sweet and innocent as a smile and turn into something more brazen. It seems he needed to stop hanging around Venkman.
Over the sweet hum of the proton packs, the courtroom was silent. From being physically active not two minutes earlier, to being still and calm was unnerving. The three of them watched in anticipation for something, anything to move in the tranquil air. Ray's brows creased as he's eyes jumped all over the room, turning this capture into more of an I-Spy game than a serious job.
Peter was on edge, keeping his eyes open as he was sure the rest of the guys were too. Not a single sound was made, even the bustling city outside seemed quiet as they listened for any noise. Kitty and Louis stayed back with the Judge, holding their hands over their mouths, respectively, to stop them from making any noise themselves. Last thing they needed was for someone to sneeze and be blown away by a proton pack. Last time Kitty was met a pack it didn't end too well. Though, she had to admit, the scars from did look cool.
Suddenly, chairs from the spectator box began bouncing from where they stood, popping up from their place of rest as they got closer and closer to the Ghostbusters. Starting from the back, the chairs popped out of the way of an invisible entity, or at least that's how it seemed from Kitty's point of view as she watched behind the human shield of Louis.
As it got closer, the chairs closest to them popped before finally revealing the Scoleri Brothers in their mangled apparition. Their smiles stretched to the farthest part of their faces as their eyes glowed a bright, electric yellow, piercing with revenge as they sot-out the Judge.
The boys pulled the triggers on the proton packs, the concentrated protonus streams leaving the wand in a spectacular orange light show. The Scoleri brothers grinned to each other as they flew up and other the Ghostbusters, hiding in and behind the Judges bench as the orange beams of the packs followed behind, scorching the roof of the courthouse.
The Scoleri brothers were out of sight. The jolt of excitement, of adrenalin was too much all at once as Peter began screaming an earthy battle cry into the silence of the courtroom. The release of excitement echoed off the scorched walls as Peter paused, silently asking himself what the hell he was doing. He looked to Ray and Egon for help, finding none in there confused faces.
After a moment of confusion, mostly on his part, Peter couldn't help but start laughing; this new release of energy more accepted than the weak battle cry. He cackled, bouncing around on the balls of his feet in a nervous manner as he drained some of his adrenalin.
Ray joined in, missing the intense sensation of using the proton packs, the smell of burnt hair that seemed to emanate from the pack whenever it was used, and the feeling of scorching a building without seeing too many repercussions from it.
Egon chuckled, his robotic laugh left much to be desired as he too released pent up energy that was ready to burst, but in small, controlled patches.
Peter cackled once more, earning the attention of one big-baddy they'd been waiting on.
The Scoleri brother peeked his pale blue head through the wall, groaning as he did before being met with three streams on concentrated protonic energy. He wailed in pain as he tried to escape the range of the packs, but the boys weren't having any of it. Peter especially wasn't having this Mother get away. He followed the spirit through the courtrooms partition, walking through the spectator's box as he wrangled the fat boy.
"Come on, big boy! Let's go!" Peter taunted as he whooped and hollered at the ghost. "I'm gonna take you home to my private zoo." After he had weakened the specter, he released a capture stream around the single Scoleri brother. The orange stream instead now wrapping around the negative energy instead of attacking it as Peter brought it back towards the well.
"You got him! You got him!" Ray exclaimed in glee as at least half of the ghosts could be accounted for. He nodded over to Spengler, nodding as his did. "Spengie, bring out the trap!"
"Okay, okay!" Egon shouted over the immense gusts of wind as he grabbed a vacant ghost trap from the evidence table. From behind him, he heard a high pitched cackling. Egon turned around quickly, shouting "Ray, behind you!"
Ray blasted the ghost with the proton pack, following it as it flew over Egon's head. Egon instinctively crouched down, ducking from the nuclear powered light show as he busted a pane of glass, the small glass fragments shattering around the poor Judge Wexler.
Peter and Ray both had each other Scoleri brothers in there containment streams, slowly pulling back towards Egon as he got the trap ready for it final step in this fight. Peter pulled on the neutrona wand, yanking as he pulled the stubborn ghost back over the partition.
"Okay trap's going in!" Egon shouted over the wind in the courtroom as he pushed the small device in the middle of the room. The small shoebox like device wheeled its way to the middle of the well, the metallic box having been upgraded during Egon's 'down time'.
"Hit it!" Ray shouted as Egon stomped on the pedal, opening the trap. In a spectacular light show, the trap opened up, releasing a white light in the middle of the well, drawing in the ghostly brothers. The box whined loudly as it began to suck in the two Scorleri brothers, they're high-pitched scream almost censored by the metallic buzzing of the trap.
Another stomp from Egon and the trap closed, the light and the whizzing noise disappeared, as did the two Class IV's that had run amuck in the courtroom.
The traps door closed rather modestly, the only climactic part of the capture was the update beep that Egon had installed to the hardware. The air was still once more as the three of them paused, waiting for something, anything, else to happen. It was almost too easy.
The courtroom was worse for wear. The wood finish on the once regal looking courthouse started to burn, almost extinguishing itself as it ran of room to burn. The tan walls of the courtroom, now lined with the black charcoal lines of the proton pack crumbled a bit, needing a bit more than Tender, Love and Care.
The three of them walked up to the trap and grinned, enjoying the sensation of a good day's work, despite the damage done to a federal building. Ray cackled first, ecstatic at the feeling to wield a proton pack again.
"Two in the box!"
"Ready to go!"
"We be fast!"
"And they be slow!" They all said at the same time, pointing down at the proton pack and the little Class IV's within its confines.
Kitty and Louis emerged from the back, cautiously tip-toeing their way to the middle of the well to join the boys in their celebration Louis was more than thrilled as he leaned down near the smoking pack, his eyes bugging out of his head as he exclaimed breathlessly. "Wow."
Kitty could barely believe it. She'd never seen an actual capture before. Sure, she'd been the object of a possession, having to have the ghost inside exorcised; but she hadn't witnessed that. And Stay-Puft… that was something all on its own.
She looked at the boys with wonderment. These guys do this stuff for a living! How amazing it must be to be able to do this for a living, now with no restraints.
The double doors swung open, causing the newscasters to jump and run to the opening with microphones in their hands. The crowd was massive, but that was to be expected after the loud cracks and booms coming from the courtroom, not to mention all of the yelling and screaming that went on. Everyone wanted to know what had happened. Had the Ghostbusters won? Had the ghosts themselves eaten the Ghostbusters? And what about the Judge and his ruling?
Peter strutted out of the building, puffing up his chest as he stood up straight. All three of them seemed to have a smirk on their face as they walked out of the courtroom with their heads held high. They'd won, no doubt in Angie's mind now.
The news organizations all jumped at the glimpse of the Ghostbusters, asking about five thousand questions each before Peter raised his hands, shushing the tireless crowd as he shouted.
"We're the best, we're the beautiful, we're the only – Ghostbusters!"
"And we're back!"
We're back!
This was one of those scenes I had to watch a billion times to get right.
Not that I'm complaining.
I think I'm gonna play out the next montage a little bit.
Pure.