Ghost Slayers

Chapter Twenty-four

By Relm

Perhaps it was because the job had been so long and tiresome that no one chose to make small talk. The whole ride back to Ghost Slayers HQ was extremely quiet.

It wasn't until they pulled into the parking lot that Lina decided to break the spell of silence.

"What do you guys want to do first? Deal with the boxes, pack or Xellos?"

"Let's take everything upstairs with us. We're probably going to need our stuff if we're going to have to zap Xellos." Filia mused thinking about how good it would be to give Xellos a good jolt of electricity.

"Alright Xellos first then. But Filia I want to examine him first. So no trigger happiness till I say so." Lina said sternly.

"Are you coming Mister Zelgadis?" Sylphiel asked Zelgadis whom appeared to still be in the car staring out the window. He looked to Sylphiel; smiled and nodded and got out the car by going through it.

"You're being awfully quite." Lina mused. "You're probably just as tired as us."

Zelgadis didn't answer he just nodded.

...

"It's about time you guys got back!" Amelia exclaimed meeting her fellow Ghost Slayers in the hall.

"Where is Xellos?" Lina asked right away.

"Exactly where he's been all this time, in the break room staring at a wall." Amelia opened the door and showed the other just exactly what she meant. "It's creepy!" She insisted. "He just sits there staring!"

"Has he done anything else besides sitting and staring?" Lina leaned down to look at Xellos at eye level. She waved a hand in front of his face but failed to stir any reaction from the professor.

"Well he was writing on a pad of paper that appeared out of nowhere."

"Kinda like Zel's newspaper." Lina mused. "What was he writing on the paper?"

Amelia sweatdropped. "Why would you want to know that?" She laughed nervously.

"Because it might give us a clue s to what he was doing before he got attacked."

"Oh I don't think what Mister Xellos was randomly scribbling would be helpful." Amelia rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

"Amelia what was it?" Lina growled. She was getting real tired of Amelia not cooperating.

"He was just writing one word over and over again. He wasn't even looking at the paper either! I don't think he knew what he was writing."

"Amelia you tell me or I'm going to use your head as a bongo drum!" Lina threatened her youngest employee.

"Miss Filia's name." Amelia finally responded with her head hung low in shame.

"WHAT?" Filia screeched. Her face was red and crazed. It was hard to tell if she was angry or embarrassed or both. "Why would that piece of garbage do something like that?" Filia grabbed Amelia by the collar while shaking her.

"I don't know!" Amelia cried out.

Sylphiel ignored what was going on and went to scan Xellos. But just as Amelia had discovered the only ghost activity wasn't coming from the professor. She was getting odd readings from a mass behind her. "That's odd I've got ghost reading in this room." Sylphiel mumbled turning around.

Slimer floated around behind Sylphiel and smiling at her extra gooey.

"I guess I'm just picking up you then..." Sylphiel mused. "But it looked like there for a moment I thought I was picking up two ghost signals..."

"We might have another ghostly hitchhiker... again." Lina scrunched her face into a frown. "Zel did you see any weird ghosts hiding in the car?" Lina went to ask him but Zelgadis wasn't anywhere to be seen. "Odd he was here just a moment ago..."

"So can I zap him now?" Filia pulled out her gun sporting a rather nasty grin on her face.

"Shoot him once just to see what he does. I know you'd love to fry him but let's not go too crazy."

Filia fired up her gun and shot Xellos. The electrical beam hit Xellos pulsating through him making him convulse in pain.

Just like the first time Zelgadis got zapped Xellos disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Filia looked around the room.

"Probably somewhere around the building. Zel disappeared the first time we shot him too. Then he popped up in the car. I doubt Xellos has gone far. If you want to zap him again you're going to have to look for him." Lina joked. "Did you want me to put my broken scanner in your lab while you go hunting?"

Filia nodded. "I'll fix it later. Also why don't you leave your pack in my lab too? I'll see if I can do something the battery power."

"I'll go do that. Sylphiel could you started loading the ghosts into the machine?"

"Sure." Sylphiel put her pack into the charger and started putting the containment boxes together.

"What do you want me to do?" Amelia asked her boss eagerly. She was tired but she eager to do something that wasn't sitting around waiting or cleaning.

"Help Sylphiel. And when the two of you are done help Filia look for Xellos. And keep your scanners handy. If there's another ghost floating around I'd like to know it." Lina ordered her crew before they all split up.

On her way to Filia's lab Lina tinkered with her broken scanner. She turned it on and off over and over again testing to see if it would work. It would start up like it was going to work and then it would cut out. Each time it seemed like it was getting readings before it cut itself off.

'Probably getting false readings. I can't trust anything this scanner until Filia fixes is.' Lina mused as she put it back on her belt.

Though the scanner was faulty its' readings were correct. Lina wasn't alone in that hall. Something was there with her and it was following her.

Lina stretched trying to get some of kinks out of her swore muscles. Though slaying ghosts wasn't as physically demanding as other jobs it could be very stressing. Not knowing when something was going to come at you or if something was watching you from a dark corner. And when you were stressed you usually unconsciously tensed your muscles. So Lina felt both exhausted and tired. 'When I get home I'm going to take a nice long hot bath... Well wait if I take a bath I might fall asleep not want to get up. Shower is safer but requires standing...'

As Lina went to turn the knob on the door Filia's lab the scanner on her belt came to life again. It beeped like crazy warning Lina of a nearby ghost.

Lina looked down at her belt at the scanner that didn't seem to want to shut up. "You again?" Lina said annoyed at her scanner. "There's no ghosts here." She scolded it.

The scanner didn't listen to her; it just continued to keep on beeping.

"Alright fine I'll humour you and look around." Lina did a visual scan of the hall. As she expected she didn't see anything. "Unless it's a non-visual spectre then there's no ghost. And even if there is a real ghost and it's a non-visual I'm not going to worry about. Because I'm too tired to. So there." Lina stuck her tongue out at her scanner and it shut itself off. "Thank you."

As Lina went into the lab and closed the door the figure that had been following her came back into the hall and stared at the lab door with a devious smile.

Lina took off her gun pack and put it on Filia's work table as well as the broken scanner. The moment the scanner touched the table surface it started up again.

"Oh for god's sake will you shut up!" Lina picked it back up and this time shut it off. "There much better." Lina let out a sigh and went to turn around to leave and came face to face with someone standing behind her. "AHHHHH!" Lina screamed recoiling backwards. "Zel! Damnit you scared me!" Lina yelled at Zelgadis.

Zelgadis just stood there smiling at her.

"Oh wipe that smug smile off your face! I'm tired okay so that's the only reason why you managed to scare me. So don't go bragging the others alright?"

Again Zelgadis didn't say anything he just continued smiling.

In the back of Lina's head she found this quite smiling odd but she chose not to comment. "You remember this place right? Filia's palace of torture. Of course she's got a new victim to experiment, that is if she can find him first. He just disappeared. But that's not a big surprise. You disappeared the first time you got zapped. I just hope he didn't end up in one of the buildings next door. I'd give them a call to warn them but I know it's too late. They would be closed for the day. I'll have to call them tomorrow." Lina said while yawning and stretching. "I should close up shop here today too. I'm beat."

More silent smiling from Zelgadis.

"Zel what's wrong with you? You're not speaking at all. It's like you've regressed back to what you were like when I first met you. Do we need to shock you again?" Lina wondered out loud.

Still no verbal response from Zelgadis.

"Hmm... I'll take that as a yes." Lina turned around and picked up her gun. "I don't have much power left but I should have enough to give you one good shock." When Lina turned around to look at Zelgadis again he wasn't smiling anymore.

No he was glaring and his gray eyes were bloodshot.

Lina almost jumped. "Whoa you look kinda creepy there Zel. And when did your eyes turn gray? They were blue before."

Instead of answering Lina, Zelgadis shoved Lina and sent her flying backwards into the wall behind her with the gun and battery pack hitting the wall with her. Her cell phone also went flying during the impact but it flew far across the room smashing onto a desk.

Lina groggily tried to get to her feet but Zelgadis was too quick.

He picked her up by her neck and held her up against the wall.

"ZEL?" Lina yelled while being choked. "Why are you doing this?"

Zelgadis didn't answer he just smiled rather evilly.

Lina tried to kick her assailant into dropping her. But of course when your attacker is a ghost you can't physically hit them into letting you go. So that left Lina with only two options. Scream or fight. "Eat this!" Lina fired up the gun and hit Zelgadis with a close range blast of energy.

...

Inside the box a flash of light filled the room almost blinding Zelgadis. "What's going on? What is this light?" Zelgadis tried to look around to make sense of the light. But it was too bright that he could see what it was and where it was coming from. But one thing was for sure, it wasn't overly cold anymore.

...

Lina's blast freed her from being choked and sent Zelgadis flying backwards.

He glared at her getting back up. If he wasn't angry before he was now.

"Okay either you've completely lost it Zel, or that isn't you." Lina looked around frantically any means to get out of the room. Ghosts could go through walls but at least if you were going to deal with a ghost it was better to do so in a large room. Not a small lab. But there was only one door leading back out into the hall and Zelgadis was standing right in front of it.

One thing Lina did spy was one of the extra containment boxes Filia had made.

Lina fired up her gun and shot Zelgadis one more time as she ran to get at the box.

But even as Zelgadis was being shocked he still had the strength to knock the box away from Lina.

"Damn!" Lina cursed as the box smashed against the wall and broke in half. Things got worse as the last of Lina's battery power gave out leaving her with no weapon.

Zelgadis or the thing before Lina that looked like Zelgadis smiled once more.

At that moment Lina had only one option left. "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" Lina screamed at the top of her lungs.

...

The bright light died down and room got colder but Zelgadis heard what he heard. A woman screaming for help. And not just any woman, it was Lina.

"LINA?" Zelgadis yelled rushing to the wall where he heard the screaming from. "LINA WHERE ARE YOU? WHAT'S GOING ON?" Zelgadis tried desperately to break the wall. He punched at it repeatedly hoping to bring it down or make a hold. But even with his knuckles bloodied it was in vain the wall remained as it was. "Lina..." He said pathetically collapsing to the ground.