Meanwhile in the Nether Realm, the adult Ghostbusters were still being help captive by Keizer. No one knew what their impending fate would be, but they guessed it wouldn't be good. Janine, Jenny, Tiyah, and Dana were all tired and dehydrated and filled with worry over their children. And worried that Keizer was going to do something terrible to their husbands' souls.
The Chicago Ghostbusters had been unconscious for most of their time being held captive. Keizer had not been fond of their smartass attitudes (especially Ron's) so he had them drugged. Melanie, Oscar, and Kylie had all been drifting in and out of sleep, and now they were awake
"I'm so worried about the kids." Tiyah said hoarsely.
"Me too." Jenny said, "Who knows what's going to happen to them if we don't get back to them." She then broke out in a coughing fit brought on by dehydration.
"And we got to find a way to get the guys' souls free and get them back in their bodies." Janine added. Keizer hadn't done anything with the bodies of Peter, Ray, Winston, and Egon. At the moment Keizer was floating in front of the chained Ghostbusters. Keizer was asking them something and the guys were replying, but nobody else could hear them.
"Tell me." Keizer demanded.
"Never!" Peter yelled.
"Yeah man, we ain't telling you anything!!" Winston added.
"And you can't make us!!" Ray snapped.
"You think we'd just willingly tell you?!" Egon said.
"Oh you will Dr. Spengler..." Keizer snarled as he got close to Egon's face. The brains of the Ghostbusters however remained unfazed.
"Sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Peter said dryly, "You know Kez, if you got more sleep, maybe you'd better at-"
Peter was cut off by electric shocks running through the chains. The psychologist's ghostly form spasmed uncontrollably as he cried out in pain. The shocks stopped a few seconds after.
"Peter!" Dana cried.
Keizer's eyes gleamed as he went over to Peter. "You never do think before you speak do you."
All Peter could do was moan in pain.
"You see Dr. Venkman, I was once a lieutenant for the Devil. I was the one who over saw the torturing of souls and the creation of new torture methods."
"Oh crap..." Ray muttered under his breath.
"Well, I did it the easy way. Now let's try the HARD way." Keizer said with an evil grin. "Èchthro, Pólemos, Amartolós, Zilévo, get the Ghostbusters and come with me."
Their wives didn't like the sound of that. They looked at each other, worried that Keizer was going to do something terrible to the people they loved. Four daimons in black and bronze armor came into the room and then released the guys' souls from the ceiling. New chains locked around their wrists, and then they dragged them off somewhere with Keizer following.
"Where's he going with them?" Dana asked.
"I don't know." Janine said in a scared voice. "Who knows what he's going to do to them."
"I'd rather not think about it." Jenny added.
Meanwhile back in New York, Ecto-1 was weaving through the streets of the demon filled city. Despite not have a license or much experience behind the wheel, Ryan had managed to stay on the road and not crash into anything. But even that was proving difficult as hundreds of daimons were flying everywhere and trying to get at the car.
"How much farther sis?" Ryan asked as he swerved to avoid several daimons.
"Not much farther." Raina replied looking at her notes.
"What side of Central Park is this thing closest to anyway?" Ryan asked as he turned his head slightly.
"Upper West Side and...Ryan, look out!" Tiana yelled.
Ryan turned his head to see they were about to run up onto the sidewalk. He quickly turned the wheel to the left and Ecto-1 shot around the corner at such a sharp angle they almost crashed.
"Jeez Ry, are you trying to get us killed?!" Maleah yelled.
"Hey, me driving to this portal was y'all's idea, so don't blame me!" Ryan snapped.
"Alright, alright, settle down." William interjected.
Ecto-1 turned corner after corner, trying to avoid people, cars, flying daimons, and everything else.
"Are we dead yet?" Pedro asked.
"No." Julian replied.
"Are we dead yet?" Pedro asked again.
"Trust me, you'll know when we're dead." Ryan replied.
"How?" Raina asked.
"Because the three geniuses, especially Violet, would scan themselves with a PKE meter just to see what kind of readings they'd get." Maleah said as she gripped the seat as Ryan sharply turned another corner.
"Hey!" the Spengler siblings said in protest.
"Well, it's true." Tiana added.
"How much farther Rai?" Ryan asked as Central Park came into view.
"Coming right up." Raina replied as she looked over the map. "Park right here."
Ryan then attempted to parallel park. After a few attempts, he was able to do albeit crookedly and messily. The kids took a moment to process the events that had taken place.
"Nice job Ryan." William said.
"Yeah, I managed not to have a heart attack." Maleah said sarcastically.
Ryan ignored her as he and the others got out of the car. Tiana opened the back door and pulled out all the equipment. The Spengler brothers put on the arm mounted proton packs while clipping their PKE meters to their belts. Everyone else slipped on the full proton packs while the Stantz siblings put on their ecto goggles. The Zeddemore siblings attached the small hand held proton guns to their packs and the Venkman twins grabbed a few proton grenades and small spritzers of mood slime. After getting all their equipment and grabbing some ghost traps, Ryan locked the car and the team looked at the unfolding chaos before them.
"Well this is something you don't see everyday." Pedro said in a sarcastic tone.
"So, where's this portal located exactly?" Julian asked.
"Uhh..." Raina trailed off as she looked through the papers she had. "It's about a mile that way." she said as she pointed in front of them.
"Trying to find its PKE signal..." Daniel said as he fiddled with his meter, "Got it."
With Daniel leading, the team headed for the portal that would take them to Keizer. When they were about halfway there, several panicked women came running towards them.
"Help! Are you the Ghostbusters?!!" A blonde woman asked.
"Sort of..." Pedro replied reluctantly.
"But you're children..." a brunette lady said, "Where are the actual Ghostbusters?"
"Not available at the moment." William replied, "But we can help."
"Yeah, what is it that you need?" Julian asked.
"A few of those demons trapped our children on the playground!" the blonde woman exclaimed, "We can't get close enough and we're worried they'll get hurt!"
"Alright, getting our parents can wait a minute, we have to save the kids first." Ryan said as he turned to his friends.
"Lead the way ladies." Tiana said.
The two distraught women led the Junior Ghostbusters to the playground where their children were trapped. When they got there, they were greeted by the sight of four children huddled together in terror on the playground equipment as three daimons flew widely around them.
"Alright, light 'em up!!" Pedro yelled.
"Pedro, are you crazy?!" William hissed, "We can't shoot at the demons like that or we'll hurt those kids."
"Yeah idiot." Maleah added as she slapped her twin on the back of the head.
"So what do we do?" Raina asked.
"We need to get the demons away from the kids and their attention onto us." Julian replied.
"How do we do that?" Tiana asked.
"Have the Trouble Twins over here do it." Ryan answered gesturing to Maleah and Pedro.
"Why do we have to do it?" Maleah asked, sounding somewhat offended.
"Cause you two are good at getting attention, unwanted or not." Violet replied.
"She's not wrong..."Pedro muttered.
"Just do it!!" Daniel yelled.
"Ok, ok, we're going..." Maleah said quickly as she didn't want to get further on Daniel's bad side.
The Venkman twins walked up closer to the playground equipment. The demons were still focused on the four terrified young children.
"Hey, nice horns, where'd you get them?! Out of my grandma's trash?!" Maleah yelled.
The three winged creatures turned their glowing eyes to the almost teenaged twins.
"Yeah, looks like you got them off the clearance table at the Disheveled Dan's Thrift Shop!!" Pedro added.
"And not the nice one, the crappy one on 52nd Street!!" Maleah said smirking.
The demons growled at the twins as they continued to hurl insults.
"Oh please, I've seen kittens more threatening than you!!" Pedro yelled.
One of the demons swooped down and tried to claw at him. Maleah quickly turned on her proton pack and aimed the neutrona wand at the creature. However, she had never used a proton pack before and misjudged the amount of power it had. She pressed the button and a powerful stream of positive nuclear energy fired from the wand. The force was so strong it caused Maleah to become off balance and began waving her wand everywhere still firing a proton stream.
"Mel, shoot at the ghosts, not at us!!" Ryan yelled as he ducked to avoid the stream.
"I'm trying!!" Maleah replied as she tried to avoid hitting anything living. She quickly took her finger off the button and the stream stopped.
"Nice job Mel." Pedro said sarcastically, "You only managed to singe my hair a bit."
"Be quiet or I will shove this proton stream up your-" Maleah growled.
"Maleah, Pedro!!" William yelled, "Demons first, argue later!!"
The demons came back for another pass at the Junior Ghostbusters. The others quickly fired their proton streams and tried not to cross them. Unfortunately like Maleah, the others had never used the packs before so it was difficult to capture the demons and not hit anyone. Even though the arm-mounted packs were smaller and less powerful than the full ones, Julian and Daniel had trouble controlling their streams as well.
"Can't we set these things to a lower power setting?!" Tiana yelled as she tried to avoid hitting some trees.
"This is the lowest setting Ti!!" Violet replied.
"Man, I would hate to use these things on maximum power!!" William yelled.
After a few minutes, Raina managed to lasso one of the demons with her proton stream.
"Got one!!" Raina yelled.
"Start bringing it over here!!" Ryan replied, "Julian, Daniel get the traps ready!!"
The Spengler brothers quickly grabbed one of the traps and were about to throw it under the demon when another one flew up behind them.
"J, Ni, behind you!!" Violet yelled.
Daniel dropped the trap as he and Julian fired proton streams at the other demon. The two streams wrapped around the second demon.
"Move it over hear!!" Maleah yelled as she grabbed a trap.
Julian and Daniel managed to move the demon that they had over to where Raina was. Pedro had his stream lassoed around the demon Raina had to keep it from escaping. The two groups tried desperately not to cross each other's streams. Maleah threw the trap underneath the demons and stepped on the pedal. The trap opened and sucked the shrieking demons in with a bright light. Maleah then took her foot of the pedal and the trap closed.
"Nice work Mel!!" Julian said.
"Thanks J."
"Uh a little help over here!!" Ryan yelled as he, William, Tiana and Violet tried to keep the third and more powerful demon from escaping.
"One trap coming right up!!" Pedro yelled as he threw another trap underneath the demon. He stepped on the pedal and the trapped opened, sucking the demon in before closing.
"Nice work ladies and gentlemen." Ryan said as he held up the trap.
William, Tiana, and Raina walked over to where the kids were and managed to coax them out. They brought them to their relieved and overjoyed moms. The three then joined the rest to discuss their plan.
"Not bad for our first bust." William said with confidence.
"True, but we can't keep doing this, we only have 12 traps with us and we've already used two." Violet replied.
"And trapping Keizer is gonna require at least two. Plus we'll probably need to catch some of his minions." Raina added.
"Rai and I will take the loaded traps back to Ecto-1 so we don't need to keep lugging them around." Ryan said.
The Stantz siblings took off to where they had parked Ecto-1. After a few minutes, they returned.
"Alright, where was that portal again?" Maleah asked as she rubbed her forehead.
"That way." Julian replied as he pointed in the direction of his PKE meter. After about 15 minutes, the group was standing in front of an entrance to a dark tunnel.
"Spooky." Daniel said.
"Yeah." Tiana agreed. "Are you sure the portal's in there?"
"Positive." Raina said.
"Yeah. If there was a portal to a demon's dimension, it would probably be in there." Ryan added.
"Of course it would..." Pedro said sarcastically.
"Well, let's go." William said.
The kids then walked into the tunnel with their flashlights guiding them. The tunnel was like any other: dark, damp, moist, nasty, full of rats, and everything that goes into the sewers.
"Ew, what was that?" Maleah asked as she stepped in an unknown substance.
"You probably don't want to know." Violet replied.
"Ugh, who knows what kinds of mold and other stuff is down here." Daniel said as he tried to avoid a black substance on the wall.
"Probably around 200 or more." Julian replied as his blue eyes lit up at the subject, "Most common would be black mold, which could cause respiratory and heart problems. And..."
"This, Julian, is why you don't get invited to parties." Maleah interrupted and shook her head.
"Hey guys." Tiana said, "Look over there. What's that?"
Above an entrance to another part of the sewer was a symbol, a weirdly shaped K.
"That's Keizer's symbol!" Ryan exclaimed. "This is where the portal is located."
"Ok good, we found where thing is." Julian said, "But how are we gonna activate it?"
"There's a chant that can activate it." said Raina.
"Will it have any negative effect on us?" Violet asked.
"No...I don't think so." Ryan replied, "And we say the chant backwards to activate the portal on the other side so we can get home."
"Alright let's do this." Violet said.
Ryan then began saying the chant, and when the chant was finished, a portal opened right in front of them.
"Well, see you on the other side guys." Maleah joked.
"Very funny Mel." William said.
The nine kids then stepped through the portal and found themselves on the other side in a hellish dimension. The skies were a fiery red, the terrain was very rocky, and there were fire pits everywhere. The smells were of smoke, sulfur, and possibly burning flesh. The portal then closed behind them.
"Whoa." Pedro said, "This is where Keizer lives? Looks like the Ninth Level of Hell."
"Technically, the Ninth Level of Hell was covered in ice as the Devil was trapped in a frozen lake in the very center with all three of his heads chewing on the heads of Brutus, Cassius, and Judas." Daniel explained, "This would be more like the Sixth Level of Hell as it had fiery tombs."
"Forget I said anything..." Pedro muttered.
"But yes, this is where he was banished to." Ryan replied. "And over there must be Keizer's palace." He pointed to a fort-like structure.
"Ok, let's go." Julian said.
The kids then snuck around on the outskirts of a valley with large rock structures everywhere. Then, the kids noticed that the beings were human souls wrapped in chains.
"Oh my God." Tiana whispered. "Are those human souls?"
"Apparently so." Ryan replied.
"Well I guess we know where all those people Keizer abducted went." Maleah quipped.
"Look!" Raina exclaimed quietly. "There are also demons down there."
Raina was right as there were a bunch of demons in black and red armor. They dragged the chained souls, whipping them with fiery whips if they got out of line.
"God this is terrible to watch." William said as he averted his dark eyes from the scene.
"Agreed, but we can get them later." Violet said. "Let's find our parents before Keizer finds us."
In the palace, Keizer came back into his throne room where the adult Ghostbusters were being held. The demon was frustrated and in a bad mood. He had been trying to get the Ghostbusters to talk, but their stubbornness and unwillingness to cooperate were proving to be bigger obstacles than the demon thought. He turned his attention to his other prisoners and floated towards them.
"How have my hostages been so far?" the demon asked tauntingly.
"Why are you doing this?" Jenny asked, her voice hoarse.
"The same question could be said for you and your husbands." Keizer replied coyly.
"We do it because there are ghosts who want to harm the living and cause destruction." Janine snapped, "And also to prevent the end of the world."
"But then you condemn them to an eternal prison." Keizer responded as his eyes erupted in fire, "Even innocent souls who just want to be helped, understood, and reunited with loved ones you imprison."
"And we've tried to fix that." Kylie said, "We've created methods to communicate with those kinds of ghosts and help them."
"You're still guilty." Keizer snarled.
"You can't just judge people based on what their actions might seem to be." Tiyah said.
"Oh I can Mrs. Zeddemore..." Keizer growled as he bore straight into the teacher's eyes, "Just like how I declared your husbands guilty."
"Speaking of which." Janine said in an angry voice. "Where are our husbands?"
Keizer smiled. He snapped his fingers, and several of his minions came into the room dragging Peter, Ray, Egon, and Winston's souls wrapped in chains with them, and they threw them in front of Keizer.
"What did you do to them?!" Jenny shrieked.
The souls of the Ghostbusters had obviously been tortured. Their blue auras was a lot paler now, there were gashes across their bodies, and all four looked extremely weak.
"Just tried to get them to talk." Keizer replied in a nonchalant way. "But they're very tight lipped. We'll try this again gentlemen. If you tell me what I want to know, I won't torture you anymore."
None of them said a word.
"Fine. Let's try the hard way again." Keizer said. Keizer's minions grabbed the Ghostbusters' souls and dragged them out of the throne room to be tortured again.
"Please someone save us soon." Janine begged in her mind as a tear fell down her face. "Please."
To be continued...
