Chapter 12

The Graveyard Shift

The next night, Josette was moving around in the Ghoul Room, after just having finished watching the rerun of last night's show, specifically the final part where Melissa Frost, now former president of the Sceptic Society, was reported to have been running off into the night, screaming that ghosts were real. That was the laugh of the week.

As she reached the map room, she looked at all the structures that symbolised the missions she had gone on, and the small, green ethereal bats that signified that they were successful. There had been a few close calls, in one way or another, but they had managed to get through it, and Josette gave her team all the praise for it. She liked to think that if they were successful, it was because of them, but if they should fail, it would be because of her instead.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a new paper structure rising on the far edge the map, or rather a small hill with lots of different gravestones. Seeing that, Josette got very exited, remembering that the city originally was mostly a large grave-field, and she had heard that even the present graveyard was impressive. It was with a smile on her lips that she summoned her Haunters telepathically.

With everyone gathered, Josette tapped the paper grave-field and listened as Charles explained the mission.

"Greetings miss Josette, and your astounding team. A very well done job on the last mission, spirits are talking about it all over the Spirit Realm as of now. But going back to the mission ahead of you, you'll be going to the graveyard in the far west parts of Sunshine Valley, our scouts have discovered a couple of spirits there in need of aid.

The area is open and very few mortals are present at this time of day, so plan accordingly and do your best not to scare away too many mortals, you may need their belief.

I would also recommend that you try to make haste, as we have heard rumours about the Ghost Breakers being in the area, so beware.

Pick a team of six haunters for this mission, and begin when you're ready."

"Another tactical mission. Well, I can not think of anyone better suited for this area than Gravedigger, so what do you say?"

"What do I say? I'll tell you what I say! Yeehaw!" the ghost-miner cheered, tossing his hat high up in the air.

"That's one, but which other five will you be bringing?" asked Wendy.

"Hmm… I think Soar, Puddles, Jack, Bobby, and… Snakepit. That squad should suffice."

"Then let's get going!" said Puddles, being very excited.

Emerging from the portal above the grave-field, the team was astonished by the sheer size of it. They had heard that it was one of the largest in the world, and it was still well maintained by the mortals, containing many ornate gravestones, statues and smaller mausoleums, it even had a small chapel with a shed full of tools for taking care of the area.

The entire area was filled with spiritual energies, giving a lot of fetters of the Emotional spectrum, and most graves still had those of the Corpse kind, and a few even had Murder. And with all but the inside of the mausoleums being many zones of the Outside fetter, Josette's team would have great freedom of movement in this mission.

As expected, there weren't many mortals in the area, only half a dozen, most of which were young adults that were there on a dare. The remaining two were a caretaker that had decided to work on the cemetery during the night, and a priest, that was currently sleeping in the chapel.

"They weren't kidding when they said that this was a nice cemetery." said Bobby. "Wonder if I'm buried around here?"

"You might be, whippersnapper." said Gravedigger. "But I know where I'm buried, and that's under tonnes of mountain! Hehe!"

"We will have time to sightsee at a later date, but now we need to find those spirits in need." said Josette, and she and her team spread out to search the large area. Snakepit was the first to find one of the restless spirits, and instantly let Josette know.

"Ghossst Massster. I have found a ssspirit." he said telepathically.

Josette hurried to Snakepit's location, an unmarked grave, centuries old. Bound to the grave, was the spirit of a nun, wearing the classical attire of black robes with a rope belt and a white cowl. The lower ends of the robes were tattered, and her skin was white as snow. Her face was mostly featureless, with only black holes for eyes and a mouth open in a silent scream.

"Betrayal…" she said with a low, but howling voice. "Betrayal by those of my faith. Corruption stains their souls as my blood stains this land. One here still adheres to sin rather than faith. Prove the sinner wrong, put the fear of God back in him."

"Seems like we will have to scare away at least one mortal then." said Josette, and neither she nor Snakepit could help smiling at that notion.

Moving on, it wasn't long before another spirit had been located, this time inside one of the mausoleums. The chain of the spirit was attached to a skeleton on the floor, next too an open casket with a better preserved body of a woman

This one was of an elder gentleman, on the shorter and stouter side, dressed in a black and grey suit with a white shirt. He also wore black shoes, red socks, a purple sash, white gloves, a short red scarf and a red rose was attached to his coat, right over his heart. His skin was pale grey, and his hair was white, though he was almost bald, with hair only on the sides and the back of his head. His eyes were completely white and framed by bushy eyebrows, and an equally bushy moustache sat under his nose.

"Ah, good evening, miss." he said kindly when he saw Josette. "Would you be so kind as to listen to my request? I was working in here, years ago, preparing another customer for her final rest. But as I worked, the door was closed without me noticing, and I succumbed from the vapours of my chemicals. Could you please let some fresh air in?"

Looking at the door, Josette saw that it was a large and solid slab of stone, strong metal hinges with traces of rust held it in place. It looked more like its mass held it shut rather than any kind of lock.

"I think that we can arrange this for you." she said, looking back at the spirit, who smiled in response.

"That would very kind of you, my dear. I thank you in advance."

With a nod and a smile, Josette left the mausoleum to continue her search for any other restless spirits. So far, her team hadn't found anything more, so she was just about to have them all gather when she saw Jack hovering next to a grave with a statue of an angel as the headstone and with a small lantern by the foot of the statue, and he seemed confused.

"Jack? Is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure, boss. Listen for yourself and tell me what you think."

Doing as the Wisp suggested, at first Josette didn't hear anything out of the ordinary, but after a few moments, she heard something. Soft snoring, coming from the grave of all places.

"Snoring?"

"So you can hear it too? That's good, I thought I was loosing my mind. But seriously, who sleeps at a graveyard, other than those that should be."

"I think that you've found another restless spirit, Jack."

"Doesn't sound restless to me."

"Guess we will have to find a way to wake up this spirit then, see what we are dealing with. But first we should return to the others, and formulate a strategy for this mission."

With her team gathered again, and no other restless spirits discovered, it was time to go over the tactics for the night. Initially, all they would do were to soften up the four younger mortals, and then keep them just below what they could handle in terror, but not too much. The caretaker and the priest were of little concern to them, and could be roughed up if the others were getting close to leave in terror, even though the priest could pose a threat, at the moment, he was sleeping soundly in a small room in the chapel. Though eventually they would have to deal with the priest for the nun's sake, but they would do so with as much plasm at their disposal as possible.

Soar started softening up the group of younger mortals, by letting he Laughter echo in the middle of them. One of them frantically shone his flashlight all over the place, seemingly very disturbed by the sound, while the others were less affected. In order to better handle the four mortals without accidentally scaring away any of them, they would have to be scattered, which meant that Snakepit had a fine opportunity to place himself at the same spot as Soar, and unleashing his Scattered Swarm, spawning numerous snakes that cause the mortals to each run off in different directions.

Anyone that came close enough to the grave of a murder victim, were at the mercy of Bobby, whose Spooky Surprise gave them quite the scare, while Gravedigger and Jack kept hounding them wherever they went, with Dread and Brief Scare respectively.

It didn't take more than a few minutes before the group were on the verge of fleeing for their lives, and at that time the Haunters backed off a bit, only hitting the group with the weakest powers possible to keep them on their toes. But all the screaming had attracted the attention of the caretaker, who had seen a few of the ghosts as they had materialised at times, and after scratching his scruffy beard while thinking, he headed back to the shed to make a phone-call in peace.

Meanwhile, Puddles approached Soar with an idea and both flew up high above the grave-field with wide smiles. Soar's Tempest and Puddle's Rain brought a new weather to the night, and their powers mixed and turned into a proper storm, complete with lightning and thunder.

Josette observed the mortals, and saw that the priest was still sleeping, despite the thunder. The man must be a real heavy sleeper, and that reminded Josette of the third spirit, which she decided to check in on. Arriving at the grave, she could still hear the snoring from it, and she wondered how she would wake her up. As she was thinking, a lightningbolt struck only ten feet away from her, the flash, force and resounding thunderclap almost scaring her to death, if she hadn't been dead already.

Everyone else were also scared by the thunderclap, and a few of the younger mortals were very close to be overcome with fear. The priest was even woken up from his deep slumber, and he wasn't the only one. A yawn came from the grave where only snoring had been heard earlier, and a ghostly hand reached out from it and grabbed the lantern and lit it, or rather a ghostly copy of it.

"Oh dear. It looks like I've overslept again." a female voice said as the spirit emerged from the grave. She was a middle age woman with long, straight blonde hair, dark blue eyes and lustrous skin, and wore a light blue, old style nightgown, reaching her bare feet and with long sleeves.

"I must thank you for waking me up. My name is Jessibell, might I ask yours?"

"I am Josette. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

With a smile and a nod, Jessibell followed Josette as they headed for the next spirit in need of aid. On the way, Josette checked her handbook to learn a bit more about her new recruit, and to her surprise, Jessibell was actually a Sandman (there is no feminine form), a spirit that can put mortals to sleep and haunt their dreams, though they could usually only use a sleeping mortal as a fetter, which limited them a bit. But luckily, a mortal that has fainted from fear or similar, works just the same as a sleeping one, and that was something that Josette's team could arrange.

Arriving at the mausoleum, where the spirit known as Alphonso was trapped within, Josette looked at the dirt path outside it and knew how she would free him. A Quake from Gravedigger should be enough to either knock the door loose, or break it completely. But Quake was an expensive power in terms of plasm, so she had to message her entire team and tell them to drop off from their plasm reserves, so that Gravedigger would have what he need.

The storm quickly died out, and while the clouds still lingered in the sky, the night became calm and quiet once again. But that calm was about to be broken, as Gravedigger was in position right outside the mausoleum. Taking a quick look at his target, he spat in his hands, grabbed his pickaxe, lifted it over his head and swung it as hard as he could, his ghostly powers surging through it into the ground as it hit.

The entire grave-field shook and vibrated violently as the Quake took effect, knocking over a few gravestones and practically all kinds of smaller objects like vases and urns. Even the heavy stone door vibrated and finally slid open after who knows many year.

But to Josette's surprise, Alphonso was still trapped inside, and then it dawn on her. He didn't want to get out, he wanted new and fresh air inside the mausoleum, and while some had started to flow in from the outside, the vapours of chemicals still lingered inside. With a mental command to Soar and Puddles, Josette soon got the help she wanted for the final part of the problem. The two spirits placed themselves right outside the doorway and channelled their powers, Tempest and Typhoon respectively, creating a powerful windstorm that had trees bending to it, and mortals barely able to move against it.

The vapours inside the mausoleum soon cleared as the strong winds blowing in pushed it out to be dispersed, and after a short while, Alphonso took a deep breath as his chain withered away.

"Ah, fresh air has never felt so good, even if I don't need it any more. You have my thanks, kind miss, and I am at your disposal."

That only left one spirit still in need of aid, that of the Banshee nun, but to free her, they needed to scare away the priest, and he could be a threat if he got the chance. But after Josette had located him, she didn't feel very threatened as he could barely walk in a straight line.

"It seems his sin is alcohol, and he is deep in it too."

"No kidding, boss." said Jack. "This guy is drunk as a skunk. I bet that if we set fire to him, he'd burn for three days straight."

"Still, we would better deal with him quickly. Let us gather the others."

"Sure thing, boss!" Jack said with glee, and zipped away.

To be on the safe side, Josette had her team employ a hit and run tactic, tapping into the plasm and using a power, then disconnecting from the plasm to avoid a possible counter attack from the drunken priest. But that turned out to be unnecessary, for the priest was far too drunk to summon forth anything other than possibly vomit.

Snakepit started with a Scattered Swarm, the plethora of snakes driving the priest further away from the safer areas of the church's insides. Gravedigger then struck the priest with Dread, instantly kicking up his level of terror a good deal, which increased even more after Bobby appeared with Spooky Surprise. And after all that, the old priest had unintentionally been pushed towards the ghost of the nun, and with access to the Haunting team's plasm, she wasn't late to pitch in with Terror Incarnate, appearing in front of him in all her terrible visage, her screams echoing far and wide across the area.

"Sinner!" she shrieked, pointing her gnarled hand at the priest. "You dare abandon your faith for that of liqueur?! The gates of Heaven shall never open for the likes of you! Begone from this place! You are not worthy of the clothes that you wear!"

Once she was done, there was another loud scream, that of the priest as he fled for his life, tripping and falling numerous times on his way far away from the graveyard.

"It is done." the nun said calmly. "But my faith is still not repaid, and it was not God that aided me, but you, so I, sister Cecilia, shall aid you in return."

With that, her chain dissolved and Cecilia joined Josette's ranks, and the young Ghost Master felt that they had done a good job. Looking up into the sky, she saw the portal open, only to instantly close again.

"Beware, Ghost Master!" Charles' voice echoed in her head. "A group of Ghostbreakers have arrived at the scene! You must deal with them before it will be safe to return."

"Curses! I was hoping not to have to deal with them again. But I guess it can not be helped." Josette complained, then she contacted her team telepathically. "Everyone, if you did not hear, we have Ghostbreakers here now. Show them no mercy, but be careful."

Three individuals, all dressed in grey overalls and with backpack-sized machines on their backs walked cautiously among the graves, constantly scanning their surroundings with both their senses and scanners, their strange rifles ready to fire.

One was a man, a short but thick red beard adorning his otherwise bald head. The other two were women, one with short and curly blonde hair, and the second had black hair that reached just past her ears.

"I really don't like this place." said the woman with black hair.

"Man, that trip at the amusement park really did a number on you, didn't it?" said the male.

"Shut up! You weren't there!"

"Quiet! Both of you! I just got a blip on my scanner!" said the blonde woman.

Before anyone could investigate further, a disgusting and overpowering stench filled the immediate area, forcing the Ghostbreakers to cover their noses, but that did little to ease their building nausea. The blonde even threw up, not able to deal with the horrible stench.

But that was just the beginning, for once Alphonso had done his work with Nausea, Gravedigger took over, using Swallow to make the ground underneath one of the mortals open up and engulf them up to their chest, and the victim for that was the male Ghostbreaker.

Seeing her colleagues quickly fall victim to the ghosts, the black haired woman couldn't stand being near all the strange things, the memories of her previous experience haunting her anew, and ran away, trying to find cover until she could calm down and gather her senses.

Shortly after, the male Ghostbreaker was released from the earth, and he didn't waste any time trying to pursue whatever kind of spirit that had attacked them, following the readings on his scanner in a hurry, and completely ignoring the garbled warnings of his blonde colleague.

And that was what Josette was hoping for, to separate the three mortals from each other so that they couldn't support and cover each other. And with their main objective completed, all the mortals were fair game, which the ghosts capitalized on, generating a lot of plasm as they worked, and pulling the Ghostbreakers from each other with their presences.

The male Ghostbreaker came to a stop underneath a large tree that grew on the grounds, sweeping the area with his scanner to find the ghosts it had picked up earlier. He had his rifle clutched in one hand, his triggerfinger itching as he was angry at the spirits for their earlier stunt. Looking around with his eyes as well, he instantly shifted his gaze to the display of the scanner when it reacted to something spectral nearby, but seeing it, chills ran down his spine, for there weren't one or two contacts, but six.

"Uh-oh…"

Both Snakepit and Bobby appeared in front of the Ghostbreaker, one on each side, one with a multitude of snakes in his mouth and the other with his head in his hands. The Ghostbreaker let out a scream of shock and fear, and tried to blast the spirits with the rifle, only for both of them to disappear before the beam connected with either of them.

Shortly after, his entire body felt numb and his nerves became completely shot, had he had hair it would have stood on end. Subtle laughter carried on the wind, with no discernible point of origin, then came an ear-shattering shriek that made him double over in pain as he covered his ears. When the sound finally died down, and the shaken Ghostbreaker stumbled back on his feet, another ghost had appeared in front of him.

The Banshee Cecilia again used her Terror Incarnate, supported by the Dread of both Gravedigger and Alphonso. The once so strong and stoic Ghostbreaker, finally broke under the combined effort of the Haunters, and as soon as his legs would allow, he ran for the exit of the grave-field.

The black haired female sat behind a large tombstone, trying to calm down by taking slow and deep breathes. But her calm was about to be interrupted, and her Nerves felt Shattered, thanks to Jack, and when Snakepit's Creepers rose up from the ground around her, the thick vines caused her great discomfort. Rising to her feet, she readied her rifle and nervously scanned her surroundings, but as she turned her head to the side, she came face to face with a smiling Jack, the two blinking once each before she came to her senses.

"Boo!" Jack yelled before just vanishing, but it was still enough to make the mortal jump.

"Wh-where did you go?! Show yourself!" she shouted, waving her rifle all over the place.

Unknown to her, Puddles were circling around her, jumping happily on her tiny cloud as she charged up her Surge power. The electronics within the rifle and the backpack-sized machine sparked violently as the electricity erupted from them, electrocuting the poor Ghostbreaker a second time since she had encountered Josette's team.

When the surge finally ended, the mortal simply collapsed on the ground, and when the ghosts inspected her, they found that she had fainted.

"This will work nicely." Josette's said with a smirk. "Jessibell, would you be so kind?"

"Of course."

Binding herself to the fainted Ghostbreaker, Jessibell didn't waste any time using Sleep Walk on her, causing her to rise back to her feet. In that state, the mortal would be kept asleep indefinitely, or at least until she was released by the ghosts, and would wander around, providing a mobile fetter for the Sandman, giving them a far greater reach for their powers.

By the time that the blonde Ghostbreaker could finally resume her mission, she had no idea what had happened to her co-workers, and the fact that all other mortals had already been scared away from the area was also not known to her. Wiping her mouth with her sleeve, she grabbed her rifle and started looking for her colleagues.

"Carl? Tammy? Where area you?" she called out as she searched among the gravestones, but she didn't get any response.

After a few minutes, however, she spotted something in the darkness, a person seemingly wandering aimlessly.

"Hello? Who's there?" she asked, but got no response. As the two got closer to each other, she recognised the stranger, as it was the sleep-walking Ghostbreaker.

"Tammy?! Where did you go to?! Are you even listening to me?! Wait… are you sleeping? What's going on here?"

Before she could get any answer, not that anyone would answer her, the lantern that the invisible Jessibell held flared up, and a pulse of power was released against the last Ghostbreaker, and she instantly fell asleep on the ground. With that done, Jessibell continued by using Aura Reading to uncover the conscious fears of the two mortals, not that they actually needed to know the black haired mortal's, as she was already past her limit and would flee as soon as she woke up, but it could prove useful in the future.

Josette smiled when she saw the information in her handbook on the two Ghostbreakers update. The black haired Tammy had a deep fear of being hunted, while the blonde, Louise as she was named, had a fear of blood.

With that information in hand, Josette let Jessibell continue, the female Sandman shifting from one sleeping mortal to the other, and once ready, she used Dream Demon, a strong power that used the known fears of a mortal to conjure up horrible nightmares based on them.

The dreams that haunted poor Louise were laced with the powers of the Spirit Realm. She was running through a dark, forested area, crying and screaming as blood erupted as geysers all around her. Every nook and cranny, every branch and leaf on the trees, even random spots in the air seeped with crimson blood.

There was no escaping it, and she knew it.

They had gotten her.

Back in the land of the awake, the ghosts readied themselves for leaving, for as soon as both Ghostbreakers woke up, they would flee just like their male colleague, and the mission would be complete.

It took a few minutes, but one after the other, the two women woke up and ran as fast as they could after regaining their bearings. And as soon as they both passed outside the border of the haunting, the portal back to the Ghoul Room opened once again, allowing the team to return home in peace.

Back in the Ghoul Room, the new members were happily welcomed by the rest of the team, getting shown around the premise, and allowing the all to pick out a favourite spot.

Jessibell found another queen sized bed on the top floor, in the apartment next to Josette's. She also kindly asked that they don't forget to wake her up from time to time.

The nun Cecilia settled in the hallway together with fellow Banshee Netty, and the cat Horde Jefferson, casually talking and getting to know each other better.

Being a former undertaker, Alphonso moved to the basement together with Gravedigger, both being comfortable in the depths with all the earth beneath them.

Finally! This chapter is sooo overdue! You wouldn't believe what a bother the block has been to me this time. I guess it could have something to do with the two other crossovers I'm working on at the same time might be partially to blame.

New pics will be up on my Deviantart page within a week, I hope.

Now for some notes: Alphonso is based on the undertaker Monsieur Alphonse from Allo Allo. Unintentional, but I love that show.

And... I think that's it. Hmm... Oh! Wait! Almost forgot. My wife and I have just bought a house, and are moving out from our apartment in just a few months. My writing might get delayed because of this, like one might expect, but it will continue, I promise.

See you all soon! :)