A/N: Last time, in the aftermath of the Ghost Frillish's attack on the University, the professors were arrested, falsely accused of causing the disaster, suspended from their jobs, and have been called to a new attack scene by Scrooge. Will they manage to find anything that can help them clear their names? And what's Janine's connection to these ghosts, and to a certain spectral fighting force? Find out starting now on ToonSchool: Pokebusters!
ToonSchool: Pokebusters
To the Edge of the Tracks
Meanwhile, at the subway station at 3rd and Rhyper, the professors had all just arrived at the scene of the vandalism and made their way to see Scrooge.
"There ya are lads, it's right through this way," he said as he led the professors through the area to the crime scene. There, they saw several ticket station workers and civilians hurt and or shaken up, just like at the construction site. Police and paramedics were already on scene, keeping order and treating the injured respectively.
As the professors continued to the main scene, Kukui took notice that many of the police officers were looking at them strangely.
"Um, is it just me or are these cops looking at us like a Mightyena using Leer," he asked. The other professors soon took notice of this too.
"Yeah, they are," Oak remarked. "It must be due to us being arrested."
"That dirty Pete, costing us our jobs and our reputations," Willow snarled, still angry over the detective's wrongful arrest of them. "First chance I get, I'll sic my Pokemon on him."
"Easy there, Willow. Let's not do anything that'll get us into more trouble," Sycamore calmed him as they arrived on the scene.
The four then started to investigate: Willow looked at the scratches on the subway walls and anticipated it was the work of the same Sableye. But upon analyzing it with his Pokedex, he saw that the scratches were all over the place unlike before, and as a result, the PokeDex deemed the results "inconclusive".
"Strange", he said as he scratched his chin in confusion.
Sycamore noticed even more hand and footprints than from before, except now all in different sizes, as a result of the red paint of the graffiti, which was written in runic symbols of some sort this time. Perplexed by this, Sycamore analyzed both the prints and the runic symbols with his Pokedex, but like Willow, got inconclusive results from both analyses.
"Inconclusive? That can't be right…," he exclaimed, confused.
Kukui noticed a lot more of what seemed to be the strange substance left behind by the Litwick at the first scene. Only it was a lot more purplish, and covering the walls and floor. He used his Pokedex to analyze the substance, but again the results were inconclusive.
"Weird," he said, becoming lost in thought.
Then Oak looked around, unwilling to accuse anyone without proof until eventually, he noticed a puddle of seemed to be green slime – the same slime that Janine had discovered earlier. Perplexed as to what it was, Oak used his Pokedex to analyze it and once again, the results were inconclusive.
"What is going on here?" he asked himself.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Willow said as he, Sycamore, and Kukui rejoined their colleague. "I was hoping that the culprits for this subway incident would be the same Pokemon, but based on the analysis results this time, I guess this isn't the case."
"Not necessarily," Sycamore interjected. "All of our test results turned up inconclusive this time, right?"
The others all nodded yes. "So we really have no clue whether or not the same Pokemon did this."
"Pretty much, we can't say for sure that it is them…," Kukui said.
"But we also can't say for sure that it isn't them, either," Oak added. "So where does this leave us?"
Just then, Scrooge approaches the professors and says, "Maybe I can point you four in the right direction. One of the victims told me that there's something in those tunnels right now, probably the same one that caused all of this. But walking through there is like walking into a thousand traps in Dragonspiral Tower. I don't know if you'll able to return here before the train arrives."
"Well, we might find some of the answers we're looking for in there," Willow said. "And we won't know for sure until we see for ourselves."
"Right, so let's check it out," Oak said.
"Okay, good luck to ya, lads!," Scrooge said. "And be careful."
The professors then made their way into the tunnel with Willow and Oak sporting flashlights to light the way.
"So keep your eyes peeled for anything that might seem suspicious," Oak told his colleagues. "And keep your guard up."
The four then walked down the tunnel, shining their lights all around, looking for some sort of trace of the mysterious culprits of the vandalism. After a short while, they began to hear a mysterious growling sound.
"What was that?," Sycamore said slightly frightened, as the four stopped in their tracks.
"No clue," Willow said, also scared. He and Oak shined their lights around looking for the source of the noise, which continued and seemingly got louder and louder.
Suddenly, the shadow shape of a Haunter suddenly jumped right into the light, scaring the two and Sycamore. But then, the "Haunter" then converted back into… fingers, and the three heard familiar laughter. Suspicious, they shined their lights near them to find…
"KUKUI!"
The Alola professor laughed as he said, "Gotcha!"
Needless to say, neither Oak, nor Sycamore, nor Willow, was amused.
"Kukui, knock it off!," Oak angrily snapped, annoyed.
"Yeah, this is serious business here," added an equally annoyed and angry Sycamore.
"So cut it out," Willow finished, also angry at Kukui's prank.
"Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood a little bit!," the Alolan professor apologized.
The professors trekked further into the tunnels, shining their lights all around and being sure to keep their eyes open for any sign of the vandals.
Suddenly, Willow stopped, catching the others' attention.
"What is it?," Oak asked.
"I think we're on the right track, guys," replied Willow, as he pointed at the walls. The others looked to see even more runic symbols on the walls all in red paint, just like the ones on the station walls.
"Definitely on the right track," Kukui said. The four professors then followed the symbols through the tunnel, with them getting more and more erratic-looking as they went. In the process, they noticed it was getting misty and colder in the tunnel as they pressed on.
Finally, came to a small parting in the tracks, with two tunnels, one of which led from and into the opposite direction. And right there in the middle of the parting, was another box, similar to the one in they'd found in the university's basement. It was billowing mist and had a glowing purple orb in it, indicating that had been activated already.
"Oh-no, not another box!," Sycamore exclaimed in disbelief.
"Which can only mean one thing…," Oak said, with shadowed determination. "Prepare yourselves."
As they pull out their Poke Balls (with Willow pulling out his video camera as well), a cold breeze rapidly swept through the tunnel, the orb's aura grew brighter, and the mist got thicker and thicker.
Meanwhile, back at the station, a group of people outside the crime scene were observing everything and many of them took out their smartphones to record footage of the aftermath of the attack. However, among them was a certain young pink-haired woman with her hair tied up and wearing a green cap, green jacket, pants, and boots along with a large backpack who tried to make her way through the crowd.
She then noticed a way into the scene but saw two transit security guards blocking the way. However, the guards were caught up in their conversation and didn't seem to be paying attention.
"So you looking forward to Revengers: Finale this summer?" asked one guard.
"Yeah, it's gonna be big! I wouldn't miss it for the world!" said the other. The guards were so distracted by their conversation that they didn't notice the woman sneak right behind their backs, and into the crime scene.
Meanwhile, the professors continued to brace themselves as the same supernaturalization from the previous box repeated themselves, until the mist, aura, and cold wind once again began to twist into each other. Knowing what was coming, the professors prepared themselves as the mist, aura, and wind combined spiraled and then blew away, revealing… nothing.
"Huh?" the professors all asked in confusion, puzzled to see no ghost like last time.
"Hmm... guess they must have Teleported away," Kukui guessed. He then turned around… only to come face to face with a ghost in the form of some kind of prisoner. The ghost then roared at Kukui, catching the other professors' attention as they looked on in horror.
"I TAKE IT BACK!"
The professors scream as they ran away from the ghost as he chased them through the tunnel. But just before they could reach the station, several dark-colored ghosts with skulls as faces blocked their path. When they turned around, they then saw two bipedal dark grey ghosts with a red eye and black holes inside their mouths as they laugh.
"Duskull and Dusclops," Oak exclaimed, identifying the Pokemon. Suddenly, the prisoner ghost appeared, and as the professors watched, he peeled off his skin and hair, revealing himself to be a very dark-colored cyclops ghost with a red eye. Its facial features, however, looked deformed and twisted, similar to the Frillish.
"A Dusknoir! The final evolved form of Duskull! But I've never seen one looking so dark and twisted before! Just like the Frillish"
"And yet, we still have no idea how they are able to Transform into humanoid ghosts," Kukui muttered.
"I would question that fact a little more, but we have no time in this situation." Oak then throws a Poke Ball and shouts, "Dragonite, use Twister!"
Upon seeing it pop open to releasing his yellow dragon Pokemon, the other professors nodded to each other before Sycamore threw his Poke Ball. "Garchomp, Dragon Pulse!"
"Braviary, Rock Slide!" Kukui shouted as he threw his Poke Ball next.
"Arcanine, Fire Spin!," Willow added. All three Pokemon popped out of their Poke Balls and launched their attacks. But like with Rotom's attacks on the Frillish, all attacks hit the Pokemon and fizzled out just as quickly, shocking the professors.
"Oh, dear," Oak exclaimed. The Dusknoir, Duskull, and Dusclops all then charged up and unleashed a barrage of Shadow Balls towards the professors and their Pokemon, forcing them all to run away and dodge the attacks.
As Sycamore dodged the attacks, he tripped over the train rails and fell face-first into a puddle of green slime. As he recovered, he looked at himself covered in the mess.
"Not again!" he whined. "It just had to be more slime, didn't it?!"
"Man, slime does not look good on you," Kukui said, causing Sycamore to give him a death glare in response.
The professors continued to act on the attack and the defense trying to escape.
"Dragonite, Dragon Rage!," Oak called out as he dodged a Shadow Ball.
"Garchomp, Dragon Claw!," Sycamore ordered as he dodged a Night Shade attack.
"Braviary, Aerial Ace," commanded Kukui as he dodged a Confuse Ray.
"Arcanine, Flame Wheel!," coached Willow as he dodged a Shadow Punch.
Each Pokemon launched their attack at the Ghost Pokemon, but none of the attacks seemed to have that much effect on them, and the Ghost Pokemon kept pressing on the offense.
"We're trapped," Willow panickly declared. "And we don't have Phineas and Ferb's invention to save us this time!"
All of the sudden, they heard a faint horn noise from afar, at which they gasp in horrid realization.
"And we don't have much longer before the train arrives!" Sycamore exclaimed.
"Well, we have to do something, and fast," Kukui said. "How can we beat these guys?"
"Well, the only types of attacks that can take down a Ghost Pokemon are other Ghost-types, and Dark types," Oak reminded them. Suddenly Kukui's eyes widened in realization.
"And I have just the one to help! Braviary, return!," he said, recalling Braviary back to its PokeBall. "Go, Incineroar!"
"Incineroar?!," the other Professors exclaimed in surprise as Incineroar burst from the ball.
"Use Throat Chop!" Kukui commanded, at which his Heel Pokemon followed as its hand glowed purple and chopped an incoming Shadow Ball in half with it. Upon seeing this, the Duskull responded by charging at the Fire/Dark-type Pokemon.
"Now Darkest Lariat!" Kukui posed with his hands wide, at which Incineroar mimicked him and its hands ignited in flames before it spun itself like a top towards the Duskull, knocking them away a few feet away from the professors.
"Are you both seeing this?," Willow asked Oak and Sycamore in awe.
"Yep," they both said together.
"Incineroar, burn with determination! We will absolutely fry these ghosts with the flames of victory! Now Malicious Moonsault!," Kukui said as he utilizes the power of his Z-Ring and Incinium Z-Crystal and with a few poses, projected that onto Incineroar, who charged and crashed into all of the Duskull, Dusclops, and the Dusknoir, knocking them all down. Afterward, Kukui and Incineroar looked pumped as the other professors looked on in shock.
"I can't believe my eyes," Willow said, still shocked at what he'd just seen.
"That was the most incredible move ever," Oak added, also shocked.
"The only other time I've seen a Malicious Moonsault was with the Masked Royal, but…," Sycamore explained before a realization hits him. "Kukui… are you-"
"What? N-no! No way! I'm not the Masked Royal," Kukui exclaimed, not wanting his secret to getting out. "I saw his moves on TV and copied them! And who cares if I did, the point is we took down those pesky spectres!"
But as Kukui said this, the Duskulls, Duskclops' and Dusknoir all recovered and floated right behind him and Incineroar, which the professors noticed too.
"Um, Kukui," Oak said scared, tying to get his attention without success.
"I-I like to watch Pokemon Wrestling on TV and sometimes go to the matches in person!"
"Kukui?" Willow said, once again trying to tell him.
"And the Masked Royal and his Incineroar are my favorite team, s-so me and my Incineroar picked up a few things from them!"
"Kukui!," Sycamore yelled at Kukui, finally getting his attention.
But once they did, Kukui then heard their hollowed growls behind him, and said, "They're right behind me, aren't they?"
The professors nodded "yes" as Kukui and Incineroar turned around the ghost Pokemon roared at them, causing them to back up to the wall with the others.
"What? But the moves Incineroar used are all Dark-Type moves, which are supposed to be super-effective against Ghost-Type Pokemon!"
"Still no clue about that, but what do we do now?!," Sycamore asked, panicked. But as the ghosts began to close in on the professors and their Pokemon, a voice called out.
"Hey, spectre freaks!"
The ghosts turned around and saw the mystery woman from before, with the large mechanical backpack-like device with a wand connected to it. Activating the device, she used the wand to generate an energy beam rope which she used to grab all the Duskull and fling them back into the tunnels. The professors all looked confused and astonished at this.
"Wha-?," asked Oak.
"How-?," asked Willow.
"Where-?," asked Kukui.
"Who-?," asked Sycamore.
Before any of them could finish their questions, the woman removed her hat, which Sycamore gasped as he sees her pink ponytailed hair and immediately recognized her.
"Janine?!," he exclaimed in shock.
"You know her?" Willow asked.
"She's a nurse-in-training and the university's Nurse Joy's sister. But ho-"
"No time to explain!" Janine interrupted. "The train will be here any minute! Come on!"
Knowing she was right, the professors all recalled their Pokemon began to run with the Dusknoir chasing them as the train's horn got louder. But as it closed in on the four men, Janine fired another beam towards the Dusknoir, which wrapped around its body, binding it.
"Nice!," Sycamore said, giving Janine a thumbs up, which she returned as they and the others continued to run, trying to stay ahead of the train.
Finally, after a little more ways, they came to the station.
"Finally, now let's get off the tracks!" Janine said as she climbed up on the passenger's walkway. But before the professors could follow, the Dusknoir and two Dusclops suddenly appeared right behind them and grabbed them all. They all struggled against the Ghost Pokemon as the train closed in.
"NOOO!" Janine shouted before she activated the wand and fired another energy rope towards the three Pokemon.
The rope made contact with all three Ghost Pokemon forcing them to let the professors go. The four then quickly ran to and climbed up on the walkway just before the train hit Dusknoir and Dusclops, splatting slime everywhere as they howled in pain and agony.
As the howls of the Pokemon faded, Janine slowly opened her eyes and saw that the Dusknoir and Dusclops were gone. Nothing was left but the speeding train stopping at the station.
"I-I did it?" she asked as she stood up. She had no idea what really happens to the ghosts, but she then flashed a toothy smile and began jumping for joy. "I did it... I DID IT! I BUSTED A GHOST! Well, I didn't actually capture it, but still... I BUSTED A GHOST!"
"Eh-hem..."
Janine turned around and her happy expression then turned to one of sheepishness and disgust as she saw that all the professors were all covered in the green slime left by the Ghost Pokemon when the train struck them.
Horrified at what happened to the men, Janine quickly bowed and says. "O-Oh! I'm really sorry! I didn't mean for you too!"
"It's okay. We might be a mess, but we're alive, aren't we?" assured Willow.
"And to think, you all made fun of me for getting slimed. Guess the shoes on everyone's feet now," Sycamore quipped, as he then turned to Kukui. "And by the way, slime's not a good look for you either."
Kukui could only groan and roll his eyes in annoyance at Sycamore's payback on him.
"Well, anyways, I still don't get why any of our Pokemon's moves had no effect on those Ghost Pokemon," Oak wondered.
"Especially those Dark-type moves me and Incineroar hit them with," Kukui added.
"That's because that Dusknoir... wasn't a normal Pokemon," Janine declared, at which most of the professors' eyes widened as they stared at her. "And neither were the Duskull and Dusclops."
"Well, how do you know about that?," Oak questioned Janine.
"Well, um-"
"What are you even doing here?," Kukui asked as well.
"I, uh-"
"And what's with that weird looking backpack?" Willow jumped in.
"Okay, okay! I'll tell you already!" Janine feeling the pressure said. But before she could say anything, Sycamore stepped in for her.
"Now hold on, guys. Quit pressing her. She just saved all our lives after all. She'll tell us in due time, right?," he said as he turned to Janine.
"Professor Sycamore... I-I... I actually sort of have a connection to these ghosts. But not in the way you think." Janine puts the wand back onto her backpack and turns to the professors and asked, "Can you four keep a secret?"
"That depends, young lady. What's the secret?," Oak asked.
Janine sighed and said, "Follow me."
She then began to walk away. The professors glanced at each other briefly and then began to follow after her.
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Buttercup shouted as the movie paused itself again. "Some real action!"
"And we got some mystery to boot as well," Chloe added. "But why use thos-"
"Chloe, spoilers!" June shouted.
"Sorry…"
"Well, it could be the book decided to-," Lincoln started to say.
"Lincoln!"
"Okay, okay! Sorry."
Just then, everyone heard what seemed to be two people reciting lines. They turned and saw Cosmo and Wanda are holding scripts and reading from them out loud.
"What are you guys doing?" Daryl asked.
"They're just reciting lines for a later role in the movie," Timmy replied.
"Huh? I thought the book said that the movie's characters couldn't be changed?" Mac asked.
"In terms of personality, character, and effect on the story, yes, but in terms of who portrays the character, no," Wanda said.
"Yeah, the book's actually been holding open auditions since it kicked Squidward out for being too grumpy," Cosmo bluntly explained.
Meanwhile, outside on the front grounds, Squidward, who'd been lying on the grass, sat up, rubbed his head and looked around.
"Where am I? What in the world am I doing out here?" he asked.
"Okay... but what role are you guys auditioning for anyway?" Tony asked.
Cosmo and Wanda gave big grins, as did Timmy as he said, "You'll see..."
A/N: Who knew Janine was such a bad-ascot! What is her connection to these "Pokemon" specters? What are these specters really? And where did Janine get that Proton Pack from? Find out on ToonSchool: Pokebusters, coming next time!
Also, big announcement: next summer, we GB fans will finally get the long-awaited Ghostbusters 3, as announced just this Wednesday! Who would've thought that not even a month after we debut this fic, that we would get an announcement for a new movie? Certainly not us! So until next time, read, follow, and review!