Chapter 8: Gozer's Secret Temple
Phoebe along with Podcast, Trevor, and Lucky came to Spinners Roller Hop in the morning as soon as the burger joint opened up. Phoebe brought the papers and the old map that she and Trevor's grandfather used and collected to help with their ghost hunting. Or the better term is planning on stopping Gozer from returning to their world. They talked a bit while ordering themselves something to eat as they all waited for one member of their team. A member that they all agreed to and voted as their leader based on the fact that Phoebe supported, recommended, and suggested him since he is her boyfriend.
"Phoebe, where is John?." Trevor asked when putting his straw in his milkshake.
"Do not know," Phoebe answered with no hesitation before taking a bite of her burger.
Phoebe is mentally worried that she might have over-drained his energy through her blowjobing. She did it last night for good reasons such as helping her remove her emotional pain after having a falling out with her mom and taking her role as the girlfriend very seriously. As a matter of fact, Phoebe felt entitled in wanting to move in and live with John along with caring for him in an extremely wifely manner. No boy can make her feel so damn good or fucking understand her as her John can. Their love started back in kindergarten which means that their bond is so deep.
"Cuz have better get here." Lucky looked at Phoebe plainly. "Because I am missing some good ass hours of sleep."
Phoebe blankly looked at her boyfriend's older first cousin and tried not to get upset and be nice. "He will be here, Lucky. Sooner than you think."
Podcast catches his best friend from coming in. "How about now?."
Everyone looked to see a tired John wearing a black t-shirt that had Michael Jackson's Blood on the Dance Floor album cover image on it, along with wearing a pair of black shorts and matching black fake Jordans. John tirelessly and almost tripped over before Phoebe got out of her side of the booth and helped her lover inside the booth with her.
"John, what happened to you?." Phoebe looked at her boyfriend with a concerned and worried facial expression.
"Damn, man, you look like you have not slept a wink last night," Trevor spoke while being worried as well. "What happened to you?."
John yawned tiredly. "First, I want a large coffee milkshake and breakfast burger."
"Here let me order it for you, honeybuns," Phoebe said while calling the waitress.
"Honeybuns?." Lucky raised her brow before looking at Trevor for an explanation.
"It is their pet names they gave each other but Phoebe usually calls John, Ghost Head, since he is into Ghostbusters and the paranormal. But calling him honey buns is a new one." Trevor looked at his baby sister. "What gives?."
Phoebe shrugged her shoulders innocently. "Nothing. I just thought of jazzing up our relationship a bit."
"Man, I hope that I will get a girlfriend just like you Phoebe," said Podcast, before eating some more of his hashbrowns.
Phoebe smiled at being an example of an ideal girlfriend of what Podcast desired to have. It was sweet of him to say that and it boosted her ego a bit more than it already is. Once the waitress gave John his order he ate his breakfast burger and drank his coffee milkshake with happiness, while still feeling tired in the head. Phoebe took the time to rub his head as she patiently waited for his explanation of why he is so fatigued.
John put his cup down and looked at everyone tiredly. "Well, we need to go right ahead and congratulate ourselves, because every last one of us is fucked. Including everyone in the whole world is fucked."
Hearing this confused everyone at the table booth as they had no idea as to why he even said such a thing to them and himself included.
"What exactly happened to you last night?." Phoebe questioned.
John leaned back and relaxed. "Well, after leaving your and Trevor's house and right after you gave me some fellatio, I was getting close to my home until I stumbled upon Mr. Grooberson."
"Wait." Trevor stopped the conversation. "You're telling me that my baby sister gave you a blowjob?."
"It is none of your business, Trevor." Phoebe shoots back as she interlocks her arm with John's and has a serious look on her face. "We are in a sexual romantic relationship. This is normal and our freedom right."
"But…" Lucky got stopped to further the argument by John who is now fully awake.
"Can we all please stop making the focus of my and Phoebe's relationship as the top priority?. Yes, we had sex but we are responsible for it and we are in love." said John.
Phoebe snuggled up against her lover. "And we are getting married."
"Wait what?. So soon? Wait, since when?." John pulled her off of him to look at her in shock.
John shrugged it off and did not want to lose focus on the task at hand. He started explaining what happened last night with Grooberson or should I say the unwanted guest that is temporarily renting out his body.
*FlashBack*
As soon as John was getting close to his house he caught a glance at Grooberson who had his hair and clothes looking all messy while walking funny, as if he was done spending the nightly hours on getting himself poorly drunk at the town's only bar. John stopped his walking as he watched the man come closer to him before he too had stopped at six feet.
"Dang, Mr. Grooberson, you look so bent out of shape. You need to go home and sleep off your drunkness before you hurt someone or yourself," said John, studying the man carefully.
The response that the young teen did not expect to hear is a demonic voice coming from Gary himself. Especially hearing what he said to him.
"I am not Gary. My name is Vinz Clortho. Keymaster of Gozer." came Gary.
John paused at both hearing the voice and what he just said. "Come again?."
"I said that my name is Vinz Clortho. Keymaster of Gozer. Are you the Gatekeeper?." asked Vinz, while being patient.
Remembering that he took a spare PKE meter out of Phoebe's room before leaving, John pulled the device out of his deep pajama pants pocket to turn it on. Upon doing so he lifted it up and saw the arms go right up as the screen indicated how hot the signal was. John kelp his cool while fear panicking on the inside.
"Uh, no. No, I am not the Gatekeeper." John put the PKE down.
Vinz came a bit closer and started sniffing John in the examination of who he is based on his knowledge. He stopped sniffing and looked at the teen.
"Awe, yes, now I know exactly who you are." Vinz's glowing red eyes looked at the teen with interest. "You are that kid who instructed the others to help set me free from my imprisonment. Thank you, my friend."
"Wait…you heard everything from inside the trap?." John asked when stepping back from Vinz.
"Indeed, I do." Vinz walked up. "My ears are more than just for seeing. Because of your generosity, you have my word for me putting in a good word for Gozer. You will make an excellent loyal servant of our Destructor. Unlike the other trader."
"Right." John came up with what to do next and saw an excellent opportunity. "Say, why not come with me, Vinz?. Let us discuss this more at my place. Are you hungry?."
Vinz Clortho heard and felt his stomach growling. "Yes, I do need a good meal. Lead the way."
John guided one of the minions of Gozer to the backyard through the gate. From there, John lifted his window up and let the terror dog who is using Gary's body inside his room. Once John went inside and closed his window while locking it down, he turned to see Vinz picking up his scale model of Ecto-1B and started sniffing it. He quickly and gently took the model car out of the processor's hands. After that was settled, John went out to the fridge and warmed up what was left of the fried chicken that his mom cooked. As John got down warmed the food and handed it to Vinz who devoured it like the typical animal that he is.
"Now, then." John sat down in a chair and relaxed. "Tell me, Vinz Clortho, are you waiting for a sign?."
Vinz Clortho pulled the chicken bone out of his mouth. "Yes, I am waiting for a sign. A sign that Gozer's third summoning is upon this world."
"Right, Right." John thinks about the other questions. "So why has Gozer not destroyed my world on his second go around?. And where were you and Zuul at that second summoning?."
"Because Gozer's disgraced destructor form, which was given by one of the Ghostbusters, was too weak compared to his first summoning. As for me and my darling Zuul, we were exactly where we were on that first day of opening the door for our master. We were at the building guarding the door. Our jobs are not to interfere with Gozer's affairs unless he commands us or if that certain someone interferes with letting him come to this world." Vinz Clortho spoke with no hesitation.
John nodded as these questions were always on his mind for a long time. "I have another question for you, Vinz. Is Shandor in Gozer's good graces?. Even though what happened back then?."
With the mention of the man's last name, it angered Vinz Clortho with deep passion. So much so that his red eyes started glowing bigger. This made John uneasy and scared for his own life before he started backing himself up to the wall. Hoping that this is not going to be his last breath. Lucky for John, Vinz Clortho managed to calm himself down and stopped his eyes from glowing. He straightened himself up.
"Sorry about that, kid. The quick anger solely belongs to Zuul while I'm the complete opposite of that." Vinz watched John slowly come back closer.
"So about Shandor?." John dared ask again.
"Ivo Shandor was by far the greatest servant and worshiper in Gozer's flock. But all changed when he turned against my master and took the gathered power from not only the Mandala but also all the ghosts that those Ghostbusters have kept in their containment grid. With this, he used the energy to create his own destructor form and be his own god. Make no mistake, Gozer is not one to forget things especially being betrayed. Shandor's punishment is coming soon." said Vinz Clortho.
John asked a lot of questions to keep the terror dog distracted all throughout the night. He knows for a fact that he did not have the needed equipment to remove Vinz Clortho from Gary's body. Now, it would be a whole different story for John if he had the multipurpose proton pack and used the plasm distribution system to unpossessed Gary. Now, doing so would lead John to be dealing with a tipped-off aggressive terror dog and it would take at least four people with an extra fifth person to bust Vinz Clortho, much less trap him. So that is out of the question.
John tiredly put on fresh clean clothes. "One final question. What makes you guys think that this third summoning will be a guaranteed victory?."
"Easy." Vinz Clortho lay on John's bed. "Gozer himself planned this. After seeing that it takes time and money troubles to affect the Ghostbusters. You see, Gozer ordered all the ghosts who are loyal to him to return to Ghost World and remain there until the Ghostbusters go out of business. From there we waited out on time."
John listens very carefully to the source of what caused the Ghostbusters to go out of business in the first place. Because there is no such thing as a ghost drought.
"The Ghostbusters may have been victorious over Gozer twice due to the given chosen form and the form being too weak on the second summoning. The Ghostbusters are mortal and not immortal. Let alone, Zuul managed to successfully the smart one after he tried to fight her off and not tell her where he hid me. Wish I would have seen the mortal's demise." said Vinz.
John got angry when not only hearing how Egon died but also hearing Vinz Clortho laughed darkly about the whole thing. But he did not show it as he was most definitely motivated to go through with being a Ghostbuster and finished what the original Ghostbusters had started back in 1984.
"I tell you what Vinz Clortho, why not let me go out to find and bring Zuul to you?." John looked at the possessed Gary.
Vinz Clortho relaxed really well on John's bed while looking at all the Ghostbuster themes and asked about it a couple of hours ago. "Sounds good."
"Excellent." John went over to the window and opened it back up. "Now, just stay right where you are until I get back with Zuul or that sign pops back up again."
"Deal," said Vinz Clortho.
Once closing the window and is out of sight, John is fuming in heat.
"I am so going to bust the shit out of Gozer and his minions," John spoke with tired bitterness.
*End of FlashBack*
"Yeah, you are right, John. We are fucked." said Lucky.
"So, stopping the apocalypse is officially not an option anymore?." Podcast spoke before eating his fries.
Phoebe handed some of the papers from the table to John so he could look at them and tell them exactly what her grandfather gathered for information. After studying the papers really well, John sat them down and then looked at the four.
"Based on what Egon had gathered from both the town's history and deep information Ivo Shandor himself, he concluded that this is the town that Shandor has helped build Summerville and started the mining company both as a job making and as a front. He mined the idea of metal he wanted and transported to New York to start making a much larger worship temple for Gozer." said John.
"Shandor's mining company is where exactly Shandor got his metal from." Phoebe looked at her boyfriend.
"Exactly." John rubbed the back of his head. "I expected that mining company was where Ivo Shandor got his goods from. Now, Shandor did a lot of wild things in order to bring froth Gozer to our plain of existence. He ensured two things that will get Gozer much stronger than he already is, other than him having already used all the energy from his loyal ghosts."
"Like?." Trevor motioned for John to keep going.
"Like Shandor had used his lab from his family's island to pump all that mood slime into New York sewer lines. With so much angered negative energy generated from every single person in New York, it will not only create rifts for ghosts to enter our world and animate any objects but also power the user who is using it. Unfortunately, Vigo had hijacked that slime before Gozer could touch or even know about its existence." John drank his refilled coffee milkshake and set it back down. "Then there was the Mandala."
"What is the Mandala?." Lucky questioned her cousin.
"The Mandala is a powerful form of magic that is used to focus spirit energy on an object. The Mandala sometimes appears in Sumerian ritual magic. Scholars regarded it as a symbol that signifies a path to obtaining great power and concluded it was an old constellation. The ancient object itself is like a spiritual labyrinth, part of a feeder system required to channel energy to a Destructor Form. There were four Mandalas that are located in four sacred places of the Cult of Gozer in New York City. The Mandalas are all different in their structure. Mostly, their existence is related to a powerful ghost being that serves as Mandala nexus." said Phoebe.
John looked at his girlfriend as he was in fact impressed at her knowing so much about this. "Color me impressed, Phoebe. You must have been doing your homework."
Phoebe smirked at her boyfriend. "Well, if you count listening to you saying the exact same thing over the years back in New York, homework."
John gently nudged her by the shoulder. "Anyways you guys, in conclusion about the Mandala that Shandor had constructed, The Mandala used by Shandor is a spiraling system that feeds into each successive node along the line until it reaches a culmination point. Ghosts are trapped in the system, funneled from node to node and they get stronger and stronger until they reach the end. Plus, the final node was on his island where the Ghostbusters had successfully shut and destroyed the whole system down and fought off an imprisoned juvenile Sloar. Let alone getting the fuck off the island before it sinks back down again."
"Alright, I am summoning everything you said and see that we are in some deep shit. How are we going to stop Gozer?." said Lucky.
"Egon designed version 2 of the super Slammer and he told me where to go and see what he discovered." John got up out of the booth. "We are going to the place that me and Podcast should have gone the moment when he showed me the mining company. We are going to the mine shaft."
From there they went to the only mine shaft that was opened in where Lucky and Trevor told the three that they were on the elevator with the other teens to hang out at, and witnessed the strange glowing underneath them and heard a demonic voice saying Gozer. Once the five got on the rotten worn-out elevator shaft and activated the down button, the five patiently waited to reach the bottom floor while hoping that nothing down there was guarding the abandoned worship Gozer temple. John had the PKE meter out from his book bag and used it to see if there was any paranormal activity while holding Phoebe's hand. As for Phoebe, she felt that she should break the awkward silence and make an attempt to get in her boyfriend's cousin's good graces. She only had one way of doing so at this moment of time.
"What does a hamster have in common with a cigarette?. They are harmless unless you stick 'em in your mouth and light them on fire." Phoebe spoke.
Lucky and Trevor looked at Phoebe weirdly while both John and Podcast busted out laughing at such a funny joke. Phoebe looked at her feet in embarrassment as she could tell she failed at entertaining her boyfriend's cousin with one of her infamous jokes. As the elevator made contact with the ground, John told them to not make a sound as best as they can when opening the door. With that said, he guided them to the tunnel that was the only tunnel that was opened while having the PKE meter out and waiting for any detection.
"No sign of any paranormal activities." John informed the others before putting the device down. "We are in the clear. For now."
"That is good to hear." Phoebe made sure to walk beside her lover along with her flashlight.
"Hey, I see a light." pointed out Podcast.
When looking forward they saw an opening light with a leading end of the mining tunnel. Upon entering through the five were downright in awe at seeing the very first temple that Shandor and the cult followers had built.
"I know Egon got excited at seeing this." commented John, as he looked around the place.
Phoebe looked at the huge carved stature and tilted her head. "Is this what Gozer looks like?."
John turned his attention to what his girlfriend was asking about. "Yes and No."
"Yes and No?." asked Lucky.
"I said that because no one and not even including Ivo Shandor has no idea on how Gozer originally looked. Only except Zuul and Vinz Clortho and the first worshipers of Gozer." said John, eyeing the structure.
"Hey, John check this out!." called Podcast.
John pointed his flashlight to where his best friend was before coming over there. "What did you find?."
"Look." Podcast motioned him to look.
When doing so he looked at what caught Podcast's attention as it appeared to be an old glass casket with someone in it and wearing some old school suit. He looked to see if this casket had the name of this deceased man. To John's surprise, it was Shandor's.
"No, shit. This is Ivo Shandor's casket with Shandor in it." John looked at the dead man.
"Wait, I thought you said the Ghostbusters had uncovered Shandor's displayed skull from his grave that is buried underneath Central Park?." said Phoebe, looking at the corpse as well.
"I concluded that Shandor had two graves. The fake one in New York's Central Park. And this is his actual grave which he buried himself in his first temple he built for Gozer." John explained before listening to Podcast and Lucky's debate about decomposing dead people in their caskets.
"But why did he bury his body in this temple?. What stands out about this place?." Trevor asked when seeing the dead body.
John took this moment to have a good look around this cold creepy ass place. If knowing anything about the first original temples is that they have written information on either telling the story of the source on why the temple is built or having written predictions about the end of the world, like the ones on the Aztec wheel. With that in mind, he looked at any signs of any of the two before looking up and frozen in fear. Phoebe and the three looked at him and saw he had a look of fear on his face. John had a shocked look on his face as still stayed looking up whatever it was that he was looking at.
"Son of a bitch." John spoke.
Phoebe quickly came over before placing her hand on his shoulder and blocking his view with her worried and concerned facial expression.
"John?. What is wrong?." Phoebe anxiously checked over her boyfriend.
"Dude, are you okay?." Podcast too got worried himself as he checked on him.
"Cuz, you look like you just saw a shocking twist." Lucky looked at her cousin with concern.
Trevor got worried as to what spooked John as he beloved that he should be excited to be seeing all of this, let alone be boasting about how right he is all these years. John managed to break his scared moment.
"Shandor literally and scientifically numerics the possible years that foretells Gozer the Gozerian's possible desire of entering our world. Look." John pointed up at the top edges of the wall.
Phoebe and the three looked up and had their flashlights beaming. They too were utterly shocked to see what John was saying. The Cult leader of Gozer has inscribed the possible years of the Traveler's arrival. One of the years has destruction in that time year.
"1883." Podcast spoke. "I remember that year from history class in fifth grade. That is when volcano Krakatoa erupted."
Trevor nodded while looking at the other year. "Hey, what happened in the year 1908?."
Podcast shrugged. "Probably about the Tunguska blast over in Siberia"
Lucky eyed the year after the other. "Any idea on what took place in 1945?."
"Nothing had happened in 1945. Thankfully," informed John, while looking at the last few dated years.
Phoebe's eyes grew wide when seeing a familiar year. "1984. That was the year of the Manhattan Crossrip."
John eyed the year 1991. The particular year that he knows personally. "1991 is the same exact year that the Mandala Node was purposely activated in New York back at the National History Museum by Ivo Shandor's last living descendant, Ilyssa Shepard."
"John?." Phoebe got his attention as she pointed at the year right beside the finally inscribed year of 2134.
John followed to where his girl was showing him. The two were both in shock as to the year that caught their attention and which should concern everyone. There on the wall with the numeric year beside the year, 2134 is the year 2023. Their current year.
"Oh, shit," said John and Phoebe.
"Oh, shit what?." Trevor waited for a response from either of the two.
Trevor has his answer but it did not come from either John or Phoebe. Out of nowhere, they all felt the same earthquake that they and everyone else in Summerville had been experiencing for sometime. They finally got their conclusion from where the source is. There in the huge round empty pit started producing spiritual lights and horrific sounds of mourning cries. This made both John and Phoebe walk closer to the pit hand in hand as the two did not want anything to happen to the other. They both ignored Trevor and Lucky who were calling them back to where they were and not getting themselves hurt during the rumble. Podcast took his focus off his friends to look back at the supposed corpse of Ivo Shandor, where he saw the dead man in the casket open its eyes and turned his head to stare and see and now scared Podcast.
"What the actual fuck, dude!." Podcast yelled in fear.
John and Phoebe reached the edge of the pit to see countless amounts of spirited undead people and ghosts roaming around and surfacing their way up to them. Eyes grew wide as the two looked inside in astonishment, fear, and little excitement. They were actually looking at an open pocket dimension of Gozer's personal dimension. Seeing this was automatically stopped when hearing a familiar engine sound and looked up to see four particle throwers on each corner of the pillars of the pit. After seeing them the particle throwers automatically fired full proton streams straight down at the pit. Seeing that Egon had installed them to push back the ghosts and any paranormal entity, and preventing the end of the world from happening again. Especially preventing Gozer from entering by capturing one of his never questioned loyal minions.
Once entities were pushed back down into the pit the particle throwers turned off along with the earthquake as it stopped shaking their small town. Podcast watched the dead body of Shandor return to its original position and closed its eyes.
"Dude, this is some seriously scary shit!." Podcast spoke while running back to the others.
"Ok, John, I admit!." Lucky looked at her cousin with all honesty on her face. "You are right!."
"Will all talk about this after this is all over with." John managed to break his shock after seeing what he saw. He looked at everyone. "We need to get back to the farmhouse. We need to look over the plans that Egon had put together when he attempted to capture both terror dogs."
The five quickly ran back to the elevator and pulled themselves back up and headed their way back to the dirt farm on the quicker route. There was no time to spare. They need to handle this before it gets out of their control.
"Vinz Clortho probably broke out from your bedroom after waiting for the sign." Phoebe informed her boyfriend.
"Exactly." John catches his breath and jumps over a big rock. "Meaning that we need to find and trap Zuul, assuming that she may or may have found a suitable woman host to take. We must not let Zuul and Vinz Clortho meet up and start their ritual. We are the only ones to stop Gozer."
"We have to start planning as we speak." suggested Phoebe.
Upon arriving at the Dirt Farm and busted inside the house, the five went in and saw Callie sitting in the armchair with her eyes closed while tapping her left index finger on the armchair. They all stopped and watched her body language. They can see that she is in a mix of impatience, anger, and waiting. John knew all too well about Callie along with Phoebe and Trevor who are her kids. He knows that Callie would never act this way at all, not unless they were playing charades.
"M…Mom?." Phoebe carefully made her way to her. "Are you okay?."
"There is no Mom. Only Zuul." Callie spoke calmly.
John stopped Phoebe from going any further. He frowned at the woman before pulling out the PKE meter and instantly got a hot read. Zuul started sniffing the air like a wild animal after her ears had picked up the sound of the device.
"Well, Zuul, I am ordering you to unleash yourself from Callie's body." John ordered.
Zuul did not listen to what John just said before sniffing at Podcast direction. "Are you the Keymaster?."
"Uhhh, no." Podcast slowly said.
"Did you not hear me, Terror Bitch?." John got closer. "I said let Callie go. Now!."
This time, Zuul responded back to John with her eyes open and threatened to chomp at him who quickly jumped back. Zuul looked at John angrily with a growl as she never had to deal with someone like this since dealing with the other man that night back at the apartment.
"And I say to you." Zuul spoke out of Callie's voice and into her real voice which is demonic. "There is no Terror Bitch. Only Zuul."
Zuul sniffed the air surrounding John and grinned evilly. "You have the smell of the Ghostbuster that trapped my Vinz Clortho. I was here. In this very one. I held him down and forced him to tell me where he had hidden my mate."
Phoebe was getting mad at seeing the murder of her grandfather. "And?."
Zuul looked at Phoebe. "He refused to tell me. And so I did what anyone who was against my master or interfered with his destruction. I killed the Ghostbuster, the one called Egon Spengler."
John growled at hearing this and refused to let Zuul get away with it. "Why you bastard bitch!."
Without warning or anyone expecting on what came next, John activated the proton taser on the PKE meter after being told how it works let alone how to use it, and turned it on by Egon which surprised and scared Zuul when seeing the same device. She left out the part about painfully fighting against the smart Ghostbuster.
"Baby get behind me!." John quickly pulled Phoebe behind him to protect her.
Phoebe did what she was told as she and the others watched John having the proton taser like a dagger while taunting Zuul to come at him. Zuul jumped out of the chair and hid behind the armrest while growling at John and the taser in his hand. It looked like this was going to be one heck of a fight. Fortunately for Phoebe's huge anxiety as it did not happen after feeling the earthquake once more. This time they heard and saw a big explosion from the mountain. They saw huge clouds of paranormal energy and orbs flying all through the whole area as the skies became much darker.
"The Sign!." Zuul turned to look at them with a growl before going through the window and running out on all fours.
"Oh, shit!." Phoebe looked out to see her possessed mom running away from sight.
"Damn it. Should have tasered her when given the chance." John looked at what is now officially the end of the world.
"Guys, is the plan still on?." Trevor asked as he comforted his sister.
Phoebe looked at John with her game face on. "What do you think, ghost head?."
John looked back at all that is now happening. "Time to Bust it to the Afterlife."
(A/N): Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please leave a review.