*Note: this work is an 18 chapter novella, not a collection of shorts, best started at chapter one. Rating PG13*
The Sheriff pulls up in the yard, with Lucky riding shotgun. Once inside, around the kitchen table, the Ghostbusters and the Spengler family fill them in and they try to clarify a plan for what to do next.
"There's no way we can mood slime 2 million people," Ray realizes. "We couldn't find them all and get slime to them in time. Gozer will drain them to death or they'll die of dehydration first."
"Grim," remarks Venkman, face serious for once.
"YouView has 4 billion logins a day. This could spread all over the planet," Podcast says, looking sick and pale.
"We can slime everyone affected in Summerville," Sheriff Domingo says, hands on his hips. "My deputies and I can go house to house and squirt the zombies. Tell everyone to delete YouView off their phones, to stay off of it."
"Technically, they are not zombies. They're being used as batteries, as a power source. It's more like The Matrix, Dad," Lucky tells the Sheriff.
At Lucky's arrival, Trevor went out to the barn to clean corn stalks out of the grill and undercarriage of Ecto1. Get the Ecto ready to drive to LA. He's definitely not hiding from Lucky. Or his feelings.
Ray, Phoebe and Gary have determined that Gozer is in YouView now, spreading through it like a virus. Not just contained in Podcast's live stream, but luckily, not roaming the entire Internet. Not yet, anyway.
There is absolutely no way The Ghostbusters have the power to shut an app like that down, short of bombing the corporation's servers, wherever they were, probably hidden in heavily guarded caves all over the planet. YouView is on phones, tablets, tvs and computers all over the world. 14 billion minutes of content are uploaded to it every day. It's an almost infinite power source. Gozer is a parasite, an alien tick that's found a thick vein of energy to latch on to. It's very bad news that the disincorporated entity has found a way to use YouView as a vessel.
"Gozer should have been sucked into the machine after Zuul and Vinz! They shouldn't be able to have ANY form in this universe at all without their servants!" Phoebe is outraged that Gozer hasn't followed the rules.
"The Internet doesn't follow the rules," Trevor says. "Especially YouView. It doesn't accurately reflect reality. YouView isn't really real life, you know? Maybe that makes it a slightly separate plane of existence, with different rules that Gozer found a way to exploit. A parallel dimension. A loophole."
"Interesting, Trevor," Ray then explains what he and Egon have been thinking, "Spengler and I theorize that the Gozarians are responsible for Gozer's ability to remain here in any form. Their rituals are anchoring It to this reality in some way, weakening our Universe's laws, bending them. Gozer isn't in a body. Instead, Gozer found a way to tap into raw power without being embodied. They've essentially possessed YouView instead of a human body or a form like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And they've tapped into millions of unwilling worshippers, draining them through their screens."
"This is all my fault!" wails Podcast, dropping his head to the table in misery. The positive mood slime vibes have worn off and he feels awash with guilt.
"No, it's not, Podcast," everyone says in different ways. Trevor feels quite guilty, too, for having encouraged him to set up the Livestream. Phoebe isn't sure how to feel yet. It will come to her in 6-8 business weeks.
Callie stands to make her point clear, "No, Podcast. This is on Gozer, Shandor, Dad, sorry, and the rest of the Ghostbusters. All this has been in motion since long before you were born, Podcast! Yes, that Thing used your phone, your channel, to access a power source, but it was going to find a way. That's Gozer's nature, okay? Dad taught us, Gozer always finds a way. But so do Spenglers. Okay? We're gonna fix this."
After a few rounds of debate and several pots of coffee, the plan is this: stop the humans who have been aiding Gozer out in Los Angeles. Use the power nexus of the Shandor mansion and the Gozarian's own rituals against Them somehow. Pull Gozer out of the internet and back into the corporal universe, so that They can be destroyed and repolarized.
And they need to do it quick. Battery people may be dying already. Gozer will get stronger with every viewer who logs on to the app. People all over the planet must already be freaking out over frozen, blue eyed loved ones. What will Gozer do with all that energy? How will they begin their Rule? The Ghostbusters have no idea what Gozer's next move will be.
Plan made, everyone needs to pack and prepare.
But first, they all need to go out to the barn and charge up some mood slime.
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.
.
There are barrels and barrels of pink slime in the barn. Callie had overlooked it in all the layers of Egon's mystery junk, thinking it was some kind of fuel or waste or whatever that would eventually be dealt with when she had the time and money. Put it on her very long list of things to do around this place.
It was Ray who'd recognized it for what it was when he came out to the farm this time. Vats and vats of psycho-transference "mood" slime. There are two long rows of 50 gallon translucent white plastic drums. It was mood slime in stasis, essentially dead. No bubbles. Inactive.
So they go out to the barn to charge the slime. First, they pop the vent caps on all the barrels so that they won't explode if they start to carbonate when activated.
The next part was Egon's idea.
Spengler's psychokinetic energy is high due to the gathering of everyone he loves in one space and the increased paranormal power surge from Gozer's rip in reality. So, he is able to pull himself into solidified form for the second time in one day.
There are golden motes sparkling in the air next to the first in the line of slime barrels. Then, Egon Spengler is standing there, visible from fluffy hair and glasses, jumpsuit down to the work boots. He smiles softly and places a quicksilver hand on the barrel of slime next to him. Then Ray steps forward, bashful but delighted, and hugs Egon. It's the first time outside of his dreams that he's held his husband in many years. There are tears in both their eyes as they hold each other close. Egon begins to glow with a golden, swirling light.
Then, the vat Egon is touching begins to glow, a lovely pink. The next one in line lights up, too. Ray and Egon wave their friends and family over. Egon closes his eyes to concentrate. Janine, Gary, Podcast, and Callie are first to join the group hug. They circle Egon and Ray and hug them. Venkman, Winston, Phoebe and Trevor are not far behind, layering themselves on the huddle.
"Everyone focus hard on how much you love each other! On how much we all love at least one person here. Fill yourself with positivity! Concentrate!" Ray calls out from the center of the hug.
They all try to mentally muster happy memories and inside jokes and funny stories. All the barrels light up, one by one, glowing a luminous pink. They all start sparkling like champagne. Bubbling and blooping, glowing softly.
Lucky and Sheriff Domingo stand by awkwardly for a moment and then join in the group hug, too. Why not?
When all the vats of mood slime effervesce with a brightly glowing, fully positive charge, Egon's spiritform dissipates in a golden flash. Spengler will have to go rest now. Ray's arms and head feel empty without him.
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.
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Sheriff and Lucky Domingo, Mira and Dulce will be in charge of local slime patrol in Summerville. They'll get glass jars of positively charged slime to nearby hospitals, too. Spread the word about YouView, call TV news networks, other sheriffs and emergency rooms. So the Ghostbusters will leave most of the glowing slime in the Sheriff's care to be administered locally. Sheriff Domingo is already making calls. Some townsfolk will come with pickups and haul the barrels away to help distribute it.
Before sunrise, everyone else is going on a road trip to visit Shandor's grandson in Los Angeles. They have a temple to storm.
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That night, Ray comes to bed to find Janine already there. Reading a book, propped up on pillows, at home in Ray's borrowed bed that used to be Egon's.
"Oh, hello," says Ray, for lack of the right thing to say at such a moment. His heart pounds. Janine is in his bed.
"I hope you don't mind. You said I needed to sleep in the big house and every other spot was occupied," Janine blinks at him over the tops of her glasses and pats the bed. "Is this seat taken?"
"Um," says Ray, who has never had a suave moment in his life. "Errr, I don't mind?"
"Why did that come out like a weird question?" he asks himself silently, loathing himself slightly for the way his voice pitched up and squeaked.
He grabs his pajamas and ducks into Egon's stark white tile bathroom to change (and cut his toenails and freshen his deodorant and brush his teeth extra extra well).
Then Ray climbs into bed with Janine Melnitz.
"I have a c-pap machine," Ray tells her. Very hot opening line there, Raymond.
"Me, too," she says and gestures to her side of the bed. Then they grin at each other.
"And I'll have to get up to pee three times in the night," Ray blushes.
"So will I," Janine laughs.
Ray laughs, too. Janine is an old friend. This is probably fine.
She's got on a pink plaid pajama set. Her petite bare feet with cherry red toenail polish, peek out of the pajama cuffs. Without her makeup, she looks both older and younger somehow and Ray thinks it suits her. He's always had such a crush. She's so cute, Ray feels a bit wibbly squibbly and doesn't have the time to fully interpret the emotional data of this moment. This definitely feels like flirting, but is it? C-paps and all?
"Don't worry about it, Ray," she says, and she places her hand pointedly on his thigh and makes prolonged, unblinking eye contact with him.
Ray feels quite overheated suddenly. Oh. It is.
"Uh, Janine," says Ray, wondering if this moment is about her long standing attraction to his husband and nothing to do with him. "Egon is not home right now. He's resting wherever he goes after doing something big here. He's not possessing this body right now. It's just us. Just you and me."
"Oh, good. He's not invited," says Janine and she clicks off the light. "Come here, Dr. Stantz."
Ray goes.