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Ghostbusters: Daybreak Chapter 1 (The Codex) Written by Leo_Todrius

Sunsets in the Pacific Northwest were often magical, the nearly ever-present cloud systems catching and scattering the sunlight in a myriad of majestic and inspiring colors. Portland, in particular, had caught the fancy of photographers and painters both in an attempt to capture that specific and unusual shade of salmon pink that manifested above the Willamette River, bisecting the impressive city. It was, however, not a color that should have been filling the sky at two thirty in the afternoon, nor sun up to sun down... but it had, for the last month, ever since the Portland Ghostbusters had disappeared.

The city had struggled to stay afloat with the influx of paranormal activity. Portland was hardly alone in that regard. Only a handful of Ghostbusting teams remained world wide. Over sixty franchises, sixty teams, had disappeared. Most of their containment units had breached or leaked, letting out years of trapped ghosts to haunt the living again. The people were on their own, or so they thought.

Every so often, in the corner of a computer screen or glitching in the background of a cell phone wallpaper was the familiar emblem, the emblem of a white ghost trapped behind a circle and cross. A few people had spotted it around Portland and tried to investigate, bringing up an image of a yellow hourglass on a lime background, prompting for a password. Some people thought the pop up was a virus and shut it off. Others tried to crack the code, but made no progress. It was a puzzle waiting for just the right person and just the right time. Nine Mercer wished that time had already come.

The drone of the Trimet bus echoed up through the floor of the vehicle, reverberating the seats and traveling through the metal bars. Nine felt an odd comfort in the bus, as if he was protected by its immense size and slow, trundling nature. The thought of it brought a smile to the teenager's face as he turned, catching sight of his reflection in the window.

Nine was eighteen years old, a senior at Pioneer High School. He had Strawberry Blond hair, the color of a good sunset. It was pulled into a short ponytail, though his bangs hung down on either side of his face down to his ear level. He had a few freckles, green eyes, and a black torn up t-shirt with the Ghostbusters emblem emblazoned on the chest. It was a somewhat risky move in the current climate. He'd been slimed more than once by an irritated ghost... but Nine felt like he was the resistance, the only one holding out, trying to keep everything going.

The young man sat near the back of the bus, behind the second set of doors on the slightly elevated seats. It gave him a better view out, seeing the streets and those that traveled them. Sometimes he roamed the city on the busses, taking in the sights. Even on the short trips he'd find something interesting, though these days it was more terrifying than interesting. For every street performer or unicycler, there were ghosts from Portland's distant past, or monsters from other realms of reality. There was even one a few seats up.

The ghost was sitting behind the driver, looking nervously from the window to the door, then back again. It was a human form, blue light with an echo of black making out the facial features. It was like a negative image, an inversion. Nine had seen the spirit a few times before, and he knew what was coming. Nine reached up and tugged on the yellow cord, signaling for a stop.

The bus lumbered up to the curb and hissed, lowering down as the doors opened up at both ends. Nine tugged himself up and gave a salute to the driver before trudging down the steps, his black DC skate shoes scuffing on the curb as he landed. The doors shut behind him and the bus whirred as it pulled back out into traffic, heading toward the intersection.

Nine watched as the Ghost reached his final destination, the spot where, apparently he died. The bus kept going but the ghost didn't, passing through row after row of seats, sliming every surface and every unwitting passenger in blue slime before ending up as a puddle in the street. It was going to be hell for the driver to clean. Nine shook his head and started walking for home.

**** The door to the dark blue bedroom clicked open as Nine returned, dropping his backpack in a heap in the corner before he shut his door again. He crossed the room and threw open his curtains, looking out to the pink sky before he returned to his computer. Nine spent the few moments for it to turn on getting comfortable, dropping into his chair and leaning back. Once it was up, he set up a quick live stream.

"Hey Busters! Nine here, coming at you from the heart of the Spooked Suburbs! It's been another day at the edge of limbo, but I continue on, ever diligent to unravel the mysteries of the ghost apocalyptic future we find ourselves in today." Nine said, bringing his smart phone up to the computer camera, showing a complex string of amber computer code that kept changing and cycling through complex strings of numbers.

"I am fairly certain that the program glitch that's been popping up around towns is some sort of... black box left by the Ghostbusters, a cipher-locked codex to leave information to those they consider worthy... except... I haven't really proven I'm worthy yet." Nine said, "I've gotten to the fifth level of encryption. I think I've gotten further than most because I went to Doctor Grayson Kale's lectures on ghosts and parapsychology, and... well, I had one major run in with the paranormal already."

Nine was quiet for a moment as he thought back to his introduction to the paranormal. His friend had found a seemingly innocuous notebook with the power to rewrite reality, but he had used it irresponsibly. Nine had jumped in at the last moment to save the city, and he'd done it without any equipment. That was just what he needed to do now.

"So my mission is clear; document strange activity in Portland while the Ghostbusters are missing, formulate a plan of attack to thin down threats, and unlock the black box the busters left us. Stay strong busters, and remember - I'm ready to believe you." Nine smiled as he turned off the live stream and collapsed back in his chair.

**** Pioneer High School was the newest school Portland had to offer, but after a few years of operation, the novelty was starting to wear thin. The equipment that had been cutting edge when it opened was starting to fall behind cutting edge, and the staff were starting to feel the pinch of the budget and class sizes. Still, the facilities were top notch - even if certain aspects were ignored by the majority of the student body.

The school's library was one such facility; pristine with milky skylights letting in the light from outside, red cherry wood colored bookshelves hosting a variety of books and periodicals. The school had opted for separate computer labs so the library was rather small, and without computers it wasn't a frequent destination for the student body. That made it perfect for a small, select group of teenagers that were perfectly fine being somewhere the others were not.

A pair of them sat at a table near dead center of the library, watching the clock tick ever closer toward the start of the day's classes. The smaller of the two was a mere five foot eight, his straight black hair bleached and dyed to give him a shock of blue at the front. His skin was fawn, almost pale, but with earthy tones to it. His black long sleeve t-shirt was simple, with a dark gray geometric pattern almost invisible on the fabric.

Sitting next to him was a taller boy, his light tawny caramel colored skin complimenting the sun bleached shades of his dreadlocks. The hair came down just past his shoulders, though he'd tied it back at the top, letting the strands splay out behind his head. He had only a short sleeve t-shirt with a grey, white and pink aztec heather print. A light scruff of hair hung down from just beneath his chin.

A stack of books came down onto the table with a heavy, reverberating slam that made the two teenagers look up from their phones and stare at the one that had disrupted them with a bit of disgust, especially so early in the morning. The smaller of the two blinked, bleary eyed as he brushed his hair out of his face, staring at the overly-eager green eyes and freckled face of Nine Mercer.

"We've been here since the campus opened... You didn't get those from the library." he murmured. The other teen looked over the top of his phone, one eyebrow elegantly arched as he waited for the other proverbial shoe to drop.

"Miguel, Angel, you're never going to guess what I just figured out..." Nine grinned ear to ear. This time it was the larger teen's turn to speak.

"That Delgado is still gunning for you?" Angel asked. Nine's brows scrunched up.

"What? No. Wait, he is? That's... not important..." Nine said, "I got through the next level of the encryption. It was an amplitude frequency from the Tunguska blast." Nine said.

"You're still on that Ghostbuster thing?" Angel asked, setting his phone down long enough to re-tie his hair.

"What if it's a puzzle that leads nowhere?" Miguel asked with concern for his friend. Nine sighed slowly.

"It wouldn't be this complex if it went nowhere. The first password was something about the local team. The second was some basic math about proton fields. They're all tests, to make sure novices and laymen can't crack the code." Nine said.

"Laypeople." Angel corrected. Nine blushed at the social faux paux and nodded.

"Laypeople, yes. But I feel like I'm almost through." Nine said. Outside the library the chatter was building as the busses dropped off more students. Angel slipped his phone into his pocket and grabbed his backpack, slinging it over one shoulder.

"What you're almost through with is school. We only have a few more months left." Angel said. Miguel clambered to his feet, pulling his backpack on - though he had to wear it correctly to compensate for the weight. He reached out and rested a hand on Nine's shoulder.

"We support you, bro, we just want to make sure you're looking out for you too." He said before he moved into the hallway with Angel behind. Nine grunted, gathering up the books he had so dramatically slammed down, carrying them into the hallway.

"I'm not looking out for me, I'm looking out for everyone." Nine said, "They Ghostbusters are gone, and someone's gotta pick up the slack." he said. All three boys turned as they heard a disgusted shriek, looking up the hallway. Serenity had opened her locker and unleashed a flood of hot pink slime. The ectoplasm oozed and dribbled down the locker, pooling in the floor.

It was becoming an ever more common occurrence, though the color of the slime varied depending on the location. Nine was tempted to try and get a sample, but when the bell chimed in the hall he knew he was out of time. Angel stopped on his way to class and turned to look back at Nine, his honey brown eyes looking at the dismay on Nine's face. Maybe he'd been too hard on him.

"You find out anything... Anything that'll help people, just let us know. We'll be there for ya man." Angel said. Nine gave a soft smile and a nod, feeling a bit of relief. It wasn't an easy time for anyone. There was unrest, there was chaos, there was uncertainty... but he knew he could trust in his friends. Now he just had to give them something to trust in back.

**** Storm clouds were building outside, the ever-present salmon pink light being diffused by the thickening clouds. The light diminished more and more until a faint mist fell across the classroom windows, and then the mist became thick drops of rain. Nine gazed out at it all, feeling like this was the Oregon he knew, the Oregon he had grown up with.

"Now, we have to ask ourselves, what did the light on the end of the dock mean to Gatsby?" The teacher asked the students. A few raised their hands, but the teacher's eyes drifted to the daydreaming teen near the back, "Mister Mercer?" she asked.

"Money, the unobtainable love, the American dream. It's a symbol that changes and evolves, ever illusive, meaning different things at different times." Nine replied. The teacher's lips quirked, a little surprised. She moved on, talking about the light and how it was a central driving force.

Nine had to admit he felt a bit of pride at not being caught flat footed, but he'd always operated on a level where he could multitask fairly well. He also was pretty good at telling time. He'd slid his text book off of his desk and into his bag, as well as his pens and then finally his notebook all without the teacher noticing. Some students were more clumsy and earned a glare.

"Mister Hernandez, you are not done learning until I am done teaching." the teacher commented, looking over to where Miguel had less stealthily packed up. The bell chimed suddenly and those that had not already packed up were now in a mad dash to do so. The teacher stood up taller, looking at her students, "Your assignment is to find one more piece of imagery from the book, something that haunts the characters, and relate it to a current event." she said over the hustle and bustle, "Three paragraphs, due tomorrow." she said. The students groaned as they filed out of the classroom.

"Why did she have to say haunting?" Miguel groaned, following in Nine's wake as the red head blazed a path out of the classroom and into the hall.

"Figure of speech I guess, nothing big." Nine said.

"Hey, Numerals!" a deep shout echoed down the hall. Nine's stomach sank, though he didn't show emotion on the outside. Miguel, however, showed more than enough for the both of them. They turned, seeing another senior stalk towards them. His flaxen blond hair was pulled back into an intricate cross weave along the top of his head that went back into a painfully tight, short tail and the sides of his head were shaved short. His light brown eyes were practically yellow in the diminished light, giving him an almost feral sort of appearance.

"What do you want, Delgado?" Nine asked, "Forget your way to the cafeteria?"

"Funny, freak... Very funny, but your jokes can't hide the truth forever." Delgado said.

"I don't have time for this, man." Nine said, trying to push past. Delgado reached out and grabbed onto Nine's waistband before sliding his fingers over, getting a grip on the underwear beneath as well. In one triumphant yank, he brought Nine's pants down, revealing his pert ass, supple hips, and the furry sheath protecting the pointed, red tip of a canine shaft to any looking in that particular direction. So much blood shot to Nine's face that he felt like he was going to burst a blood vessel. He crouched down and grabbed his pants, yanking them back up around himself.

The whole event happened in a flash. There was some murmur, some chaos, some people trying to see after it was too late. Nine broke into a sprint down the hallway, cutting and weaving between others, disappearing into the crowd. Delgado laughed mercilessly before he tipped his head back, letting out a howl that echoed down the hall after Nine. In the midst of all of that, Miguel's brown eyes were incredibly wide.

**** The sound of the road traffic was amplified in the parking garage, echoing and bouncing off the cement walls and pillars. By the time Miguel found Nine, Nine had heard his footsteps coming for some time, though he didn't bother to leave. Nine stared out of the parking garage at the building across the street - two stories tall with a little hatch on the roof, white plaster over a brick foundation, a big garage door on one end, and a white and red sign sticking out showing a ghost trapped in a red ring with a cross.

"How'd you find me?" Nine asked after a moment. Miguel moved to sit down next to him on the cold, wet cement.

"I know how your mind works when you're obsessed." Miguel smiled. Nine let out a small noise.

"How did it blow over at school?" he asked. Miguel leaned back a little.

"Delgado got punched a few times for pantsing you, and called a lunatic." Miguel said. Nine turned and looked at his friend in disbelief.

"Did anyone see?" Nine asked. Miguel took a breath.

"Besides me? I don't think so. No one said anything. Well, a few people WISHED they had seen, but..." he trailed off, "Do you... mind if I... ask?" he said finally. Nine shook his head.

"It's okay, I guess I've been meaning to tell you and Angel eventually." Nine said, taking a long breath, "You remember Simeon?"

"Simeon Benson? That emo kid that disappeared?" Miguel asked, brushing his blue hair out of his face again. Nine nodded.

"He found something. I'm not sure where, but it was a notebook. And what he wrote in the notebook came true. He was writing more and more in it, bigger and bigger things. He changed people; his parents, even me. He turned me into a hellhound." Nine said. Miguel's jaw dropped.

"Really? That's... pretty amazing." Miguel murmured. Nine looked a bit surprised at the reaction, but continued.

"The changes were getting too big. They were going to hurt people. I wrote in the notebook that it would disappear before the changes could hurt anyone, or ruin anyone's lives. Most of the changes disappeared, but not all of them." Nine said, looking down at his groin. Miguel nodded.

"And Simeon?"

"He went out to that portal at the coast, that Refuge place." Nine said. Miguel shuddered.

"My mom said that only deviants go out there..." Miguel said.

"I guess it's a place where people can be whatever they want to be... Those touched by the spirit world anyway." Nine said. Miguel turned.

"You wouldn't go there, would you?" he asked. Nine smiled.

"Not to stay, my friends are here... and my work." Nine replied.

"Good." Miguel said with some satisfaction. Nine's face slowly changed as he worked and reworked thoughts in his head, looking out of the parking garage at the Firehouse beyond. He pulled out his phone and started looking at information. Miguel leaned over, "What is it?"

"The Ghostbusters didn't live here, not all the time. They had their own places and stuff." Nine said before grunting, "OCOG's impounded their car... they're probably watching their apartments and stuff too."

"That's a lot of places for some commission to watch, especially if their own government goons disappeared before the busters did." Miguel said, "Do you think there's some place that'd be lower on their list?" he asked. Nine bit his bottom lip, trying to think for a few moments before the light of realization went on in his eyes.

**** While Portland's west side was complex, robust and ever changing, the east side of the river was full of neighborhoods that had remained largely unchanged for over a hundred years. Little parks and schools were dotted between houses from the turn of the previous century, and in a strange way it was easy to see just why they had lasted as long as they had. Nine and Miguel stood in the side yard of just such a house, staring up at its two and a half story stature, trying to figure out just how to get in.

The lower four feet of the house was all part of the immense cement foundation, forming not only the side walls to the basement with very small, narrow windows, but also the steps leading up to the back door. The siding was thick wood coated with many layers of white paint, and the windows on the first story were all covered from the inside, something pushed up against the thick curtains.

"There are so many locks..." Miguel murmured, "And I don't think I can fit through those little basement windows." he said.

"We can't have come this far to be stopped like this." Nine said softly, not wanting to be overheard by any neighbors. Both jumped when the tall wooden gate creaked, but they relaxed when they saw Angel squeezing through.

"Did you guys seriously invite me over just to break into some dude's house?" Angel whisper-hissed to them.

"It isn't just any dude... This was the house of Dakota Shaw, he was a late addition to the Portland Ghostbusters. He disappeared before the rest of the team, and since he wasn't on the active roster with them, OCOG might not be watching his house... hopefully." Nine said.

"Problem is, we can't figure out how to get in." Miguel shrugged. Angel looked around at the house, considering.

"I don't really have any experience with this sort of thing, but my na'an has a house like this." Angel said, "The further you get away from the ground, the easier it'll be to get in. We have to try one of the upstairs windows." Angel said, looking at Miguel. Nine grinned a bit at the idea and nodded before his gaze followed Angel. Miguel took a moment before he realized both boys were staring at him. His shoulders slowly sank.

"Ah man..." He sighed.

**** It had been a miracle that Miguel hadn't been spotted prowling around the second story windows of the house, but there was just enough cover with the giant sequoia tree in the back yard that he'd made it in without anyone calling the police. The next challenge had been navigating the dark house, especially the stairs. The utilities hadn't been paid in months, the electricity was long gone. Miguel made it to the first floor, nearly slipping over the pile of accumulated mail that had accrued at some point in the past.

Miguel stumbled from the living room to the kitchen, relieved that a bit more light made it in through the thick curtains there. He unlocked the door to the pantry, and then several locks on the back door. He opened it up to Nine and Angel's smiling faces. Nine stepped in and gave Miguel a hug.

"I knew you could do it, my felon!" Nine said. Miguel blushed but nodded, feeling an odd thrill of being a bad boy. Still, it was for a good cause so he could justify it. Angel looked at the pantry with a bit of awe. There were hundreds and hundreds of cans of food, as well as an entire side-wall of jugs of water... and plastic cases with flashlights, batteries, blankets, a radio.

"Are we sure this guy didn't just jump off the grid instead of disappearing?" Angel asked.

"I guess, but then wouldn't some of the stuff be missing? It's all here." Nine shrugged, moving into the house. The kitchen wasn't all that out of the ordinary, at least in the darkness. Miguel went back into the pantry and opened the kit, grabbing flashlights and flicking them on before distributing them around.

"Good idea kid." Angel smiled. Miguel didn't exactly like being called a kid. He was the same age as the other two, even if he was shorter and smaller. Angel took his flashlight and moved out into the living room, shining the light around. He saw pictures of a large black man with a short mohawk and a goatee, then that same man with other people in their mid-twenties. He saw a bookshelf full of old books, a wicker basket full of rolled up maps, a recliner and an en table with a bottle of scotch and a glass box full of big, thick cigars.

Angel's nipples hardened a little bit as he imagined the lifestyle... A house, a fully stocked pantry, good booze and good cigars. He had to admit, he was envious. This wasn't a life to disappear from, it was one to aspire to. Angel started to move towards the end table when he heard a yelp back from the kitchen area.

"I found the stairs to the basement!" Nine called out.

"You didn't find them, you skated down them!" Miguel responded, shining his flashlight down the stairwell. He looked at Nine for a second before he looked back up and around, "Angel?" he called out. There was a pause before Angel came back through the kitchen.

"Sorry, just having a look around." he said, leaning around the fridge to look down to the basement.

"Guys, you gotta come down here..." Nine said in awe. Miguel followed after, more careful than his red headed friend had been as he descended. Angel let him take a few steps before he shifted his backpack more squarely behind him and followed after. The steps were perilous, narrow and short, a bad combination, but they harkened back to the 1900's design of the house.

The basement itself felt almost like a bunker. The cement walls were thick, the windows incredibly narrow, and the guts of the house were on display with the ancient furnace disused in the corner. While it was a bit ominous lit only by flashlights, what the basement was filled with was far, far more interesting. Miguel reached the bottom and lifted his flashlight, watching Nine run his hand over a large device on the countertop.

It was steel grey with highlights of autumn orange and mustard yellow, sharp angles and flat planes, a long cable running out to a gun shaped device with a thick barrel and a second row of metallic housing running up above it, leading back to a large canister plugged into the back. Nine's eyes were so wide they were practically watering.

"What is it?" Miguel asked.

"It's a mark two proton pack... Compressed nucleonic power source, modulated frequency beams..." Nine whispered.

"There's two of them." Angel said, pulling a coat off of another one in the corner.

"And there's a lot more stuff. Look at all these things." Miguel said, moving over to cubbies that held small rectangular boxes with yellow and black striped lids, handheld devices with large screens and red antennas, as well as a dozen doo-dads and gadgets he couldn't even begin to understand.

"Kind of dangerous just leaving this stuff out in the open." Angel said.

"I mean, it was a locked house." Nine said.

"Only one of the windows was left open on the top floor, and if this place had power it might have had a security system too." Miguel shrugged.

"All the same... We're going to take some of this, right?" Angel asked. Miguel looked at Nine, their ring leader. Nine nodded.

"We can't just let the city get over-run. We have to make a difference. We have to understand this stuff, try and help out. But... like I said, the Ghostbusters all disappeared. Something happened to them. If we do this, we become targets too, probably." Nine said, "We have to be clear... We could get hurt, disappear, or get in big trouble." Nine said. Angel shrugged softly.

"If this is how my teenage rebellion takes shape, I'm fine with that." he said. Miguel nodded softly.

"Of all the things to get in trouble for, this one seems pretty cool." Miguel smiled. Nine grinned broader at that and nodded.

"Alright... I'll tell you everything I know about the gear, then we go hunting for ghosts." Nine grinned, clapping his friends on the shoulder.

**** The bus doors hissed open and Miguel trundled down the steps and onto the street, looking at the screen on the PKE meter before he looked up. Nine and Angel came down behind him and in moments the bus was moving again, passing in front of them before revealing the natural history museum.

"Are you sure this is where the signal is strongest?" Angel asked. Miguel ran his tongue over his teeth as he examined the readouts.

"I'm pretty sure." he mused. Across the street a series of screams came as patrons started running out of the museum, frantically trying to get away.

"I'm pretty sure too." Nine said, pulling the blaster from his pack. The safety cover was flipped up and then switch below depressed. The pack hummed to life, emitting a steady, high resonating tone. Nine was impressed just how powerful the pack felt. Angel followed suit, grinning a bit as he felt the excitement sinking in.

"So... do we have any strategies or anything?" Angel asked. Nine grimaced a little.

"Grayson didn't cover that in any of his lectures; it was all about the science of it." Nine admitted. Miguel shrugged.

"I guess we could do what they show on the news. The Ghostbusters usually just walk into the middle of the trouble, right?" Miguel asked. Nine chuckled at that and nodded, looking both ways before he crossed the street with his two friends in tow. The number of patrons fleeing the museum were decreasing, seemingly everyone had gotten out. At least they'd have some room to navigate.

**** The lights in the museum were flickering on and off, plunging the hallway into intermittent darkness dotted by blue emergency lights. The displays took on more sinister appearances in the darkness; replicas of ancient predators poised for attack, massive skeletons stretching toward the ceiling, wood carvings of animal heads casting shadows.

Whatever had disturbed the electrical grid had spread to other systems as well. Displays flickered and flashed, jumping at random to different parts of their presentation. The slushie machine in the food court churned and stopped at irregular intervals, and a fine fog was hovering along the floor, swirling and shifting based on the most subtle movements. Waves of the fog spread out as Nine's Converse shoes touched down, followed after by Miguel and Angel's feet.

The boys were scared, that much was certain. They had rushed headlong into danger with equipment they had never used, essentially looking for trouble. For Nine it was about the mystery, about learning enough to make a difference. For Angel it was about protecting his friends. For Miguel... he wasn't sure. He was scared, of course, but he was surprised that he wasn't more scared. Then again, he was the one without a proton pack. All he had was a little emergency blaster.

"So what are we looking for, exactly?" Angel whispered. Miguel looked back at his meter, studying the screen, his face scrunching up a bit in concentration.

"This isn't too helpful, but... Whatever it is is class Six, and I think there are a couple of them?" Miguel said. Nine tilted his head a bit.

"What's class six mean?" Nine asked. Miguel shook his head.

"Don't ask me." He muttered. Nine smirked slightly at that, though he held up his hand to stop the others from advancing. They had approached one of the main museum display rooms, a hexagonal shape where two of the sides were halls and the rest were displays. The side displays showed an evolution of the feline form over the centuries, from Proailurus to saber tooth tigers to the modern panthers, lions and cheetahs.

Nine stepped out, getting a better look at the room. There were more recreations of the felines in various poses, including three in the center facing out from something glossy and black. No, not black... metallic? It looked like hematite... and it had paw prints in it. Nine's eyes widened as he moved to try and read the plaque, but blue electricity jolted out of the ichnofossil, hitting the three felines gathered around it.

As the electricity passed through them, blue light spilled out of their eyes and mouths, spilling to the floor, adding to the fog that was already there. The gas swirled upwards, sparking every few seconds as it formed legs, torsos, arms, and finally heads. The figures were bipedal, but they were most certainly not human; they had huge shoulders, developed muscles, thin waists and very animal legs. Their eyes blinked as they formed, the eyeballs a solid black color with silver hematite irises.

"So now we know why people ran." Angel murmured. One of the cats slowly turned, long tusks coming down in front of its mouth, dipping down below its chin. Another turned as well, shorter than the others, the tufts on the ears looking more like a linx. The last had a billowing mane of wispy ethereal hairs, electricity dancing between the strands. The cats stepped forward, then again, the fog swirling around them.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty." Nine murmured, his fingers moving to the safety of his blaster, flicking it up to reveal the switch beneath. The lynx opened its mouth, looking almost like a yawn before there was a crackle and a blue blast of energy shot out, hitting the wall next to them. A row of lights erupted into sparks, darkening a display.

"Bad cat!" Angel said before he flipped up the safety and hit the button. Energy built in the muzzle of his blaster until it ripped outward in a swirling, crackling, snaring mass. The sudden push of that much energy was like a small firehose, Angel's aim slipping. The blast hit the floor, melting the wax on the surface and burning the tile beneath. It lanced across the room and hit the fixture on the far door frame. The sudden intense heat caused the plaster to explode outward in a cloud of blackened dust and flaming bits.

Nine winced and made sure to stay out of the way as Angel cut off the stream and re-aimed. Nine tried to brace himself as he pressed the button on his own weapon. The muzzle flashed before the stream erupted, lancing out. The lynx dove out of the way, but the lion was hit. The red and orange light swirled around its body in contrast to its own blue light and it roared, trying to charge Nine.

As the big Lion moved, Nine felt the surge pushing back against him, affecting his center of gravity. He had to take a step back, then another, trying not to fall over. The lynx let out another ball of energy, then a third. Nine had to cut off his stream to dodge the projectiles, allowing the lion to charge unhindered. Nine dove out of the way as the lion charged him, hitting the wall in a puff of smoke that reshuffled and reformed, the big cat facing the other way.

This is going to get old really fast." Angel said, opening fire again. This time he hit his target, snaring the lion again. He started dragging it away from the wall, though he ducked as a wicked clawed hand slashed toward his head. While the others had been making the big fuss, the saber tooth had stalked them in quiet, deliberate movements. Angel slipped back further and further, avoiding several swipes from the saber tooth, wincing as he tried to hold his snare on the lion at the same time.

"Miguel, we could probably use a trap about now..." Nine said. Miguel's eyes widened as he realized he was falling behind, just trying to dodge the ghosts. He fumbled with his waist, pulling one of the black boxes off the clip on his belt. He looked at it carefully, seeing the wheels, then the remote foot pedal.

Miguel ducked down and rolled out the trap, letting it reach the center of the room before he hit the foot pedal. The yellow and black striped doors snapped open, issuing forth a fountain of pristine white light, showering upwards... and then after a few seconds the doors snapped shut again. The trap let out a small chip of disappointment.

"What happened?" Miguel asked, jumping out of the way of the lynx whose teeth snapped shut where Miguel's waist had been moments before.

"I think we have to have the ghost near it... Above it or something." Nine said, trying to evade the saber tooth.

"I can't lift this thing all by myself! I can barely keep it in place!" Angel shouted. Nine took that as his cue and tried to use the cat replicas as cover before he opened fire, his proton stream lancing out to hit the lion as well, joining Angel's. The lion roared and struggled more, but it could barely move. Instead, it became more of a tug of war between Angel and Nine, working together to shift the lion towards the trap.

Miguel climbed up and over a fake pile of logs just as the lynx hit them, sending them flying in every direction. Miguel nearly tripped as the wood slid around his feet. His eyes were calculating, seeing how close the lion was getting to the first trap. He waited a second, two, three, and then pressed a remote... but not to the trap on the floor. The trap on his right hip snapped open, the fountain of light shooting out to the nearby wall where the Lynx had been charging him.

The smaller cat beast spun around and dug its claws into the tile, trying to hold on. Its tail stood up straight, its back arched and it let out a rueful yowl before it slipped and went spiraling into the trap, dissolving into blue smoke before it passed through the doors. The trap snapped shut, the indicator just above the doors turning red and blinking.

"Remember your volunteer training at habitat?" Angel asked Nine, still wrestling the lion.

"Team lift? Three, two, on-" Nine grunted as he was hit in the stomach, flying backward. His proton stream left the lion, cutting up the wall and hitting the ceiling. A skylight exploded, glass raining down across them all. Miguel shielded his eyes and Angel grunted as tiny bits of glass cut his arms.

The saber tooth growled sharply at the Ghostbusters, lifting its paw to lick at its claws. Nine reached down, feeling the gashes. For a barely corporeal ghost, it had made a very real wound. Nine slowly stood up and faced the saber tooth.

"Miguel, how good are you at multi-tasking?" Nine asked.

"Depends on what." Miguel replied. Nine's eyebrow arched.

"I need you to use your popper gun to keep this thing back long enough for me to help Angel get the first kitty." Nine said. Miguel nodded sheepishly.

"Alright. I'll try." Miguel said. Nine smiled gently.

"I have faith in you. Let's do it, team!" Nine said before he ducked and ran past the saber tooth, moving over the broken glass, opening fire as he did. The proton stream caught up to where the lion was struggling against Angel, adding back on. With the two busters distracted, the saber tooth moved to attack them again but he stopped as a tiny bolt of yellow light hit his shoulder, then another, then a third hit his spine. Each strike of the popper made the beast stumble, the definition of his form becoming hazier, smokier.

"Three, two, one, LIFT!" Angel shouted. Nine and Angel hoisted their streams skyward, the lion raising up off the floor as it wriggled and wrestled. They moved it over the waiting trap.

"Miguel!" Nine called out. Miguel had been backing up slowly as the saber tooth went after him instead, but he grabbed his first remote and tried to hit the switch, rolling out of the way of another dangerous claw swipe. The lion was using every ounce of its strength to try and break free, but it let out one last angry roar, blue light building up in its muzzle until it let loose.

With a click of his fingers, Miguel got the trap open. He dropped to his back and rolled out of the way of the saber tooth cat before getting up and running for the far side of the room. The trap doors opened up and white light enveloped the lion, tugging him down, but his blast had already been let loose. It hit Nine by his foot, the tile exploding and knocking him backwards.

The lion dropped into the trap just as Nine hit the floor, landing on the back side of his proton blaster. The orange and yellow cartridge snapped out of its socket, the stream cutting off abruptly. Nine slid across the floor, gathering a tidal wave of wood splinters and grass shards as the cartridge bounced twice and then started to roll across the tile. Two tiny red LEDs flashed on the end in faster and faster sequence.

Nine rolled over to try and get up, but as he looked his eyes widened in horror as he watched the canister roll up against the fuzzy sand colored paw of the saber tooth cat beast. The black and silver eyes turned, meeting a gaze with the pathetic human the moment before the canister exploded into a fiery, crackling eruption of plasma.

The shockwave knocked Angel and Miguel off their feet, shattering the remaining skylight windows and all of the glass in the display room. Flames lapped across the floor and the light fixture above melted, flinging molten glass across the ceiling. The cat beast had erupted in a flurry of swirling blue light and smoke, but the light was trying to coalesce, to re-form, to rebuild... and it had to take revenge.

The swirling light shifted, turning, arcing before he lanced out and hit Nine in the chest. Nine stumbled back, gasping, feeling a fuzzy, hot, tingling energy passing through his body. The hair on the back of his neck stood up on end as his face began to throb, to pulse, to tingle... and then grow. Nine's eyes glazed over somewhat as his upper lip pushed out, making room for his swelling teeth.

Two nubs pushed down out of his mouth, thickening and lengthening, coming down as tusks... tusks that kept on growing and growing. As the fangs extruded from his skull, Nine felt a power, a euphoria, a pleasure filling him. He felt so strong, so powerful, so manly. Blood rushed to his groin, his canine shaft bloating and thickening as it began pushing out of his sheath, tenting his pants.

Nine blinked, trying to chase away the feelings... but they were familiar. He remembered when Simeon had turned him into a hellhound, how liberating it had been to be something other than human, to be something that was not himself. Nine's hand drifted down to his pants, his fingernails darkening and turning into claws as they stretched out into points. Nine's saber teeth sunk down past his bottom lip, reaching his chin.

"Nine, are you alright man?" Angel asked. Nine pulled his zipper down and pulled out his fat, hard dog cock. He wrapped his clawed fingers around it as he started to stroke, his claws growing longer and darker as parts of his palm swelled out into pads. Strawberry blond fur began sprouting from the backs of his hands as he jerked himself off, thrusting into his hand, panting and grunting.

"I'm great... I'm so great." He whispered, blinking again. When his eyes opened, black darkness had spread across the whites of his eyes, the green fading to a deep silver. He shuddered as his nose began to darken, whiskers pushing out of his cheeks. His ears began to change, taking on points as reddish blond fuzz covered the back of them. Nine turned around, still masturbating, his other paw cutting through his shirt with its sharp claws. As the shirt split open, he revealed a completely furry chest with eight nipples.

"Nine, we gotta get you help... Man, this isn't normal." Miguel whimpered.

"This is better than normal... Miguel, Angel, come to me... Feel me... Feel this body, join me." Nine whispered, "I'm so soft... and so hard." he grunted, the fur sweeping across his face, surrounding his tainted eyes. He grunted more as his shoulders started to pop and snap, pushing out wider. His shoes strained and struggled until tiny pops came as black claws pushed out of the toes, cutting through the fabric. It sheered and shifted before big, fuzzy, claw tipped paws erupted from the shoes.

"We gotta do something." Angel said. Miguel nodded weakly, though the offer was extremely compelling to him. Nine had always been so bold, so open, so honest about everything including his sexuality. The idea of going to him, of rubbing that furry tummy, curling up in those arms, sucking that hot, hard, huge red cock... that canine cock. Miguel tilted his head. That aspect of him had not changed to match the feline spirit.

"What did Simeon Benson do to you?" Miguel called out. Angel spun to face Miguel in confusion, but Nine had frozen in place, his feline lips quirking.

"Why would you bring that up?" Nine muttered, his voice cracking slightly.

"Look at you... That cock. It isn't feline, it isn't your new form... Whatever he did, it became a part of you, a reminder... of when you saved Portland." Miguel said. Nine was forced to think of his past, when he turned down pleasure to do the right thing - when he had chosen nobility over even his friend. Nine twitched, grunting slightly, his eyes fading from black to grey and then finally white. His heart started racing, his breathing increasing frantically.

"Fuck..." Nine moaned. Angel grinned slightly.

"You alright there, buddy?" he asked. Nine shook his head.

"No... there's nothing I want more right now than to fuck you two into the cat kingdom, but I think I can hold it together long enough to get some help." Nine said. Miguel blushed at that and nodded.

"So what do we do? What would the Ghostbusters do?" Miguel asked.

"We don't have their advanced gear... I think they used a combination of slime and energy fields to restore themselves if they got tainted." Nine said.

"There's slime all over school... Buckets of the stuff." Angel said. Nine shook his head.

"We need something that's got the right charge, something that can reset the clock." Nine murmured, grunting suddenly as his back arched and his pants burst, a long cheetah like tail whipping out, flailing from side to side as his ass cheeks widened, revealing his quivering, puckering, swelling tail hole. His saber teeth dropped down below his chin as his fur got thicker. His eyes flashed black for a moment as he looked into Angel's eyes... but then they turned back normal

"Something to reset the clock... Something to loop back." Angel said, trying to keep Nine on the straight and narrow. Nine nodded, panting, having a harder time breathing. He reluctantly pulled his paw from his cock, realizing that it was probably only pushing things along faster. Nine kept thinking about slime, about types of energy, about all of that until he remembered the first time he'd been fully slimed - on the public bus.

"I think I have it... It's a long shot, but-" Nine was interrupted as Angel grabbed him from one side and Miguel grabbed him from the other.

"Any shot's worth it." Angel said. Nine purred softly, smelling how wonderful his friends smelled, how determined they were. He leaned down, licking up Miguel's neck, his sandpaper tongue rough on the ear lobe. Miguel gasped but kept moving, trying not to get distracted by his own erection.

**** The bus rumbled as it slowed to a stop, pulling up to the curb as the front door opened up. The sound of footsteps echoed in the stairwell as Miguel climbed up, stopping by the podium, looking at the driver and then turning, spotting the blue ghost, sitting three seats back, nervously rocking back and forth in his spot. The driver sighed softly.

"I can't get rid of him... We tried a different bus, but he always appears on this route." The driver said. Miguel shook his head.

"That's fine. My friend's a bit nervous though. Can I pay for three passes, and my friends can come up the back door?" he asked. The bus driver shrugged. It seemed fair enough. Miguel started sliding dollars into the podium until he'd paid for three day passes. He wasn't sure if one trip would be enough, and if they failed they'd need to try alternatives around town.

Miguel gave the driver a nod and started moving back toward the back of the bus. The back doors opened and Angel started coming on, using his body to hide Nine's modified form from view. Nine's shoulders slumped, his chest heaved. They'd covered him back up as best they could, but the feline was struggling to break free. Nine stumbled over to a seat two spots behind the blue ghost, slumping down. Angel slipped down into the seat next to him as Miguel pulled out his PKE meter.

"You were right about the ghost... He's got a very uniform, steady signal." Miguel said. Nine turned to Angel, reaching a clawed paw over to rest on his groin, kneading it and massaging it.

"I could make you a king... Grow out that wild mane of yours..." Nine growled.

"While I appreciate the offer, you're not really yourself right now bro." Angel said. Nine snarled slightly, leaning back in his seat, panting as he fought with the invading spirit more.

"You sure you want to sit there, I-uh, I have to clean the seats on that side usually." The driver called back, not able to see the passengers all that well behind the partition.

"We're good, thanks." Angel said.

"It's an internet challenge thing." Miguel added, though he wasn't sure why he had said that. The driver shrugged again and pulled out, moving back onto the street. Nine reached out, petting Miguel's blue hair.

"I always liked you kitten... I'll protect you forever... You'll be my pride." Nine said.

"How long until we hit this ghost's... final destination?" Miguel asked. Nine growled and turned, grabbing Angel, planting a kiss on his lips, filling his mouth with a sandpaper tongue. Angel started to push Nine off, though his hands didn't put up much of a fight. Miguel yelped and reached over, slapping Nine. Nine pulled back and hissed, leaving Angel there with a bit of a surprised smile on his lips.

"Thanks..." Angel murmured after a moment. Nine grunted, digging his claws into the seats. The bus kept going, making a few more stops. A few passengers got on, though most got off again seeing both the blue ghost and Nine. After five more streets, it was just the Ghostbusters again. The driver cleared his throat as they moved up a slight incline and leveled out again.

"Nine, you live around here, right?" Miguel asked. Nine looked up, chuffing, his eyes black and silver again as he tried to think how to best convince Miguel to drink his corrupted seed. The driver made another noise, the last warning he'd give as they pulled toward the intersection. The blue ghost closed his eyes as he came to a sudden, inevitable stop even as the bus kept going.

The blue ghost hit each seat as the bus kept driving, leaving copious amounts of blue slime in his wake. Angel closed his eyes as he saw the ghost coming at them. Miguel winced as he watched Nine and Angel hit by the ghost, thick gooey blue ectoplasm washing over them. There was an electric crackle of blue light and Nine's feline attributes came off, diffusing into the blue slime as it went all the way back through the back of the bus. Miguel stood up and pulled on the cord.

"You were right, this is a mess! I think we better get out here!" Miguel said. The driver reached for the doors and opened them up. Angel grabbed Nine and lifted him out of the seat, flopping like a limp fish. Having the ghost removed had worked, but it hadn't left him feeling all that energized. The three busters made it out to the street and the bus soon rumbled on, leaving them alone on the corner beneath the street light.

In the street, in a spot slimed so often that it had been stained blue, the pool of slime rested... but only for a moment. Angel set Nine down on the lawn of the house they were by, pulling out his proton blaster. He grunted, seeing strings of blue slime connect his blaster to his side.

"This stuff is sick..." Angel groaned. A chirping came from Miguel's waist as the PKE meter started going wild, the little red antenna flapping about. He grabbed to his pack and fumbled slightly before pulling out their last empty trap.

"It's not over yet." Miguel said. Angel looked up as electricity started to spark from the puddle of slime, arcing across it. A ghostly white paw reached out, then dove back in. The blue passenger ghost shrieked as he was thrown out of his own puddle, hitting the street and dissipating into a cloud of blue mist.

One paw came out, then another. The white sabertooth pulled himself out of the slime as if it had fallen into a pit trap. Without a physical form, the eyes looked as if they were white hot smoldering embers, ready to ignite anything they touched. Arms flexed as the cat emerged, but Angel didn't give it another chance. His proton blaster lit up, red and orange energy arcing out, hitting the cat. The proton stream snared around the ghost, wrapping its waist and arms. The cat yowled, struggling, pulling and tugging. It tried to lunge toward them, then away.

Angel grunted, feeling his footing shift. The ghost was pulling strong enough to make him stumble around, but he could return the favor. With a good, strong, yank of his arm he slammed the ghost to the side, knocking a little of the fight out of him. Miguel crouched down and rolled out the trap, getting the foot pedal ready.

"In five!" Miguel said. Angel struggled to get the ghost over to the trap, but the feline lunged again, fainting one way and then back toward him. Angel nearly fell, but the air sizzled as a second proton stream lit up the evening sky, wrapping around the cat in a second snare. Nine had dark rings under his eyes, looking utterly exhausted, but he had enough strength to brace against the lawn and help maneuver the ghost.

"Three... two... one!" Miguel said, slamming his foot down on the pedal as the two other busters maneuvered the ghost over the black box. The trap doors snapped open, a white cone of light enveloping the ghost. Angel and Nine let their streams shut off as the ghost was truly snared, pulled down into the device. The caution stripe lined doors of the trap snapped shut, and a red indicator started flashing on the end.

Silence slowly swept back over them all, the only sounds coming from the steam coming off of the trap and the faint crackle of flames where their proton streams had hit a chain link fence across the street. Angel looked at Miguel, then Nine, the grin on his lips growing larger by the second.

"We did it... We're Ghostbusters!" Angel let out an excited holler. Miguel smiled too, though he looked down at the trap.

"What do we do with these when they're full?" Miguel asked, looking back at Nine.

**** A gentle rain had started to fall across Portland, landing loudly on the leaves of the trees and pelting the sidewalks, standing on the surface before slowly soaking in. Nine, Angel and Miguel walked down the sidewalk, feeling an odd mix of emotions. They had captured three ghosts, but they had been singed, burned, cut, poked, possessed and slimed in the process. Now they were lugging heavy packs and a load of equipment in the damp, dark night towards a building that was locked up tight on more than one plane of existence.

The trio walked past the garage door and stopped by the entrance. Nine looked up at the building, rain splashing his freckled face and saturating his red hair. He blinked a few times before he pulled out his cell phone and brought up the codex. He'd gotten so far... broken through codes, riddles, encryption... The last layer was right there, right in front of them... a space for ten characters. Nine stared at it.

"Even if... we can't trap any more, we got three ghosts off the street." Miguel said, giving Nine a sheepish smile. Angel nodded at that, reaching up to stroke the tiny, fluffy tuft of hair hanging down from his chin.

"Yeah, I mean, we saved anyone else from having to deal with them. They would have probably blown a lot of stuff up, or worse." Angel said. Nine smiled at that, a hand tenderly drifting to the slash marks on his stomach from where the cat had cut him.

"Yeah... And like, who else was anybody going to call?" Miguel asked. Nine paused at that, looking at Miguel and then up at the firehouse before them. While not as ostentatious as some of the other franchises, they did have an add next to their entrance about spooks, specters and minor demons... along with the phone number to call. Nine looked at it emblazoned on the advertisement, then down at his phone.

"Five oh three, J-L-five, two oh, two oh..." Nine muttered as he typed in the characters and hit send. The screen flashed amber, code compiling. The layers of data were compressed, transmitted, and then... somewhere on the other side of the door, the phone rang once. Angel jumped back as the two story building flashed with an invisible shell of orange light. There was a soft pop as the lock on the door clicked as well.

Miguel was wide eyed, Angel was hesitant, but Nine was ready. He reached out and tried the handle. It turned and the door eased open. Nine held his breath as he stepped over the threshold and out of the rain. Angel followed after with Miguel behind them. He gently eased the door shut before turning and looking around.

The garage door led to a very open section of the building. There was space for a car with a series of lockers and tool chests on the right wall. Ahead of the parking spot was a broad wooden desk with a computer, phone, lamp and other office paraphernalia. Behind the desk was a doorway leading down into the basement, and to the left was another stairwell leading up to the second floor. Other doors, presumably, led to bathrooms and other facilities.

"I'm actually in the Ghostbusters' firehouse..." Nine whispered.

"Uninvited." The voice was melodic but curt. The boys turned and Angel gasped, seeing a serpentine like figure floating above the stairs. He started fumbling for his proton blaster but Nine yelped.

"No, no, he's friendly!" Nine exclaimed.

The figure glided down from the stairwell, moving with an almost angelic grace. His skin was a rich, luxurious shade of robin's egg blue while his hair was a deeper shade of royal blue. His eyes were solid white, showing no pupil or iris. The being's upper half was mostly human other than the coloring, with pointed ears and a gentle bone structure. A lime green t-shirt with a yellow hourglass emblem covered his torso, ending just where his human features ceased.

Below the waist, the creature's body stretched out into a long tapered serpentine tail with a spade like tip. Each worm like segment was bisected with a silver line with arrowheads on either side. Sticking out from his shoulders were three metallic wings, stretching out and coming to their own sharp points.

Angel looked at the creature before him, startled at first, but now more amazed. The ghost's facial features weren't that different from some of his classmates. He looked like a teenager, just with blue skin. They had all been staring long enough that the ghost sighed and grabbed Nine's phone from him.

"Hey!" Nine exclaimed. The ghost held up a hand.

"You invaded my privacy, I can return the favor." He replied.

"This isn't like the ghosts at the museum." Miguel whispered. The blue ghost looked up at that, his white eyes narrowing.

"That is because I am a Time Wyrm, an ancient being with untold powers and potential." He replied, looking at the phone carefully, examining how Nine had accessed the codex. With the last code entered, it had started coming up with reports, schematics, and other information needed to carry on Ghostbuster activities.

"Let us introduce ourselves." Miguel said, squeezing past Angel, "I am Miguel Hernandez, this is Nine Mercer and Angel Allen." He said, "I love your hair by the way." He added with a grin. The ghost looked at the smaller human, then his blue bangs and grinned slightly. He liked the kid.

"My name is Rerun." The ghost replied, "And I hope you know what you got yourselves into... this isn't going to be an easy life for you." He added. Nine nodded.

"We talked about it, we know there are risks." Nine said. Rerun nodded a little at that before his eyes trailed down to Miguel's belt and the traps that hung there.

"It looks like you really jumped into the deep end already." Rerun mused, handing the phone back to nine, "Let's get those traps into the containment unit, make sure you call your parents, and we can start a crash course in all things Ghostbuster." Rerun said before he took the traps from Miguel and drifted down into the basement.

"He's totally right, I've gotta call my parents. They're going to kill me!" Nine groaned, dialing his parents. Angel tapped Nine on the shoulder.

"When you're done, I'll call mine." Angel whispered. Nine nodded, the call connecting. He started trying to spin things in a way that wouldn't get the police called on him. Miguel watched the two clambering to call their parents, to let people know they were alright. It was kind of heart warming in a way, though it brought a bit of a sting to it as well. Miguel turned, following after Rerun, eager to see what this 'containment unit' looked like.