When we entered Ghostbusters HQ, a particularly ugly ghost took out the stairs. “We should try the basement,” figured Gandalf. “That is a potential source of the ghosts.”
“Change that from potential source to actual source,” corrected Emmanuel as ghosts came up from the basement.
“Great, the stairs going down there are blocked,” I hissed.
“Allow me,” called Wyldstyle. She built a laser cutter and cut a hole into the floor. “Away we go!” she cheered. We jumped into the basement and found the containment unit.
“The undead seem to be flowing from this red tomb,” mused Gandalf. “It is ruptured, perhaps it could be sealed.”
“I see a chroma disc,” I called. It was the blue one and an elderly ghost was floating at a bookshelf near the stairs her spectral kin were flying up towards. She had no legs and wore an old librarian’s dress, her hair in a stern bun.
“Her again?” whispered Arch.
“The old Librarian?” asked Seeker.
“Who is it?” I quizzed.
“That’s the first ghost we see in the first movie,” replied Seeker. “This was way before Winston joined.”
“So, what do we do?” I whispered.
“We have to succeed where Peter and the others failed,” answered Arch, “and make contact.”
“You’re right,” muttered Batman. “Someone needs to speak with her.” We then turned to Wyldstyle.
“…NO!” she whispered harshly. “I refuse!”
“But this may get you over your fear!” I countered.
“There’s a realm called the Haunted Forest where I’m from,” argued Wyldstyle. “Whenever I go there, something happens that makes me change my underpants!”
“Well, maybe this is the one that won’t do so,” I guessed. “Go on, maybe you’ll get a new name!” Wyldstyle looked at us, then sighed.
“Just so you know,” she hissed, “if I do have to change my underpants, you owe me fresh ones.” She got up and got to talking distance. “Hello!” she called. “I’m Wyldstyle.” The Librarian didn’t respond. “Where were you from, originally?” The Librarian shushed her! Wyldstyle slowly closed her eyes. “Does…anyone else have a bright idea?” she asked.
“I have one,” whispered Ghost. “Stay close, everyone. This needs timing!” He got low as if he were about to pounce. “Ready? 3! 2! 1! GET HER!”
“NO!” shouted Seeker. Too late. The Librarian morphed into a scary version and roared. We all screamed as she flew around the bookshelf and set it on fire before joining the other ghosts. As we recovered, I started laughing.
“Get her?!” I then snapped as I slammed my fist onto Ghost’s head. “That was your brilliant idea?!”
“Give me a break!” protested Ghost as he massaged his head. “I punched ghosts in my day. I didn’t talk to them!”
“Well, you better put that fire out!” I snapped.
“That was the ghost’s fault!” argued Ghost.
“But YOU provoked her!” I countered.
“I can supply Ghost with the tools needed,” called Gandalf. “Elemental Keystone, activate! Element of water, Ghost!” Ghost was surrounded in a blue aura. He formed a water stream in his hands. While he put out the fire, Ichigō led me to a vent system that I could fix as a giant.
“Scale Keystone, activate!” he announced. “Enlarge scale of Royal!” I then put my right fist into the air while putting my left fist at my hip. I then grew. I patched up the vent. “Lessen scale of Royal!” said Hongo. I shrunk and crawled into the vent. I tried climbing, but to no avail.
“Dang it!” I hissed. “If only I could crawl like Spider-Man!” Then, I realized I was still in my Ghostfreak armor. “…Megumi, you can be an utter idiot sometimes,” I said. I flew to the end of the vent to find a bunch of wires and circuitry. “Well, as long as I have the i.d tag,” I mused. I then activated the icon ring and selected another form.
“Ben 10 Grey Matter Steel!” announced Vortoranii. My suit changed to have a grey helmet and green armor.
“GREY MATTER!!” I shouted. The natural intelligence of the Galvan species then flowed into my head. “So, we just connect this wire here to stabilize the Isolated Ecto-grid, swap out that circuit with this one to bypass the redundant Spectrum Differentializers, and link the new circuit with this wire to expose the Spectragrasmic generators to a small 1.2 ectojam dose of Ectoplasm.” I heard a DING. “And I did whatever I did!” I cheered. I popped out of the vent.
“Normalize scale of Royal,” announced Ichigō. “You just exposed a chroma lock design above the leak. Ghost just put out the fire and Gandalf fixed the yellow chroma disc with a dancing toaster with slime in it.”
“Sounds as weird as what I did in there,” I replied as I swapped out Ben’s i.d tag for my own. “Before you ask, no, I no longer remember what I did, I couldn’t begin to tell you how I did it.”
“All that’s left is the red disc,” mused Ghost.
“I see it in that box,” replied Batman, “but the way to open it is closed.”
“Not while I’m here,” boasted Gandalf. “Elemental Keystone, activate! Element of Earth, Batman!” Batman was surrounded in a green aura and pointed his hand to the ground near the advanced box opener. A large vine then opened the area and we pushed the box into it. The box opened, and the disc came out. Wyldstyle got a good look at the Chroma lock design I revealed to her. Yellow left L shape, red circle, and blue right L shape.
“Chroma Keystone, activate!” announced Wyldstyle. “Chroma lock, reveal!” The lock design appeared on the floor. “Chroma! Red! Ichigō! Chroma! Yellow! Batman! Chroma! Blue! Ghost!” The three people got themselves painted and they jumped into their respective places. The Chroma lock activated tech that activated some sort of vacuum cleaner for ghosts and was preparing a secondary wall.
“That did it!” reported Batman. “The ghosts are clearing out. Whatever this thing is, it certainly is impressive technology.”
“That’s not yours to take,” I teased. “Now, let’s head back upstairs. We need to fix the way to the roof.” We headed upstairs and were greeted to Sludgiona looking around the place. She clapped eyes on us.
“Ah, the killer is here,” she remarked.
“Hiro committed suicide!” I protested. “He went with a rather messy way, instead of seppuku.”
“He’s no samurai,” countered Ichigō. “And I doubt anyone would want to watch or help him die quickly.”
“Fair point,” I conceded. “In any case, our business does not concern you, Sludgiona. Leave in peace.”
“Not a chance!” burbled Sludgiona. She then grabbed me and I felt myself getting weaker and weaker by the second.
“What’s…happening…to…?” I gasped before she flung me aside.
“The sludge that makes up my body drains a person of mana, their life energy,” revealed Sludgiona. “Any hit that is given to me, I simply take a bit of mana to heal myself.” She then started slugging my friends. True to her word, she absorbed some mana from Arch, Xiomara, Ichigō, Batman, Wyldstyle, and Gandalf. She then decked Ghost hard, then knelt down with her hand above his head. “Don’t worry, I promise I will be quick.” She then placed her hand on Ghost’s head, then something crackled and she was flung back from energy discharge. She splattered against the wall and dripped down to the floor. When she reformed, she was confused. “Anti-Mana discharge?” she yelped. “HOW?!” Ghost started chuckling.
“You said that mana is life energy, right?” he asked.
“Yes, and a living being is saturated in the stuff!” answered Sludgiona.
“Not when you have a Ghost Driver on your waist,” remarked Ghost.
“That does not negate the fact that you’re alive!” gurgled Sludgiona. “The only way you could generate a discharge like that is if you have no mana to absorb! That only happens when I touch a ghost!”
“Why do you think I’m called Kamen Rider Ghost?” asked Ghost. “My Ghost Driver allows me to be a ghost, even though I’m alive! When I’m in my Rider form, I have no mana to absorb! And now, I can easily beat you!” Sludgiona’s hand hovered over my head.
“Move one single muscle against me,” she warned, “and I reduce her to a shriveled husk!”
“Not an effective threat,” I remarked as I knocked her aside. I then ran up to Ghost and touched him, gaining his i.d tag. I inserted it and selected his base form.
“Ghost Steel!” announced Vortoranii.
“KAIGAN! ORE!” called the Ghost Driver’s voice. “Let’s go! Kakugo! Go, Go, Go, Ghost! Go! Go! Go! Go!” My armor changed to look like Ghost. Sludgiona scoffed.
“You’re alive!” she bubbled “A simple makeover won’t save you!” She punched but got a discharge. “NOT YOU TOO!” she screamed.
“Now, the REAL test is if my Ectonurite armor will protect me too,” I remarked as I went through the whole sequence of selecting Ghostfreak.
“Ben 10 Ghostfreak Steel!” announced Vortoranii.
“GHOSTFREAK!” I shouted. When I finished, Sludgiona punched me again and got the discharge again. “I knew it!” I cheered. “Say, Sludgiona, have you heard of this saying? ‘Possession is nine tenths of the law!’” I then phased into her body and controlled her movements. “YAHOO!” I said through her mouth. “MEGUMI IS AWESOME!” I then used her arms to slap her face. “Stop hitting yourself! Dude, stop hitting yourself! Why are you hitting yourself?!” I then made her dance. “Loo dee doo, I’m dancing!” I sang. “Because I’m Sludgiona, the mana vampire! Hey, my slave chip is making me work for Lord Vortech! It’s really uncomfortable! Kick it off of me!” Ghost volunteered to do that. He pulled the lever and pushed it.
“DAI KAIGAN!” (Eyes wide open!) announced the Ghost Driver. “ORE OMEGA DRIVE!”
“Inochi, moyasu ze!” (My life is burning bright!) declared Ghost as he leapt into the air with an orange eye glyph behind him. He then stuck his feet out and flew towards Sludgiona. I got out and Ghost kicked the slave chip off. Sludgiona then collapsed into a puddle of sludge after spasming uncontrollably.
“And that, as they say, is that,” I sighed happily.
“MEGUMI, YOU UTTER DUNCE!” roared Vortoranii.
“Excuse me?!” I hissed.
“Destroying her slave chip was the thing the list said NOT to do!!” elaborated Vortoranii.
“What?!” I asked.
“Sludgiona had implanted that chip so she can survive going to other universes,” explained Vortoranii. “She has a rare condition called Acclimation Syndrome. For some reason, some universes are so different in their physical laws that some people may die or be assimilated into that universe. Once you do, it’s a lot harder to get back to your own unless you have some sort of anchor.”
“And that slave chip was her anchor?” I realized.
“Originally, it was a declamation chip, but Vortech heavily modified it,” replied Vortoranii. “It was the only thing keeping her from dying or being trapped in one universe or on Vorton. The physical laws on Vorton are adaptive to each individual life-form, so you CAN’T die or be acclimated. And making an anchor is hard to do, even in your home universe.”
“And, by destroying the chip,” gulped Ghost as he realized our mistake, “we just ensured she can never go home.”
“What have we done?” I murmured. “I gotta do something, apologize or help her!”
“Oh, yeah, I’m SURE she’d accept an apology or help from you!” snarked Vortoranii.
“Well, I have to do something!” I protested. “I…” Ghostbusters HQ’s shaking interrupted my train of thought.
“Table that for later,” suggested Batman. “We need to get to the roof!”
“I better take care of this,” I muttered. “Locate Keystone, activate! Initiate rift detection!” I found it near the stairs. “Identify source of rift!” The info beamed into my head. “Locate help from T-H-3-L-3-G-0-M-0-V-1-3!” I called. Some weird bunk bed style couch came up in place of the stairs.
“Emmet’s Double-Decker Couch?” muttered Wyldstyle. “I didn’t know he kept it.”
“It’s one of his creations,” I recalled.
“Fair point,” conceded Wyldstyle. We got onto the top couch and headed to the top floor, finding another set of stairs leading to the roof. Zod had fixed the ship and it was hovering above the ground. We got into a fighting stance as we saw that a Kamen Rider based on the rhino beetle was on the ground.
“JŌ!” called Ichigō.
“Shigeru Jō?” I asked.
“You know him?” quizzed Ichigō.
“Death talked about him during my reception,” I explained “So, that’s Kamen Rider Stronger.”
“I’m amazed you know him,” rasped a voice. “But, it takes an inferior being to know one.” A humanoid creature came out of the shadows. It had large, metal, red, three-fingered claws and a grey triangular head.
“Metalran!” snarled Vortoranii.
“He’s…not showing up on the list,” I observed.
“He’s a renegade,” replied Vortoranii. “He’s joined Vortech to accelerate his plans to conquer the multiverse.”
“Oh, dear, another evil maniac,” I sighed.
“Evil?” hissed Metalran. “Maniac? No, VISIONARY! I am so much more than the others. I am SUPERIOR! The Tarlaxians are content with a provisionary Empire with a puppet like Scorpainia on the throne. They bow and scrape to lesser beings like you to get new technology and reverse-engineer what they begged like dogs for! But, we DID create the Vortex Driver and its subsequent upgraded versions, my sister, Sludgiona, specifically. Yet, she’s still content with bowing to the puppet, bending and upgrading others technology!” He then grabbed the cannon on Zod’s ship. He started glowing as smaller versions of the cannon sprouted from his forearms and shoulders. “I, on the other hand, do not upgrade other’s technology! It upgrades ME! And I will upgrade myself with my sister’s greatest creation!” He pointed to my belt.
“I can’t begin to tell you how that’s NOT gonna happen!” I declared. “Super Charge!” My armor bulked up and changed color. “Dai Super Charge!” I announced.
“Electro KICK!” called a voice. Stronger then flew in, kicking Metalran and making him dizzy. Metalran shook his head to clear it.
“What the?” he quizzed.
“The heavens call… The earth cries out… The crowds roar… All calling on me to strike back against evil,” announced the attacker. “Now listen up, villains! I am the warrior of justice, Kamen Rider Stronger!” Stronger was ready to fight!
“Kamen Rider Arch!” Arch continued. “My skills outdo Robin Hood!”
“Kamen Rider Seeker! It’s not gold I seek, but your end!”
“Kamen Rider Vortex! Evil will ultimately bow to me!”
“I am Gandalf the Grey! Prepare to see some fireworks!”
“I’m Wyldstyle! Time to think outside the box!”
“I’m Batman! The Dark Knight rises!”
“Kamen Rider Ghost! Inochi, moyasu ze!”
“I am the start of a group of warriors! I am Kamen Rider!”
“An impressive performance,” laughed Zod, “for such insignificant forms of life. However, you find yourselves between me and a glorious new Krypton. So, I’m afraid that your particular species is about to become extinct!”
“An evil Superman, great,” muttered Wyldstyle. “What else could go wrong?”
“Must you?!” I protested.
“His ship has laser cannons,” reminded Batman.
“Yeah, thanks!” snarked Wyldstyle.
“Kneel before Zod!” roared Zod. He then got into his ship and activated the guns.
“Zod’s laser is open to attack while it charges!” called Batman as he pointed out a weak point.
“On it!” I replied. Well, I WAS on it until some sort of sludge hit me from the side and pinned me to the wall. Ghost ran after Metalran and swapped his Eyecon for a yellow one.
“EYE!” announced the Ghost Driver. “Batchiriminā! Batchiriminā!” He pulled the lever and pushed it as a new white parka with yellow trim came out. “KAIGAN! EDISON!” The parka Ghost was wearing vanished while the new parka landed on him and changed the face plate to a yellow lightbulb with twin electric stems. “Ereki! Hirameki! Hatsumei-ō!” (Electricity! Ideas! Invention king!) Ghost then summoned a large sword and took half the blade off, reversed it, tilted the handle down, and put the blade bit back, turning it into a gun. While that was going on, the sludge formed Sludgiona’s head, and a rather angry one at that.
“I can’t go home, thanks to you!” she roared. “I can’t see my queen! My friends! My husband and wife!”
“Sludgiona!” I gulped. “I know about your condition! I made a mistake down there! A ghastly, horrible mistake, because I let my zeal to free your people get to me without considering the consequences. I’m sorry.”
“A bit late for sorry, now!” snarled Sludgiona.
“But, I have various resources to help you!” I assured. “I even have a science team with an intimate understanding of rift creation technology and Tarlaxian biology! Rusty, Emily, Lukas, Sir Alistair, Elphaba, and Chell, they all can help you!”
“A haywire Dalek,” began Metalran as he shoved Ghost aside while releasing his Ghost Driver and tossing a red Eyecon in the air, “a fat rose nerd, a quiet four eyes, a senile fool playing Cyborg soldier, a green-skinned witch, and a mute?!” He was crossing the line, insulting my friends. “Those people couldn’t make water if you stuck them in an over-iced freezer with a blow torch! Look, Dear Sister, we’ve had our differences, but you cured me of MY condition. I’m sure I can cure yours.”
“I can’t promise success, but we can at least get other scientists started on a cure for your condition,” I argued.
“I CAN promise success!” countered Metalran.
“How do I know either of you is actually looking out for me?!” burbled Sludgiona as Batman finally got past the ship and hit its weak spot. I then moved my hand through Sludgiona’s mass and cancelled my transformation. I then took off my belt and showed it to her.
“Take it back,” I offered. “Use your creation to free your people and cure you of your curse.” Sludgiona looked at me, then Metalran, then me, then she released me and got whatever stains were on my dress off. She handed my belt back.
“You can warp to your Vortex form,” she explained. “Just say the code you assigned. You fulfilled the power of the prophecy I was trying to obtain myself. You need it more than I do.” She turned to Metalran. “As I recall, you killed our parents. I see no reason to side with you!” Metalran got angry and made a warped version of the Ghost Driver appear at his waist. He opened it and inserted the Eyecon he was tossing. When he closed it, his belt spoke in a darker tone than Ghost’s.
“EYE! Batchiriminā! Batchiriminā!” He pulled and pushed his lever. “KAIGAN! MUSASHI!”
“Musashi?!” I gulped as I went back into Vortex.
“And this Musashi is…?” asked Arch.
“A rōnin that developed a duel-wield sword style,” explained Batman as he hit the weak spot again. “I studied from his works.”
“Rōnin is a samurai with no master,” I elaborated.
“Kettō! Zubatto! Chō kengō!” (Duel! Piercing! Super Swordsman!) sang Metalran’s knock-off Ghost Driver. Two versions of Ghost’s sword appeared in each hand.
“Any idiot who opposes me will be destroyed!” snarled Metalran. He started swinging the swords, albeit, not with the same skill as Miyamoto Musashi. Still, he held his own. Ghost got out of the way and let Sludgiona and I handle him. He held his multipurpose weapon to the Ghost Driver.
“DAI KAIGAN!” (Eyes wide open!) it announced. It then looped on “Gan Gan Minaa!” (Watch out!) He leveled his gun at the weak point. “OMEGA SHOOT!” He pulled the trigger and a large electrical shot hit the ship. It then crashed into a building as Zod flew out.
“My ship!” he roared. “Are you trying to provoke me?!” He surrounded himself with ghosts as he fired his heat vision. Metalran, meanwhile, was pushing me and Sludgiona back.
“He’s really strong!” I gulped.
“He’s not,” countered Sludgiona. “It’s the tech that’s doing that. He can only mimic, no original thoughts in his skull.” I then got an idea.
“Can you distract him for a while?” I asked.
“My pleasure,” obliged Sludgiona. She fired off several balls of her biomass, causing Metalran to swat them away, while I went to Batman and pointed out a grapple hook. Batman nodded as I changed i.d tags.
“Batman Steel!” whispered Vortoranii. We fired our grapple guns and released the Ghostbusters. They tumbled to the roof.
“You okay?” Ray asked Egon.
“I’m all right,” assured Egon. “Are you all right?”
“All right,” replied Peter. “You?”
“I’m all right, you?” gasped Winston. The process went on for a while until I broke it up.
“ALL RIGHT!” I shouted. “We’ve got ghosts surrounding that mook up there!”
“Let me handle him,” called Ghost as he got the Musashi Eyecon back. He went into his Ore form and spoke to Zod. “I am Tenkūji Takeru, Kamen Rider Ghost!” he announced. “I order you to leave this part of reality and return to your own universe, or a nearby one, forthwith, and make an oath never to pester this universe again!” His tone was shaky.
“Nice, Ghost-san,” I muttered. “He’s really shaking now.”
“Are you a god?” asked Zod.
“…Well, no, but…” replied Ghost. Judging by the facepalming of the Ghostbusters, Seeker, and Arch, that was not something to say.
“Then, DIE, as you deserve to!” roared Zod as he fired his laser vision. We were tossed into the air and landed hard on the roof. As we picked ourselves up, Arch grabbed Ghost’s horn.
“Ghost, when someone asks you if you’re a god, you say YES!” snapped Arch.
“Throw it!” called Peter. The Ghostbuster fired on the ghosts and got them away from Zod. Zod punched the roof as he landed.
“Pathetic!” he boasted. “You puny humans cannot hope to stand in my way!” He then flew over a water pipe with a valve!
“Gandalf!” I called.
“The Elemental Keystone WOULD help out here, for sure,” replied Gandalf. “Elemental Keystone, activate! Element of lightning, Vortex!” I was surrounded in a cyan aura and headed to the pipe Zod was hovering over.
“You know, I’m willing to bet that there are certain laws you can’t help BUT to obey,” I quipped as I turned the valve, dousing him in water. “One such law must be the one about electricity!” I zapped the water, thus dousing him in electricity. He got away and recovered.
“Ouch,” he said, mockingly. He then allowed himself a short laugh. “Is that all you have?” He hovered over a gas pipe.
“Well, as Americans put it,” mused Arch, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” He turned the valve and doused him in gasoline. “Gandalf, fire, if you please.”
“Element of fire, Arch!” announced Gandalf. Arch was surrounded in a red aura and unleashed flames on Zod.
“Fire?” laughed Zod. “You think fire, alone, can harm me?” He tore out the gas pipe and threw it onto the street. He then flew over a dirt patch.
“Okay, that’s MY profession,” called Seeker.
“Element of Earth, Seeker!” announced Gandalf. Seeker was surrounded in a green aura as she made a large Venus Fly Trap grab him.
“What do you think you are doing?!” snarled Zod. We Riders then jumped into the air while Ghost pulled and pushed his lever again.
“DAI KAIGAN! ORE, OMEGA DRIVE” called the belt. He then leapt into the air and kicked with us.
“RIDER KICK!”
“RIDER SEEKER KICK!”
“RIDER ARCH KICK!”
“ELECTRO KICK!” announced Stronger.
“RIDER VORTEX KICK!” We kicked the Fly Trap Zod was trapped in. He was tossed into his ship and surrounded by green crystals.
“Kryptonite,” observed Batman. He then strode to Zod as he lay weakened amongst the Kryptonite. “I’ll take that,” he said as he took the PKE meter. The Ghostbusters then threw their trap and sucked all the ghosts in. Metalran saw the entire thing.
“Blast, another failed excursion,” he hissed. He then sprouted wings and jet engines.
“Metalran, help me!” called Zod.
“You’re on your own,” dismissed Metalran as he opened a rift. He went through as Zod glared at Batman.
“One solitary Foundation Element won’t help you much when Lord Vortech comes for you!” he snarled. “You are as doomed as I.”
“We’ll see,” replied Batman. A rift opened beneath Zod while another one opened behind us.
“Good!” sighed Wyldstyle. “I have had ENOUGH of spooks!”
“They aren’t all bad,” mused Gandalf.
“I have grave doubts,” joked Wyldstyle. Gandalf chuckled.
“Nice one!” he said.
“I may develop those same doubts,” muttered Sludgiona. I remembered that she was trapped in this universe
“I wasn’t lying,” I assured her as we Riders cancelled our transformations. “With the resources we have, we’ll get you back to your people, help you survive the trip, and cure your condition.”
“And we can help as well, with our knowledge of other planes of existence,” supplied Peter. “Besides, we could use someone like you here. You’d like our pet ghost, Slimer.”
“Why would you help me?” asked Sludgiona. “I’ve caused nothing but trouble for you!”
“Because I don’t think of you as an enemy,” I answered. “I think of you as a friend. And, you don’t leave friends hanging, you help them.” I held out my hand for a handshake. She stared at my hand, then glared at me.
“I’m not ready to call you my friend,” she snarled. “I wouldn’t need your help if you didn’t destroy my declamation chip! However, I will need your help.” She then headed to the stairs. “I’ll be downstairs, cleaning up,” she told her current landlords, the Ghostbusters.
“Well, that’s pleasant,” snarked Peter. He then turned to us. “Are you guys also from another universe?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered. “I’m Megumi Hishikawa, Queen of the Feudal Nerd Society.” Peter and I shook hands. “I apologize for dumping Sludgiona on you guys, but she has no place else to go. If she tried to go home now, she’ll die.”
“We’ll work on her condition here,” replied Egon. “And I’d like to ask some questions of Ghost here.”
“It’s just Takeru,” corrected Takeru. “And I’m afraid I need to get home.”
“As do I,” replied Jō. “Yuriko is worried about me. It’s clear that I’m not suited for this sort of thing.”
“Jō, you’re a Kamen Rider,” reminded Hongo. “As long as you live…”
“It’s that ‘live’ bit that I’m failing at,” interrupted Jō. “See this mark on my brow?” He pointed to a yellow ring on his head. “This is my halo. I’m dead.”
“…Dead?” asked Hongo.
“It was at the hands of a Black Satan remnant,” replied Jō. “They were about to blow up Tokyo. I made the explosive detonate too early and died in the process.”
“…Oh,” sighed Hongo, sadly.
“Don’t worry, I died as I lived, fighting evil wherever it was,” assured Jō. Hongo gave a sad smile.
“That’s the best death a Kamen Rider can ask for,” he remarked. He then embraced Jō. “I will miss you, old friend.”
“And I, you,” replied Jō. Black mist then came out of the shadows as the PKE meter in Batman’s hands spiked rapidly. The mist coalesced into Death. The Ghostbusters readied their packs, but Death raised a hand.
“I’ve never seen her before in Tobin’s Spirit Guide!” yelped Ray.
“This is Death,” answered Emmanuel. “Do not be alarmed, she is a friend.”
“You’re friends with the Grim Reaper?!” gulped Winston.
“And I know a lot about you, especially you, Winston Zeddemore,” whispered Death. “An Air Force Police Captain, before you joined the Ghostbusters.” His colleagues turned to him.
“Why would the Grim Reaper have an interest in you?” asked Egon. Winston sighed.
“I was in Vietnam, early in my career,” he explained. “I only told Janine that steady paycheck bit because I wanted to play it safe. I figured you had other crazies coming in for my position before me, claiming to see ghosts.”
“And you actually saw some when you were deployed?” asked Ray.
“Okay, let’s not go too much into it,” stopped Peter. “We can afford to believe him.”
“Thanks,” appreciated Winston.
“Now, Jō, dear, it’s time to go,” whispered Death.
“See you later,” called Jō to Hongo.
“Farewell, old friend,” replied Hongo. Jō faded with Death into the black mist and vanished.
“We better get going as well,” I sighed. “Farewell! We’ll look you up if we need some ghosts busted! Take care of Sludgiona!”
“See you around!” bid Peter as we went into the portal. “Keep in touch!”