Pain. I remember pain.

Damn the sorcerer...

I haven't felt pain like this since the day I died...

It was all going so well. The cult had succeeded. The henge of stones had focused the power. The Keymaster and Gatekeeper were ready...

...And then the damned sorcerer intervened.

He siphoned the power with his staff, disrupting the power of the henge, breaking the possession of the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster. His barbarian attack dog who styled himself some sort of king beheaded the leader of the chant...

...It all slipped away as quickly as it had begun.

I winced, and looked down at the stump where my right arm had been. The barbarian king had severed it with his damned sword, ensorcelled by the lake spirits.

Damn the sorcerer Myrrdin...

I felt my body jolt; the sensation was like being thrown into a cauldron of boiling water. It was excruciating...and I realized I had felt this pain once before.

I screamed. It felt like forever.

Then the feeling faded. After a few moments I sat up.

To my shock, I realized that my right arm was back. It was covered in blood, and the viscous light blue fluid that sometimes accompanied my powers being manifested ; it still tingled, but it was there.

There you are. At last I have found you

I startled. The voice was inside my head.

I scrambled up; I saw the "speaker"...

I had heard of such people, skin almost as dark as night, from some place far to the south of Ireland or even greater Europe, but this was the first time I'd ever seen one. She had close cropped black hair, and a flowing garment in swirls of blue and green, making it look like the surface of the sea.

Lady of the Steady Waters, I bid you greetings.

Her mouth didn't move. Even more unnerving, though, is that while her eyes were closed, I could still feel like she was looking straight through me.

"Who...who are you?" I snarled. The last person to completely blindside me like that was my predecessor as Herald. "And of what are you speaking?!"

I have been called a great many things. The Forever Swimmer. The Lady of the Primordial Waters. Pisces. And before all of those, Nuranalla. she answered. And what would you be called, Lady Scorpio?

"You keep speaking in poetry and riddles!!! What does this 'Scorpio' and 'Steady Waters' nonsense have to do with me?!"

It is time you knew who you really are, young one. That while all are unique, some of your uniqueness is shared by others. And I am one of them.

From the Files of Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, GBI Historian
GBI Case File GBNY-2024-42/500

In 1983, three unemployed scientists started up the world's first agency of professional paranormal investigators and eliminators. Now, forty-one years later, Dr. Johnathan Spengler, Dr. Eden Spengler, Eric Stantz, Marie Lupin, and TJ Anderson hunt strange things in the neighborhood, weird things that don't look good, things running through people's head, and invisible men sleeping in beds as the newest generation of Ghostbusters.

After a time trip on the night of their twenty-fifth birthday, Eden and John each found themselves in a different cracked version of reality as of the day they were born. With the help of the two distorted versions of their parents and the other original Ghostbusters, the mad plan of the man called Josiah Nodus was thwarted and reality was restored. But in the process, Nodus made the shocking claim that John is the missing Child of Zodiac, Gemini of the Primordial Winds.

John met with the Dean of the Sons of Ether, Dr. Enrico Amore, who reveals himself as another of the Children, Libra of the Dynamic Winds. But even he doesn't know if John is the one they've been looking for--no one will until something happens that would otherwise kill John.

To make matters worse, a mysterious woman visits Ghostbusters Central when the others are gone--a woman who may be the Herald of Gozer, aka Scorpio of the Steady Waters, the fallen Child of Zodiac not seen since GBI closed the Tonnes Quarry Crossrip in 2004.

A woman who's just shown up at the Spengler Institute, where Eden works alongside Kylie Griffin and other paranormal researchers. She says she's being stalked by a werewolf--and sure enough, a werewolf breaks into the Institute...

A man flew through the smoggy skies of New York City.

He wore a green bodysuit and his eyes were covered by a glowing green visor. A belt and harness held several electronic looking items.

In his right hand was a metallic hand lantern, about the size of a 12 ounce soda can, glowing green.

A couple of New Yorkers saw him fly by.

They shrugged at each other. "Must be for that new Captain Steel movie the're making." one of them said.

"This is Sharon Baylor, she says she's being stalked by a werewolf." Abby explained. "The Ghostbusters weren't home, so she came here for help."

Eden pulled out her GBX. "Can confirm no unusual reading..save for the interference pattern. This is most peculiar."

"You are Dr. Eden Spengler?" Sharon asked her.

Eden's eyebrow went up. "Affirmative."

The woman nodded. "Excellent."

The door into the conference area exploded.

Standing there, on two legs, was a seven foot tall creature covered in dark brown fur, with the head of a wolf.

"Showtime!!!" it said gleefully.

Eden shrunk back, feeling panic setting in.

"Holy shit!!!" Abby shouted, jumping behind a lab table.

The werewolf grinned toothily, looking at Sharon. "Miss me, Toots?"

"Delirium is the overwhelming instinctive fear that affects human beings who see werewolves in their war forms - with the exception of their kinfolk, who are entirely immune to the effects of Delirium." Eden's near-photographic memory recalled from the GBI files. "Fortunately, while the Delirium can affect most Ghostbusters, our knowledge of the reality of the supernatural offers us greater resistance, and immunizes us from the 'Veil' effect, which causes most humans to eventually disbelieve and sometimes even forget the lycanthrope they saw."

But she also was a trained Ghostbuster. She moved toward Sharon, the monster's apparent intended target, to try to get between the two. Abby, Kevin, I hope one of you is calling the Firehouse...

"Hey! Wait a damn second!!!" Holtzmann shouted. "I recognize you! You're Mister Atomic Number 74!" She smirked "Or should I just call you Reinhold?"

The werewolf visibly flinched.

" 'Reinhold'?" Abby, Eden, and even Sharon asked in unison.

"Aw, crap..." the werewolf muttered.

"And you get it wrong again--it's 'Werewolves of London' not Paris or New York. Sheesh."

The werewolf looked over at Holtzmann. "Crap in a hat...halfway across the world and I have to run into you again?" He looked around. "The chick with the klaive next?"

Eden looked at Holtzmann "Jillian...are you saying this is the same werewolf you met in Paris?!" The one Holtzmann, Marie, TJ, and Charlene Zeddemore had encountered trying to conduct some mysterious business at Notre Dame.

"Yup" Holtzmann nodded. "And his manners are still shit."

"See? Even to a Carpet Muncher I'm unforgettable!" Tungsten snickered.

John had just finished giving TJ a more thorough summary of his meeting with Enrico Amore.

"...And that's that. I don't find out if I'm a Highlander until I would otherwise die." He rolled his eyes. "Not in any hurry to find out, especially since it's still possible I'm not."

"Love..." she said, moving closer, putting her arms around his waist. "...Tell me honestly. What do you want the truth to be?"

"What kind of question is that?" he asked, looking away.

"Eden thinks you're refusing to consider the possibilities of this."

"She told you that?"

"Yes. But she didn't have to."

"You want to know the real truth?"

"It's why I bloody well asked."

"I'm scared to death of what it would mean..." he hesitated. "...to us"

He exhaled, and looked back at her. "Look at the timing of this being dropped on me. The very same sprocking night that my life started to get a lot more...um...exciting..." He blushed and smirked slightly. She did the same.

"But if I'm going to like live for thousands of years, what does it mean...um..." He started to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. "I know how far ahead of the game this is going to sound, but, well, you know the biological function of sexual coitus, right? Can a guy...who might live forever even still have kids?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "That is kind of getting ahead of yourself, yes."

"Yeah, I know." He nodded. "But can I help it to not even consider it? I mean, you meet someone, you fall in love with them, how can you not wonder what kind of kids you might have together?"

She chuckled slightly. "Well, I guess I can't deny wondering about that myself. Most of them looked a lot like you..." She blushed slightly, then rolled her eyes. "But then there was a couple months ago where I had a nightmare where we had a son who was exactly like my brother at age five...but with the goatee and the rubbish visor and he was trying to bring his Skin Horse to life and everything." She shuddered slightly at the memory.

His face went red.

"Are you trying not to laugh?!" she asked indignantly.

"I...no...I...yes..." he couldn't help it. He started to guffaw. "Was he going to get revenge on Paddington?"

She turned bright red. "It's not funny!!!"

He kept laughing.

She broke. "Oh bloody hell..." She started laughing too. "...I guess it is, isn't it?"

After a good two minutes, they stopped, gasping for breath.

"Johnathan, Love..." she finally said. "Whatever the truth, we'll deal with it."

He hugged her again. "Yeah. I guess I just needed to hear that."

They were about to kiss when the firehouse's alarm bell started clanging.

Seconds later, John and TJ had slid down the fire pole, arriving in the garage. Eric and Marie were there too.

"What's the situation?" TJ asked Jerry.

"I just got a call from Kevin Beckman at the Institute!"

John glanced at TJ before turning back to Jerry "What'd he say?"

"They're being attacked by a werewolf!!!"

"Aw, damn..." Marie snapped her fingers. "If my Dad had been in town this would be even more fun!"

"Maybe it's him." Eric deadpanned.

"Nah, Dad wouldn't be caught dead on a college campus." Marie quipped back.

John's face hardened. All the stuff with the Herald and the Children of Zodiac can wait 'til later. Eden and the others are in trouble right now.

The flying man stopped.

He looked at the lantern in his hand.

He shook his head, muttered something in Italian, and flew north.

Eden managed to get between Tungsten and his target. "This woman is under our protection. And that of Ghostbusters International." she said firmly.

I'm not liking this. The same werewolf TJ and the others met in Paris? This is just too...improbable...to be a coincidence."

Tungsten guffawed. "Usually I'm the one threatening blondes with great legs and big racks, Dollface, not the other way around but geez...I thought you Ghostbusters had some guys workin' for you? Why do I keep running into chicks? Not that I'm complaining, mind you..."

"That is an incredibly sexist statement Mister Tungsten." Eden retorted.

"Well, I'm an incredibly sexist guy, Sweet Cheeks." Tungsten shrugged. "Now unless you want to give me a blow job and make me a sandwich, get outta my way, 'cause Sherry and I got business to discuss!"

Eden felt a chill again.That odd feeling I had in the office...like ice water...is the werewolf causing it, or...

"DOWN SPENGLER!!!"

Eden grabbed Sharon and pulled her to the ground as a proton bolt sizzled by them; Tungsten barely got out of the way as the beam struck a light fixture, blowing it up in a shower of sparks.

"We've heard enough of that 'girls can't be Ghostbusters' crap to last another ten years." Holtzmann quipped; she had fired the shot from her prototype "Proton Shotgun"

"Hey, be careful, Dickless Van Dyke--you might be able to hurt someone with that!" Tungsten snarked.

"That's the idea, Fido!!!" With that, Abby Yates smacked Tungsten straight in the groin with another of Holtzmann's experimental weapons, the "Proton Glove"

"GAAAAAAAAKKKK!!!" Tungsten doubled over. "Dammit, Sharry..."

"Quickly Miss Baylor!" Eden said, grabbing Sharon's hand. "I've got to try to get you out of here while he's distracted!"

Sharon didn't move. "Not necessary. I have what I need now"

"Wh..."

Eden didn't even get to finish her question. Sharon took off her sunglasses.

The whole room around her filled with blue light. Painful blue light, like ice water was being poured directly into Eden's brain.

"Figures there's bad traffic along Broadway today..." Eric snarled.

"When is there ever good traffic along Broadway?" Marie quipped. "You should have let Johnny drive."

"We'll get there." Eric shook his head.

TJ chuckled slightly.

"What?" John asked, looking up from his GBX.

"I do remember the zombie demolition derby." TJ answered, poking his arm.

John suddenly flinched, clutching his head.

"Johnathan?" TJ asked hesitantly. "I'm sorry, I didn't bloody mean to..."

"No, no..." he shook his head, like he was trying to clear it. "It was like for a second I..." He looked up, staring ahead. "I swear I heard Eden in my head, screaming!"

"Drive faster." Marie told Eric.

Kylie realized she'd felt something exactly like this before.

Twenty years ago.

The day a woman in black let the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man out of the Containment Unit.

Kylie looked at "Sharon Baylor", the mysterious woman's eyes glowing that same shade of aqua blue. Oh shit...is that HER?!?!

"This is the one, Tungsten." Sharon said, pointing at Eden, who was down on her knees. "Interesting that you were able to partially resist the mind spike."

"The blonde with the huge tits?!" Tungsten reacted excitedly, pumping a fuzzy fist. "Thank you!!!!"

"Behave yourself, Cur..." Sharon said angrily.

Kylie struggled, managing to pull herself off the floor, barely. "Stop...right..."

"And you as well?" Sharon reacted, looking to Kylie. "You were there when I freed the Destructor, just as the sister was. I..." she leaned toward Kylie slightly. "There is something else..." Sharon shook her head, putting her sunglasses back on. "Another time."

Eden struggled to pull out her GBX. The taser...if I can just...

But she couldn't get the switch to taser mode done before Tungsten roughly grabbed her, tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, one hand resting squarely on her backside. The GBX fell out of her grasp.

"I don't know about you, Sweetmeat, but I'm having a great time now!"

"Shit!" Kylie snarled.

"If I can just reach..." Holtzmann snarled, painfully stretching to reach her shotgun.

"Sharon" started to float off the floor "Quickly" she snarled.

Outside the Institute was a nondescript white van. Sharon floated toward it, Tungsten and his captive just behind her.

Bombie was sitting in the driver seat. He was dressed in an old formal chauffeur's outfit, complete with little hat.

Sharon stopped.

"I knew it was inevitable, Balor..." Said a calm, slightly accented voice.

"The hell?" Tungsten sputtered, looking around.

"...But I hoped that it would be quite a while longer."

Standing atop the van was the man in green. The glowing lantern was attached to his belt.

"The Technomage." Sharon snarled. "A century. Not long enough."

"You know this twink?" Tungsten asked. "He looks like he hangs out in the same fruity clubs as Discount Fronkensteen."

"Deal with him, Tungsten." Sharon gestured; Eden was telekinetically wrenched from the surprised werewolf. The latter was then telekinetically thrown at the man in green, knocking him off the van.

In seconds, the masked woman and her quarry were in the van. Ahagotsu was in the passenger seat. "Old boyfriend?"

"Drive." Sharon snarled.

"That a yes or a no?" Ahagotsu asked as he gestured to Bombie.

The van peeled out.

"HEY! WHAT THE FUCK?!" Tungsten shouted.

Kill him. Sharon's voice commanded from inside his head.

"So how many pieces do you expect that man to be in when Tungsten is finished with him?" Ahagotsu asked.

"He will not be able to kill Medici." Sharon replied flatly. "But he will slow him down long enough for our purposes."

The woman spoke...madness.

Madness about ancient Atlantis, and the twelve constellations that the Sun moves through, but gave them names different from those I learned as a child.

That twelve children of both men and the stars are to be born, one each for each of those twelve constellations--the "signs of the zodiac" she calls them.

You were born under the reign of Scorpius; you are the Lady of the Steady Waters.

I was the first born of the twelve. You are the seventh, with five more yet to enter the world. As of today, I have met all but one, born a century ago in a land far away from those known to either of our peoples

"What...makes you think this is me?"

I felt your birth. And more, I felt the moment of your personal Ascension fourteen years later, the day your powers awakened for the first time. Our element is water, which infuses us with the essence of spirit--the powers of the unbound heart are our birthright.

"And what...is the purpose of all of this?"

She paused for some time.We do not know.

I felt anger awakening in me.

We will not know until the circle is complete.

She held out a hand.

Soon, I will gather with the other five. Come with me, and be welcomed to the Children of Zodiac.

Madness.

She spoke...

"Madness!!!" I roared.

My anger fueled my power, as it always had; I had been all but drained escaping Myrrdin, but the fire within me coloured of water burned again.

I summoned every bit of that power, and threw it at this madwoman.

A shroud of glowing magenta surrounded her.

Save for its color, it was very much like my own powers.

My attack was turned away with no effort.

She opened her eyes for the first time. They were glowing the same magenta color.

Disappointing...but not unforeseen...

I felt her in my mind. I tried to force her out--it had been so easy with the other sorcerers and warlocks who had tried to invade it over the years, even Myrrdin...

...but not her.

After a few painful moments, I felt her leave.

I grieve for that which the world robbed you of, Lady Scorpio. I grieve for your family, your lost childhood, and I grieve for the loss of your soul.

But the day will come, young one...the day when you embrace the truth, embrace your true destiny...

Most of all, however, I grieve for those who's blood you will spill before that day arrives...

I was about to shout at her again, but when I opened my eyes, she was gone.

Gone as though she had never been there.

"I gotta get rid of you quick, Twerp." Tungsten snarled, rearing back and howling.

"A Garou." the Technomage surmised. "Our lost Child does acquire some interesting associates."

"You know Sharry?" Tungsten stopped. "From before Notre Dame?"

"I've known her for longer than you would ever believe, and known of her longer still." the man in green replied. "If you are doing her bidding, I should warn you--being her ally is not conducive to a long, happy life."

"Neither's getting in my way!!!" Tungsten leaped.

The Technomage gestured; a field of glowing force deflected Tungsten's first attack, but the second struck with a loud, sharp crack, throwing the werewolf's opponent fifteen feet, landing on the ground with a dull thud.

"Aw, c'mon, is that all?!" Tungsten guffawed, moving closer to the now very still opponent. "I didn't even get to ask you if you saw Sharry's milkers like I did..."

Tungsten stopped. He sniffed the air. "Smells like ozone...but there ain't a cloud in the..."

He was then hit with a blast of loud, discordant sound. It would have been unpleasant enough to a human--it was excruciating to the wolflike hearing of a Garou in crinos form.

Instinctively, Tungsten switched to his human form--his homid--to block out the painful sound.

"Do us both a favor and stay on the ground." the man Sharon called "Technomage" told him calmly.

That just pissed Tungsten off more.

With a roar, he shifted to his muscular glabro form; he grabbed the man in green...and the smaller man's neck broke with a satisfying "snap".

Tungsten dropped the corpse; he leaned over while turning back to human form, and laughed. "Who's 'inevitable' now, huh?"

He made a garbled cry as a glowing green blade, rapier thin, emerged from his back. Tungsten dizzily tried to convert back to another form, but fell to the ground unconscious.

"Never underestimate a foe." the man in green said, sitting up, in obvious pain. In his right hand he held the rapier that had stabbed Tungsten, made out of glowing green light.

"The Technomage" looked up, noticing a new sound. A siren. And flashes of light coming from south of his location.

He sunk to the ground again, the green rapier vanishing into nothing.

The ECTO-1 skidded to a halt. With practiced efficiency, the four Ghostbusters left the vehicle and were armed with their proton packs within sixty seconds.

"The area's soaked in PKE..." Eric said. "I can't place anything..."

John was moving toward the Institute's open door, when he noticed something. "Huh?"

TJ, who was next to him, saw it too. A man in a green outfit with a visor, a hand lantern lying nearby. It gave TJ a weird shiver of similarity to the bizarre outfit her brother'd worn at their last meeting.

"Doc Amore?!" John said.

"You know this man?" TJ asked.

"Yeah...he's the guy I met just earlier today...but he wasn't dressed like a member of Devo."

"...the werewolf, doctor spengler? is he still here?" Amore muttered painfully.

"No werewolves I can see." Marie replied. "Damn, really?"

"Inside!" John barked, clearly more agitated. "We need to see if everyone's all right!"

John and TJ quickly scouted the main lab, accounting for Kylie, Holtzmann, and Abby. They also quickly found Kevin Beckman hiding in a closet.

"This is what Erin told me to do in a case like this." Kevin shrugged. "I leave the Ghostbuster stuff to the bloody Ghostbusters."

"I don't think there's any major injuries." TJ said. "But I've called an ambulance anyway."

John kept looking around. He noticed a GBX on the floor---with the magenta trimming his sister favored. "Eden...where's Eden?" he asked as he picked it up.

"John..." Kylie painfully managed to sit up. "The woman who was here...twenty years ago she was..."

"I know." John shook his head. He didn't, until now, but it fit everything Ray and Amore had said. "Kylie, where's Eden?"

"That's just it, John..." Kylie looked ready to hurl. "The Herald took her."

"Oh, Shit." John and TJ said in unison.

From behind a wall, Tungsten panted, still hurting. He'd managed to recover enough to return to glabro form and activate his own regenerative powers, healing enough to go to lupus form and hide.

Made it away before the Ghostbusters showed up...but damn...who the fuck was that 'Technomage' guy, anyway?! And what the hell did he hit me with?!

After a few more breaths, his body seemed to be well enough to move. Sharon, you fucking bitch...I'm gonna have words with you about this....

Eden realized that the painful fuzz in her head had cleared, but she was still unable to move--she was bound by zip ties and laying in the back of the van.

She decided to continue to play unconscious. I don't know what this woman wants with me, but it can't be to my benefit. She hesitantly barely opened one eye, before taking a more compehensive look once she was sure she wasn't being watched, at least not at that moment. I can't just blindly hope Father or Johnathan and the others are coming to rescue me...think Eden, think...

She had an idea...

To Be Continued

Based on Ghostbusters Created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis

The Real Ghostbusters 2024 Created by Fritz Baugh and OgreBBQ