Disclaimer: I don’t own the Magnificent Seven or Ghostbusters - if I did, the second movie would never have happened. This AU borrows background from both the first Ghostbusters movie and the animated series. This story is also one of my answers to the January Challenge, and this is an OPEN AU.

Who the Guys Are(there were four original Ghostbusters and seven of the guys, changes had to be made.)
Dr. Chris Larabee: nuclear physicist, became interested in the paranormal after his wife and son were killed
Dr. Buck Wilmington: engineer/parapsychologist, Chris’ best friend from Columbia University, came up with the idea that ghosts could be ‘trapped’
Dr. John Dunne (JD): mathematician/parapsychologist, a genius who started college at 16, was ‘adopted’ by Buck as a little brother
Dr. Ezra Standish: psychologist/parapsychologist, met Chris, Buck and JD while debunking a false medium who also happened to be his mother, can ‘hear’ spirits himself but much to his mother’s disgust will not capitalize on his ability
Dr. Nathan Jackson: biochemist, had wanted to be a physician but was shuffled into research by his father, skeptical about all things paranormal
Josiah Sanchez: priest defrocked for performing exorcisms, an occultist and an expert on demonology and ghost lore
Vin Tanner: former Army Ranger, answered a help wanted ad for Ghostbusters, Inc., part Indian and has strong ties to Native Spirituality

Chris listened over his headset as the team deployed through the hotel, and a slight smile graced his lips as he heard the banter that filtered back to him through the open microphones they all wore.

"No sign of anything unusual so far…Josiah, what are you doing?"

"The manager said it was attracted to food, Nathan, I was checking to see if it was under …"

"Back away from the pastry cart, Josiah…"

"Ezra! Look over there…"

"<sigh> Dr. Dunne, I believe the individuals you just so rudely pointed out are enjoying a private moment while awaiting the elevator."

"But they’re both…"

"<even deeper sigh> Unbelievable. Yes, sir, they are. Dr. Wilmington, if you can hear me and I can’t believe I’m saying this…I think you need to have a little talk with your protégé about ‘the bees’."

"<static crackle> Don’t ya mean ‘the birds and the bees’, Ez?"

"No…just the bees."

"Any sign of anything, Vin?"

"No, but I frightened a maid with a cart full of toilet paper just now."

"Yeah, we do look mighty dangerous…was she cute? Maybe I’d better go find her, make sure she’s okay…"

"And maybe I should just shoot you now so we could be sure she’ll be okay - her and all the other women in the city. Now get over there and check that stairwell while I look down here…"

Chris tapped his mike. "Vin, what floor are you and Buck on?"

"Nine, Chris," the ex-Ranger said. "If you see that manager guy, you might ask him what that maid was doin’ up here - thought he said he’d clear everyone out."

"I’m on it." As luck would have it, the hotel manager was standing right beside him, impatiently waiting for his attention; Chris was more than happy to give it to him. "Mind telling me why there was a maid up on nine? Thought you said you cleared everyone out?"

The man looked affronted. "We did - all the guests were moved down to the dining room for their own safety."

For a moment Larabee didn’t understand…and then he understood all too well. With a quiet curse he pushed the button that beeped his team to get their attention. "Okay, listen up! Proceed with extreme caution, some of the floors have not been cleared. I want you all back down here on the double…"

The manager was tugging at his sleeve. "You’re calling them back? But they haven’t caught the ghost…"

Chris ignored him. "Repeat, everyone back down to the main lobby right now, there are still people up there. Sound off so I can track you."

"Tanner and Wilmington, heading for the elevator on Nine. If that maid don’t come back I should be able to get Buck out of here with no casualties."

"Sanchez and Jackson, in the middle of the tenth floor. Hold off on that elevator, boys, we’ll ride down together. North end or south?"

"South. Ezra, JD? Wanna make it a one car trip?"

"If you insist. Standish and Dunne on Seven, heading for the southern…wait, there’s something..."

"Ez, what’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a…Chris! I think it’s coming this way! Ezra, where is it?"

"It’s near," the psychologist whispered. "I can’t see anything yet, but I can hear…"

A horrible, wet screeching sound reminiscent of fingernails on a blackboard erupted through the microphone, followed by a scream from Ezra that was echoed by a panicked yell from JD. "Vin and Buck, you’re closest, get down there!" Chris ordered. A thrower fired …and then silence. "JD, Ezra! Report!"

"I m-missed," JD said shakily. "Didn’t have a clear shot, it c-came up through the floor almost right under Ezra’s f-feet." There was a pause, the young man obviously collecting himself. "It wasn’t the same one, Chris, this one was b-big, as big as me at least."

"Are you sure it was a different one?" At the affirmative, Chris whirled angrily on the wide-eyed manager. "Did you know about a second ghost?"

The man started to shake his head…and then hesitated. "The one we called you for has been harassing the guests upstairs," he said slowly.

Larabee’s eyes narrowed. "And?"

"There supposedly was something in the sub-basement, but I’ve never seen it and I don’t know anyone that has."

"Josiah, did you hear that?" Chris asked, tapping the microphone. "Know anything about it?"

"Doesn’t sound familiar," was the ex-preacher’s reply. "Ask him if he remembers why the level was sealed, there must have been an occurrence of some kind."

Larabee asked, but the now-frightened manager had very little more information. "The sub-basement was unsafe, I know that - I think an employee may have been killed down there and that was when they sealed it off. It’s been sealed for more than forty years, or at least so said the architect who was down there last week."

Chris knew from the groans he heard in his earpiece that his team had heard and understood the implications of that. The manager, having exhausted his usefulness, ceased to occupy any of the physicist’s attention at all. "JD, where’s Ezra?"

"He’s out c-cold," the young man stammered. "I think it went through him, Chris. And he’s just covered with slime."

A curse from Nathan. "Through him…JD, does it sound like he’s breathin’ okay, can you tell?"

"Sounds kind of stopped up, like he’s got a cold or somethin’…"

"Shit! Roll him over on his side, quick…"

"No, like this, JD." Apparently Vin and Buck had arrived. "Don’t want him to choke, see it comin’ out of his mouth? Nathan, should we try to bring him around so he can cough this stuff up? It looks thicker than the kind you boys showed me before and it’s cold as ice."

"You can try, but don’t be too rough. He probably just fainted from shock but we can’t be sure…" Suddenly Ezra started to cough, then to gag. "Vin…"

"I’m on it, Nathan. That’s right, Ez, just spit it out, we’ve got you."

"C-c-cold…"

"I know it’s cold, don’t try to talk." Nathan and Josiah had made it down to the seventh floor as well. "You were right, Vin; this stuff is more than twice as viscous as the samples from the library…"

"What does that mean?" Chris demanded irritably.

Nathan started to reply that he didn’t know, but Josiah interrupted. "I’d guess that it’s an old spirit, probably older than this building."

"It is." Ezra’s normally smooth voice was painfully hoarse. "Disturbed…angry." He coughed and gagged again. "This one is smart, he…targeted me… but JD frightened him off."

"Yeah, but I didn’t catch…"

"<cough> Couldn’t have…too big…"

"You did good, kid," Buck reinforced. "Boys, I think we better get our butts downstairs in case that thing makes another run."

"Use the stairs," Chris ordered. "At least there you’ll have room to maneuver if it comes through the floor again…" Another bout of breathless coughing over the headset made him rethink that decision. "On second thought, it might be headed down here where there are more people, I think speed is more important - but take two elevators so you have more room to maneuver, just in case."

"Good thinking, Cowboy," Vin replied. "Okay, you all heard him. Nate, you come with me and Ez and Buck, you, JD and Josiah take the second elevator. Let’s get down there before that ghost does, Chris is all by himself."

Larabee just kept himself from chuckling; leave it to Vin to find a way to spare Ezra’s dignity. "I expect everyone here in the lobby in five, boys." Then he turned back to the manager. "Once everyone’s back down here we’ll reassess the situation, hopefully we’ll be able to get a reading on the second ghost so we know what we’re up against. Have you had any problems that only originated after the sub basement was opened?"

The man was visibly relieved. "You’re not going to leave?"

"Of course we aren’t!" Chris snapped. "The account you gave us of the first ghost indicated it was more of an annoyance than anything else, but this one just attacked Dr. Standish through the floor and he says it’s disturbed and angry. You called us in to help, we aren’t going to leave something like that running around loose with all these people here!"

As if on cue, a flash of grayish-brown dropped out of the ceiling and zipped across the lobby and into the dining room. Screams erupted from the room and people began to run out into the lobby with the sounds of hollow, liquid howling and breaking furniture behind them. Chris had his thrower in his hand and activated almost before he had time to think about it, but one look inside the room told him he’d have to wait for reinforcements so instead of attacking the ghost he applied himself to making sure the terrified guests got out of the area without trampling each other. "You know, whenever you guys get down here…"

"You’re wish is our command, fearless leader," Buck called out from across the lobby. Looking around, Chris saw Vin, Ezra, Josiah and Nathan herding the guests together at the far end of the room and apparently trying to calm them down while Buck and JD took readings with the two PKE meters. Buck moved closer to the dining room and pointed the meter in the general direction of the ghost. "Yep, looks like our boy’s a class five," he said. "I wonder what they had keeping it penned up down there in the basement?"

"Doesn’t matter much now," the physicist observed practically, glancing over the readings himself. "Maybe after we bag him Josiah should go down there and take a look, though, there must have been something."

Vin jogged up just then and eased his way up to the open double doors, taking a cautious look around them into the high-ceilinged room and then ducking back out of the way when the ghost hurled a plate in his direction. "We goin’ in, Chris?"

"Don’t see that we have much choice - we can’t let this thing roam around, even if it isn’t the one we came for." Chris turned to his shadow, the manager. "You’d better go over there and keep your guests calm while we take care of this." The man hesitated, wincing as more sounds of rage and destruction came from inside the dining room and then reluctantly followed Larabee’s instruction, muttering under his breath about not thinking it was going to be like this and not being sure how he was going to explain it to the hotel owners.

The other men came hurrying up at Chris’ signal and together the seven of them proceeded into the room and closed the doors behind them. The room was in a shambles of overturned tables, broken glass and shattered china. Only one table remained mostly untouched in the center of the room…unfortunately right in their way. Chris sighed and thanked god for the collateral damage clause in their service contract, then jerked his head at Vin and Buck; the two men grinned at each other, but before Vin could tip the table Buck stayed him. "Wait, there’s somethin’ I’ve always wanted to try." Taking a firm grip on the tablecloth he gave it a swift, powerful yank. Most of the table’s contents came off with the cloth and showered all over the floor, but Buck pointed happily at one of the few things that remained on the polished wood surface. "And the flowers are still standing!"

Chris just shook his head. As soon as the table was out of the way he unhooked the trap from the side of the proton pack he wore and slid it across the floor so it came to rest almost right under the chandelier the ghost was darting in and out of; unfortunately, it was too far away for them to just use the trap alone to catch it - assuming the trap would catch it, that was. He put that thought aside and looked around at the other men, his team…his friends. Chris wondered briefly if he should make Ezra sit this one out. The psychologist was a little pale and just a little green around the gills - although part of that could have been the slime - but he was moving under his own power and had his thrower held ready so Larabee left it alone. "All right, I want everyone to spread out, this one could be a killer, we don’t want it to get away. And watch your streams so we don’t have an accident."

The other six men obediently circled the room, everyone keeping a hard watch on the large ghost that was ducking in and out of the crystal chandelier and growling down at them. "What about the chandelier?" Nathan wanted to know.

Chris flicked a glance at Ezra, whose entire attention was fixed on the ghost, and then frowned at the biochemist. "What about it?"

"Casualty of war," Buck sang out. "Are we ready to bag this ugly thing yet? I’ve got a date tonight."

"You’ve got a date every night," Vin jabbed at the engineer. "But this one’s ugly so I’m with you, let’s get it over with so we don’t have to look at him any more. Think the trap’ll hold him, JD?"

The young mathematician checked the meter in his hand again and shrugged. "Should - but then, we’ve never actually used this equipment before, either. It may just explode."

"He’s displaying classic pre-attack behavior," Ezra broke in, eyes still not leaving the ghost. "But if he isn’t engaged soon he may lose interest and we’ll lose our chance; we need to draw him down from there so he doesn’t just retreat through the ceiling when we fire as well." Holstering his thrower, the psychologist stepped out into the middle of the circle, directly under the chandelier and just a few steps short of the trap and then closed his eyes, concentrating. "Please try to get him before he gets me, gentlemen; once today was enough."

The ghost stopped circling. It eyed the stationary man below it with interest. Then it dove like an owl swooping down on a rabbit.

The chandelier exploded in a shower of sparkling glass as six streams of protonic energy hit it at once. The ghost stopped, confused…and then realized that it had been tricked and with an enraged roar turned back to the man who had lured it down from its safe vantage point.

But the man wasn’t there anymore, all that remained was a small, flat box with colored lines on the top and a blinking green light.

Ezra, who had jumped back into his spot in the circle, engaged his thrower and the resultant stream of energy hit the ghost dead center. "JD!" Chris yelled, and a second stream hit it from the other side. "Buck, Josiah!" Two more streams; the ghost was pinned. "Okay, now lower it slowly toward the trap - and be sure to shorten the streams as you go, don’t want to burn somebody’s face off." As soon as the frantically struggling ghost was about five feet above the trap, Chris stomped on the switch and the spring-loaded doors with their orange and black hazard warning lines flew open, releasing a funnel of blue protonic energy. "Okay, disengage throwers! And don’t look directly into the trap!"

Four streams shut off and for just a moment the ghost hung suspended above the trap with what might have been a surprised expression on his face. Then the light sucked him down like a cartoon vacuum cleaner and the trap doors slammed closed after it. The trap beeped as its light changed from green to red…and then there was silence. Seven men looked at each other and grinned.

When the dining room doors flew open the hotel manager was very nearly knocked over by them. "Where is it, did you get it? Is it gone?"

"It’s right here," Buck said, holding up the smoking trap so everyone could see it. "We came, we saw, we kicked its…"

"We got it," Chris interrupted. "I gave you the service agreement earlier, so if you’ve got our payment we’ll be taking your ghost back to the station to lock it up."

The manager made a face. "Yes, your payment." He took a look inside the dining room and shuddered. "I believe we need to discuss that at a later time, Dr. Larabee. This," he waved a hand toward the demolished room, "was certainly not what I expected when I called you in to handle our little problem. Your secretary said no job was too big, and you yourself assured me it should be a simple matter to capture one small ghost…"

"And you told us there was only one small ghost, not one small one and one big nasty one," Vin interrupted. "We should be chargin’ you extra."

"Ah yes, but your services were only contracted for the capture of the one I reported." The manager jumped on the perceived loophole with relief. "This other supposed spirit was not part of our original agreement - and I also believe you have not captured the first ghost as promised, so this hotel owes you nothing. In fact, we may need to speak to our lawyers with regards to the damages…"

Larabee’s face went red. "Listen, you; that second ghost you didn’t think was important enough to mention could have killed Dr. Standish…"

"Chris." Ezra’s hand dropped onto his arm and the angry man subsided. "I’m afraid both of you gentlemen are correct; we did capture the only entity that we encountered on the premises, but it was not the one we were contractually obligated to remove." A slight squeeze from Ezra’s hand kept Larabee from protesting. "This will undoubtedly have to be sorted out by legal professionals all around to settle who owes whom for what - I shall of course be bringing a civil suit against the hotel and perhaps against you personally for negligent endangerment, sir, once my physician has ascertained how much damage was done to my person." He coughed into his free hand, swaying slightly on his feet; Larabee steadied him with a frown. "And of course, as we were not contractually obligated to hold this particular spirit and there is some debate as to whether we should have captured him at all, in the interest of good customer relations…"

"We’ll just have to let him go," Buck finished as Ezra gave in to another bout of coughing. "Um, all you folks better get back, this one wasn’t too happy to begin with and I can only imagine what bein’ stuck in this little trap has done to the big fella’s temper…"

"Hold up, Buck," Chris interrupted. "Don’t let that thing out yet." The manager looked relieved, but relief turned to out and out horror at Larabee’s next words. "JD, I want you, Nathan and Josiah to get our equipment taken out to the van. Vin you take Ezra out now, he’s not up for another run in with that thing." He made a show of transferring support of the psychologist and then turned away from the nervous manager and raised his hands to get the crowd’s attention. "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, everyone needs to move back, we don’t want any more casualties here - as a matter of fact, for your own safety I’d recommend you move to a different hotel once this thing is running loose again, no sense in taking chances."

Several guests looked toward the front doors and the hapless manager couldn’t give in fast enough. "Maybe we’re all being too hasty here," he said quickly. "I mean, we did hire you to get rid of a ghost and you…got a ghost, one which to all appearances would be a danger to our guests and we can’t have that." He signaled to his assistant, who quickly brought him the checkbook. "Will the previously agreed upon fee be all right, Dr. Larabee? I wouldn’t want there to be any…problem later over the unexpected circumstances your team encountered."

"The unexpected is our business," Chris assured him. He took the check, glanced at it and then tucked it into his pocket. "And if you have any more problems with that small ghost, just call us and we’ll give you a discount - good customer relations are important to us."