#mega au

-->And THEN. A few days later, some of the gang -- let's say Doc, Marty, Alice, and Clara -- bust a particularly nasty ghost at one of the local hotels, and find another one of the devices Bumby's been putting around the city in the room where it spawned. They show it to the owner of the hotel, and explain who they think is the culprit --

And the owner goes, "Wait, Angus Bumby? Tall, kind of bony fellow with a thick brown beard? Glasses? Permanently kind of condescending? That's our janitor."

Alice promptly laughs her head off because she knows that oh boy, being a janitor must rankle someone who once commanded respect as a psychiatrist and philanthropist, and leads the charge down to his little basement office to confront him. Bumby attempts to play innocent and throw Alice's mental state into question, but the other Ghostbusters make it very clear that they know its him and that they believe Alice over his lies. Alice informs him that she's looking forward to dragging him back to the authorities so he can finally face justice --

Only for Bumby to go "I don't think so" and promptly electrocute himself. Everyone is rather "holy shit WTF" about that, as you might imagine. O.O The police are called, and while his death is ruled a suicide, it does prompt another meeting with Mayor Wilson, who isn't exactly pleased that somebody died during one of their busts. Neither is Edna, who happily accuses them of murdering Bumby and making it look like a suicide -- Marty has to be restrained from attacking her, while Alice is like "trust me, if I'd murdered him, you'd know I'd murdered him." Things don't really improve from there, and the four leave the meeting in poor spirits, worried that Edna will get her way and the mayor will shut them down...

-->And then, when they get back to the station and report to the others what happened, Victoria essentially goes, "Does anyone else think it's slightly suspicious that the man who was so obsessed with summoning nasty ghosts all over the place killed himself?" Everyone agrees that that is suspicious, and Doc and Smiler head down to the local police station to see if they can get their hands on any of Bumby's personal effects. Turns out, among the items in his office was a copy of Doc's book! Smiler is able to sway one of the officers into handing it over (claiming the Ghostbusters would be better qualified to investigate any supernatural phenomena Bumby was studying), and take it back to headquarters for everyone to study --

And discover a bunch of scribbled notes from Bumby, revealing that his plan was to plant the devices on various ley lines around the city, summon ghosts to increase the PKE in Hill Valley and center it on -- what else -- Clara's apartment building (taking advantage of the fact that it was already supposed to be an antenna for the stuff), then use that energy to try and turn himself into a godlike being. And that killing himself was always a part of said plan -- shedding his mortal body so he could absorb the PKE better. However, studying the map that Bumby drew and his notes, Doc is able to determine that he wasn't able to hit every ley line -- they found out about him midway through his attempt, and forced him to put the "kill myself" part of his plan into effect early. Alice is certain that Bumby's going to try and come back as a ghost to finish what he started, though, and she, Doc, Marty, Victor, and Smiler decide to head out and investigate all the spots on the map Bumby didn't already check off, just to see if there's been any suspicious activity at any of them. Clara, Jennifer, Victor, and Emily agree to hold down the fort, and the other five pile into Doc's van and do their tour. They are deeply relieved to find no ghostly Bumbys or ionizing devices at any of them --

-->But. While they're out, Edna Strickland appears with a bunch of cops, declaring that she's determined the group are massive frauds, she's not going to let the mayor be taken in by them anymore, and that she is shutting the Ghostbusters down. Clara, Jennifer, Victoria, and Emily of course loudly object and try to stop her, but she had the police restrain them and then goes down and shuts off the containment unit, declaring this "nonsensical farce" over --

And cue a MASSIVE blast of PKE exploding out of the roof of the building as all of the ghosts the gang have caught are released at once. Followed by a ghost Bumby (having just snuck into the building, hoping to possess one of the Busters to continue his work) materializing, thanking a dumbfounded Edna, and then rushing off to Clara's apartment building, as of course that's where all the energy is being attracted to. The other Busters arrive just in time to see the light show and furiously throw Edna and the police out, then the entire team suits up in preparation for going to fight the threat --

-->Aaand cue Slimer stealing the DeLorean and nearly running a few of them over. And when Marty goes to blast the car to stop him, Doc is like "NO NO NO THERE'S A FUSION ENGINE ON THE BACK OF IT!!!" Turns out he and Clara had a breakthrough on one of his old designs, and yeah, managed to stick a fusion engine (partially built out of an old coffee grinder, of all things) on the back of the DeLorean to power some of its ghostbusting tech. As you might imagine, the others are all like "as if we didn't have ENOUGH to worry about!!" However, there's not much they can do about it, and Doc says there shouldn't be a nuclear explosion unless Slimer really wrecks the damn thing (he made DAMN SURE his shielding was good), so they decide to focus on the "Bumby trying to become a ghost god" threat first and head toward Clara's apartment building --

-->Which involves going through the town square. Which, thanks to the intense amount of PKE in the area, now keeps flickering between various versions of itself (naturally, the versions from 1885, 1955, 1985, and 2015) -- and is CHOCK FULL of various ghosts and other supernatural entities from those periods. All of which seem very interested in taking out the Ghostbusters. The gang does their best to fight off as many as they can with their proton packs and traps, but there's just too many of the damn things, and for a minute it looks like they'll be overwhelmed --

And then Alice, after getting her proton wand knocked out of her hands, somehow manifests a ghostly version of her Vorpal Blade and manages to slash the ghost in front of her. Turns out that, thanks to some latent psychic powers in her bloodline, she can use the high levels of PKE in the area to turn her hallucinations semi-real -- real enough to hurt the monsters, anyway! Cue her summoning up her arsenal and going to town on the creatures threatening her and her friends. The ability turns out to be a bit of a double-edged sword, as she also starts manifesting some of the enemies she usually fights in Wonderland (notably some Ruin monsters), but THOSE prove to be vulnerable to the Ghostbusters' tech, due to how they were created, and working together, the gang manages to fight their way through the town square and to Clara's apartment building!

-->Where they find not one, but two problems -- at the base of the building is a weird vortex, apparently opened up by the sudden influx of PKE into the local ley lines, that's just spewing yet more extradimensional entities into the area and keeping the PKE levels high; and at the top seems to be some sort of supernatural storm, which they guess is Bumby gathering energy to ascend himself to godhood. It's quickly agreed to divide the party, with Clara, Jennifer, Emily, and Victoria staying at the bottom to find a way to deal with the vortex, and Doc, Marty, Victor, Alice, and Smiler climbing to the roof to deal with Bumby. Goodbyes are exchanged, with Doc making sure Clara has a walkie-talkie so they can keep in contact, and the two groups set about their tasks.

-->After a long climb, Team Rooftop find their way to said roof, where they find Bumby, much larger than before and looking disturbingly like his Dollmaker persona from Wonderland (Alice is not pleased). The team manage to restrain him with their proton pack beams, but he proves to be a little too large and powerful to go into the standard trap. Bumby breaks free and taunts them about trying to take on a god as they try to recapture him --

And then a glowing portal opens up behind him, two familiar terror dogs appear and each grab a limb, and a massive burst of lightning shoots through the portal and absolutely shreds him. Moments later, GOZER walks through the portal, having used the influx of PKE into the antenna to bypass their usual requirements to enter this realm. The horrified group try to hit the god with their beams, but Gozer simply shrugs them off and shoots lightning at them too, sending them flying to the very edge of the roof --

-->Where something catches them. Alice theorizes that Gozer doesn't want to give up its playthings too soon, but Victor notes that Gozer actually seems a little puzzled by this turn of events --

And then Smiler announces that they want to try talking to Gozer, and all questions of how they survived are dropped in favor of trying to talk them out of it. Smiler's insistent, though, and -- after telling Victor and Alice that, no matter how this goes, they want them to know they love them -- they get up and approach Gozer, politely asking it to vacate their world and head back to its home point of origin or the nearest alternate dimension. Gozer laughs and asks mockingly, "Are you a god?" And Smiler responds, with a big grin --

"Yup!" Everyone's like "WTF?!" with Marty in particular being "Smiler, you don't make those claims without being able to back them up--"

-->And then the clouds above them start turning yellow and black and twisting into spirals. And a steady "ha ha ha, HA HA HA" fills the air around them. And Smiler's form begins to fuzz out around the edges a little bit, revealing, among other things, strange twisting tentacles emerging from them...and wrapping around the others, keeping them away from the edge of the roof.

Yup, in a possibly-shocking twist, it turns out Smiler is INDEED a fucking god, and they are kind of pissed that Gozer just tried to kill the people they love. Cue the pair fighting while the shocked Ghostbusters try to figure out what the HELL is going on (and keep the terror dogs off Smiler because, well, they want them to win)...

-->And then cut to Team Vortex, blissfully oblivious to this and desperately trying to figure out how to close the PKE portal! After taking some readings, Clara is able to determine that, if they could drop something sufficiently explosive into the portal and detonate it, they could force it to reverse its flow and start sucking IN all the ghosts and monsters and PKE around the shop, which would at least start fixing the problem. There's a brief discussion on whether or not they should sacrifice their proton packs to the cause --

And then Slimer drives by in the stolen DeLorean and they're like "...yeah, the fusion engine mounted on the back of that thing would totally work, wouldn't it?" Cue them chasing down the DeLorean; Emily using Ecto-1's gunner seat to get close enough to Slimer to trap him and force him out of the driver's seat; then Emily climbing into the DeLorean herself from said gunner's seat and gunning it toward the portal. She manages to throw herself clear at the last second as the DeLorean plunges in, and a shot from Clara's proton pack explodes the Mr. Fusion she and Doc worked up --

-->And success! The vortex does indeed switch from "blow" to "suck," dragging in all the ghosts and monsters that it was previously spewing out. The girls take a moment to celebrate as Emily gets back to her feet --

And then one of the monsters grabs her and drags her into the vortex as a final "fuck you" to the ladies. A horrified Victoria immediately grabs the nearest rope, ties it around herself, throws the other end to Clara and Jennifer, and dives into the portal to rescue her. She does manage to successfully wrestle Emily away from the creature, and Clara and Jennifer do manage to successfully to haul them both out, but the trip ends up having some -- interesting side effects. Specifically, poor Emily's skin and hair turn bright blue for some reason (Victoria's hair also changes color, but for her it's luckily just a lightening of her brown hair into a more gray shade). Emily isn't exactly pleased, but has to admit it's better than being dead or trapped with all those ghosts.

-->Back on the rooftop, the fight between Smiler and Gozer continues -- but while it was previously fairly evenly matched, the vortex below suddenly going from spewing out monsters and PKE to sucking them in ends up weakening Gozer, and Smiler gains the upper hand. Smiler starts forcing it back toward its portal, declaring that there is no way Gozer can destroy the world now --

But then, for some reason, Gozer beams and declares "THE FORM HAS BEEN CHOSEN" before disappearing. Baffled, Team Rooftop is like "what form? Chosen by who?" for a minute before the ground starts shaking --

-->And then, up the street, the giant form of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man appears. Turns out Smiler had a joking thought about Gozer being reduced to using an advertising mascot like Stay-Puft at its current power levels while trying to get it to leave, and Gozer was like "fuck, I'll take it." The girls on the ground also see this and are like "what the FUCK" -- Doc explains the situation to Clara via walkie-talkie and asks what she did to the vortex to stop it empowering Gozer. She explains how they sacrificed the car, and everyone starts wondering if there's anything they could do that's similar to stop Gozer --

-->And then Victor suggests crossing the streams. Marty is like "uh, hey, remember when Doc told us that was a VERY BAD idea," but Victor explains his thought: basically, if they fire into the portal Gozer opened up, and THEN cross them, the whole "every molecule freezing, then exploding" thing Doc warned them about should happen to GOZER'S dimension, not theirs. Doc thinks it's a likely possibility, and Smiler backs him up, causing everyone to admit that Smiler would probably know, given THEY'RE A GOD TOO. Doc suggests to Clara that she and Team Vortex do the same thing with the vortex to try and shut it for good, and the two teams cross the streams into their respective portals --

-->Aaand it works! Both portal and vortex close, and Gozer-as-StayPuft violently explodes into a massive rain of marshmallow. (Doc: [contacting Clara over the walkie-talkie] Are you okay?! Clara: Well, I feel like a s'more...) Team Rooftop make their way down to reunite with Team Vortex and make sure everyone is all right, and everyone agrees that they really just want to go home, get the marshmallow off, and maybe then just lie in bed for a few days --

-->But then the same police officers who showed up to take them to the Mayor the first time at the concert show up again to do the same thing. Though they hastily assure everyone -- including the gathering citizenry, who do not look like they're about to take any bullshit -- that they are not ARRESTING the heroes of the city, the Mayor just wants to see them.The group agrees to go, and after working their way through the cheering crowed, get in the provided cars and head to Town Hall --

Where Mayor Wilson greets them kindly, thanks them for saving the city ("even with all the collateral damage -- hope you all like paperwork!"), and apologizes for Edna's role in this disaster, assuring them that she has been fired for it. (Marty: "About goddamn time!") Wilson then says that he has plans to give them a Proper Official License, and a bigger, better facility -- Doc says they like the firehouse as their "main office," but he would enjoy having a bigger, more secure building dedicated to containment. Mayor Wilson is more than happy to fund that! They chat a bit about logistics, and then Wilson sends them all back to the firehouse to rest, clean up, and get ready to re-bust all the ghosts that got released.

-->And then, once they're back at the firehouse, and everyone is no longer covered in marshmallow and in a somewhat-better state of mind than they were earlier, Marty turns to Smiler and is like, "Um. So. The eldritch god thing? Wanna explain that?" Smiler says yes, they can --

Only for Alice to cut in with "you're Mar-Mal, aren't you?" Turns out she'd guessed after seeing Smiler in action and remembering how they defended the god's actions during that summoning they read about earlier. Smiler confirms they are, and reiterates that they NEVER meant to hurt those people, much less kill them. The problem was just as they said -- Smiler had no human form back then, and thus no idea how humans worked. They only saw that hunger and thirst seemed to be stopping those in the cult from being fully happy, so they removed the feelings. They were utterly HORRIFIED when their followers died as a result, and decided they had to try and figure out what it was to be human before they bestowed any more blessings. So they took on their Smiler form...

And ended up really loving being human. So much so that the fight with Gozer was the first time they'd gone back to any of their eldritch ways in quite a while. They apologize for not saying anything earlier, pointing out that they were pretty sure they weren't going to be believed (everyone goes "yes, that's fair"), then offer to leave if they make the others uncomfortable...

-->And the other Busters are all like "we'd prefer you not to go THAT far." Because, well, while this is a huge revelation for everyone to adjust to, the fact of the matter is they all still consider Smiler a friend. And it doesn't hurt that Smiler actively saved Doc, Marty, Victor, and Alice's lives on the rooftop, and fought very hard indeed to help save the world. Smiler is relieved, as they didn't really want to go, and says they'd be happy to help Doc with his studies, which he appreciates, and answer any questions they have. (First questions consist of Doc asking "so why didn't the PKE meters pick up on your nature?" Smiler: "Well, you did calibrate them when I was in the room, so..." and Marty asking "Hey, why did you get spooked by the ghost in the library if you're a freaking eldritch god?" Smiler: "I may be a god, but that doesn't mean I can't get startled!")

-->Later, in private, Smiler also asks Victor and Alice if they're interested in continuing their relationship, making sure to reiterate they're not going force them into anything. Victor says it's going to take some getting used to, but he does want to stay with Smiler, and Alice says that, as long as she has a promise from Smiler that they won't mess with their minds or bodies, she's willing to give it a try. Smiler swears they won't do anything that the pair don't want them to do, and the trio resume their relationship with just a few bumps as the humans get used to being partnered with an eldritch being. (Which does have some benefits, including Smiler now being able to use their powers a bit to improve any Sexy Fun Times they have...)

-->And so the Ghostbusters become an Officially Licensed City Service! Going around, busting loads of ghosts, and studying them to find the best ways to contain them and hopefully help them move on. Helped by the fact that Smiler can now be more open about being an eldritch being, of course. Probably the hypothetical "epilogue" chapter would be set a little ways in the future, with Doc and Clara married and balancing their Buster duties with taking care of a young Jules; Marty and Jennifer also married and having transitioned to part-time busting so Marty can continue getting his band off the ground and Jennifer can do some stuff with her art; Victoria and Emily planning their wedding in between helping train new Ghostbusters (since it's now a viable career path in Hill Valley); and Smiler, Alice, and Victor still as full-time Busters, living together now and still very much in love. With Smiler sometimes freaking out the new hires by using their tentacles to grab stuff. :P