2The Real Ghostbusters ~ "Man in the Mirror"
by Dash O'Pepper
Author's Notes: Based on the second season episode "Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster" (#2.25) by Michael Reaves.
• This work was written for a "Missing Scene Challenge", and posted under a different pseudonym on a site that no longer exists.
• This story may also be found on AO3.
Time has no meaning in limbo.
Was it hours or days since their battle with Atlas, the Rockefeller Center statue possessed by Proteus? There was no way of telling.
As a child, he often wondered what it was like on the other side of the looking glass. It was one thing to imagine it; another to live it.
Only Ray could find a parallel between their situation and an episode of Bewitched, which he had painstakingly recited down to the last credit on the Screen-Gems logo. Well, there isn't going to be any beautiful blonde witch coming to our rescue.
No one knows where we are, he thought. And no one without some paranormal or psychic background was likely to find them before Proteus brought forth apocalypse.
Coldly, logically, dispassionately, he saw New York City's demise. He didn't have to imagine it. The elder god played his vision of Armageddon across the scrying surface of the mirrors that reflected their imprisonment.
How many times could one view such horror before becoming desensitised to it?
He thought of his family, his friends: he had failed them all. The creeping tide of despair was beginning to overwhelm him. It was what Proteus wanted, and he couldn't allow that emotion a voice.
The images on the glass stood still, glowing brighter with an almost eldritch quality, until he could no longer bear to watch.
The unexpected sound of an explosion made him look toward its source.
That was no blonde-haired witch, but at the moment she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Fearless, determined, an inner fire burning inside her that he had somehow failed to notice. The ill-fitting uniform did nothing to diminish her figure or her strength.
"Janine!" he shouted. He noted Slimer floating behind her; the little ghost her only assistance.
"What are you guys doin' in that mirror? Is Lewis Carroll in there with you?" Her concern was for the team, but her eyes were definitely focused on only one of them.
"Janine, get out of here while you still can!" shouted Egon.
"Nothin' doin'. We're here to rescue you."
Not a trace of hesitation was in her voice, he noted. Big guy, I hope you know just how lucky you are.
~ Finis ~
© 2016 Dash O'Pepper
Disclaimers: The Real Ghostbusters is a registered trademark of DiC Entertainment and Columbia Pictures Television. All rights reserved. This work of fanfiction is not meant in any way to infringe on copyrights already held by these companies and/or their subsidiaries. The plot of this fanfiction is the property of its author.