Ghostbusters: Resurrection

7. Phoebe Makes a Breakthrough

*Note: this work is an 18 chapter novella, not a collection of shorts, best started at chapter one. Rating PG13*

Down in Egon's sublevel lab, Ray and Phoebe are at work.

"This doesn't add up," Phoebe is talking about Egon's Gozer data. She's pointing something out to Ray. "It does, but it shouldn't. Do you see how this changed in 1945, 1984, 1993 and 2021?"

"Oh! Yes, I see what you mean there-" Ray understands, he is running the numbers, too.

"-and of course there's-" Phoebe agrees and adds to it. Then crosses something on Ray's paper out. He makes a sound of curiosity. He reaches for a calculator and his pencil.

"-so that's why? What could be-" Ray is scribbling, madly inspired by Phoebe's interjection. He bounces on the balls of his feet, excited.

"That's got to mean-!" Phoebe is also excited that they are racing towards the same conclusion. She rocks, looking their work over, hands flitting. They trade papers. Start making notes on each other's work. Heads down. Hyperfixated.

"Ahem," says Gary. They do not look up.

"Ray? Phoebe? Egon, if you're in there? What's up, you guys? What have you figured out?!" Podcast can tell they've cracked something big. He's been watching Stantz and Phoebs freak out over little things nobody else gets since Ray arrived. But this looks important.

"Could you speak in complete sentences so we mere mortals can follow along?" Gary wants to know the breakthrough. He's right on the edge of understanding, if they would just fill him in.

Ray has been surprised to find Gary super smart. Story of Gary's life. No one has ever taken him seriously but Callie.

Speaking of Cal, she's brought snacks and drinks down to the lab. A smooch on the temple for Gary. Phoebe dodges a Mom temple smooch, thanks but no. A fist bump instead. But she does reach for something to eat and drink, which was Callie's main goal. Growing fast and forgetting to eat are a tough combo for Phoebe's bod. Callie worries.

Phoebe explains, "To sum it up, since 1993, the Gozer data hasn't fit the pattern."

"The math not mathing?" Callie asks.

"Precisely!" Ray grins.

"Hold on, lemme record this," Podcast clicks his microphone on. "Go!"

"What we're seeing is that Gozer is returning too soon. Gozer used to manifest at a rate of around 420 years per cycle. As far as we can tell, I mean, no one was recording precise Gozer data at the time. Egon reverse engineered the data by looking for signs of Gozer activity in recorded history,," Ray tries to explain. "Egon found a four hundred and twenty year Gozer cycle going back roughly 6,000 years."

"And then it changed," Phoebe says. "They shouldn't have come back in 2021. They shouldn't have come back after 1984 until-"

"-2404," Janine tosses off. Then, she sees everyone looking. "What. Ya think they're the only ones who can do math? Sheesh."

"So what's causing the break in the pattern?" Gary asks.

"Why is the return rate accelerating? We think Gozer has help from this side," Phoebe says.