A Stay Puft Story

**A Stay Puft Story** is the first episode of The Real Ghostbusters IV, and could be considered season 7, episode 5 of the actual show. The Ghostbusters have to fight off a vengeful Stay Puft Marshmallow Man summoned by a mysterious, sugary force.

The first draft, which is 23 pages long, can be found here.

## Summary

The Natural History Museum invites the Ghostbusters into their building because of crimes causing deaths of persons the earlier night. College students are exploding in certain areas of the building and turning into marshmallow-like blobs. Egon sees readings on his PKE meter, saying that it might be a class 2 poltergeist. He leads the group, trying to find where the readings lead them. Ray and Winston see some dinosaurs, which reminds them of the time when they had to fight dinosaurs.

The Ghostbusters find a flat wall, which has a white slime trying to get out of a vent. The Ghostbusters try to shoot it with their Proton Packs, but it actually pushes the slime out of the vent instead. They go on a chase scene, but they fail to catch the slime, so they go home.

At the Firehouse, Louis is teaching Janine how to play Space Invaders, before the Ghostbusters tell them about their discovery. Janine tells them they already knew about the murders, and that they have been a serious topic since day one. Slimer comes in and almost drops his sandwich. Ray asks Louis and Janine to help with the slime case, and they agree. Peter immediately connects when they had to stop Stay Puft. It makes Ray not want to eat for the night.

Later in the night, a cult circle together at Central Park. They put marshmallows, a bag of wind, and a necklace at the center of it, and yell for the power of Gozer. The wind howls louder and faster than anticipated.

Ray has a strange dream about the Shandor Building and choosing the form of the destructor. Ray makes sure to leave his brain empty-minded, so he doesn't think of the form of the destructor, it has been chosen anyways. It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, but when it merges with Peter, Egon, and Winston, it has the face of Ray. An angel flies down and kisses him, and turns to the real Ray and says she is his dream guide. She tells Ray that he is the only one that can control his actions and his destiny.

The next day, Peter is asking Egon questions about equipment, and they break the fourth wall. Ray comes in and Egon introduces a new item for Slimer, the Slimer Shield, a shield that protects Slimer from being trapped by ghosts traps. He tests it out with Slimer, and it's successful. But the bells ring, and it's time for a new mission.

While riding the Ecto-1, Ray talks about his dream to Winston. He tells him what the dream guide said to him, and Winston says that she might be right.

The Ghostbusters go to Trader Joe's and split up, despite Peter's rejection. Peter goes to the produce section and finds no ghosts. Egon goes to the baked goods section and Winston goes to the frozen food section, and they find nothing either. Ray is at the junk food section and finds out that some of the candy has been melting inside of the bags. The molten candy drips on the ground and heads for the end of the supermarket.

Ray goes to the other Ghostbusters individually to find the molten marshmallow goop. When they go to the junk food aisle, the candy is gone from its original habitat, but they see a trail of slime and follow it. They try to shoot it again, but it is immune to the proton streams. It isn't reacting to them at all.

The Ghostbusters get in the Ecto-1 and see that the slime is heading for the center of Central Park. When they get off, they find that the slime is heading for a Gozer emblem. Egon says that Gozer is dead, so it'd be impossible for them to return, but the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is in the containment unit, so they shouldn't come back. But then they realize. The slime is heading for the containment unit.

Janine and Louis try to tell the Ghostbusters what's up, but they have to hurry and lock the containment unit. Egon and Ray try to seal it shut, but a pink slime gets inside of the containment unit locks, and turns on the switch, so they have to unlock the unit, just to lock it again. But it's too late. So many ghosts got out of the containment unit already, including Stay Puft. The world is gonna be doomed.

The Ghostbusters leave as soon as possible. Janine, Louis, and Slimer are lacking enough information to help the Ghostbusters thoroughly, though. The Ghostbusters get in the Ecto-1. Peter is in the gunner's seat and shoots the ghosts while in the car.

Stay Puft is going to Central Park and stands in the middle of the Gozer emblem. The marshmallow slime goes inside him and he becomes angry. Janine tells the boys via telecommunication to go to the Shandor Building, so they do. But Janine gets too worried about the Ghostbusters and turns into a Ghostbuster again.

Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters finally finish climbing the stairs of the Shandor Building. Peter calls out for Stay Puft, but nothing happens. But then he hears thumps. It's the thumps of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The Ghostbusters try to fire at him, but nothing's happening. Egon suggests to run, but Ray unequips his proton pack. He goes up to Stay Puft and touches him on the face. This makes Stay Puft so happy he explodes.

When the Ghostbusters get out of the building, they're greeted by Walter Peck. He's very angry, not only with the neighborhood being covered in marshmallow, but also his car. He forces the Ghostbusters to clean up the city, or else he's taking legal action. He leaves, and that's the end of the episode.

## Characters

* Ray Stantz
* Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
* Egon Spengler
* Winston Zeddemore
* Peter Venkman
* Janine Melnitz
* Louis Tully
* Slimer
* Walter Peck
* Elvan Armstrong
* Ray's Dream Guide
* Wat (cameo)
* Copycat (cameo)
* Samhain (cameo)

## Trivia

* The murders of the college students were accidentally referred to as implosions in the first draft, not explosions.
* Ray's dream guide has a resemblance to Yukina Minato, which is obviously not permanent.