RETURN OF THE JERSEY TURNPIKE TERROR
PART ONE
By Fritz Baugh
GBI Case File GBNY-2003-21/134
RETURN OF THE JERSEY TURNPIKE TERROR
GBI Case File GBNY-2003-21/134
Eduardo Rivera muttered a curse and ducked. Garrett's beam caught the Class Five on Eduardo's tail--a blue ghost wearing a ball cap--at a glance, sending the spirit ( tongue perpetually sticking out of it's mouth) flying.
"Duh, Hey!!! That's not fun!!!" the entity howled in pain.
"You'll probably like this even less, Senor Asshole Ghost..." Eduardo bit back, blasting the blue ghost, holding it fast in a confinement beam. "Where the Hell's Kylie? This muchaco is ready to get flushed."
"She and Roland went after the other two, I...sonofabitch!!!" This as a pink arm reached through the floor and upended Garrett's wheelchair. The impact when he hit the floor jarred the his thrower loose from his grip, sending it rolling away about three feet.
The pink ghost--identical to it's fellow, save it's larger arms and painter's cap--leered maniacally at Garrett. Garrett knew the look well--the look of every bully who thought he had an advantage due to Garrett's unfortunate congenital handicap. But more than one sucker's found out how wrong they were...
The pink ghost lunged at him. Garrett caught him, the two grappling. The ghost was pretty strong, but Garrett Miller's upper body strength was nothing to slouch at either (that was one more lesson the bullies usually learned)
Roland Jackson was studying his PKE meter, Kylie Griffin right beside him, proton pistol armed. He pointed toward a box of phone books. Kylie kicked the box and the third ghost flew out--red in color, wearing a large, straw hat. "Don't hurt me don't hurt me don't hurt me!!!" it started to whine.
"Don't sweat it. It only hurts for a few moments" Kylie smirked, catching it in a proton beam.
Roland fired his own thrower, catching it in his own confinement stream. "Throw the trap!!!" he ordered calmly.
She switched off her blaster, and pulled the round ghost trap off of her backpack. A few seconds later, screaming "A whoo whoo whoo..." the red ghost was sucked inside.
Unlike the other three, who were wearing the latest model proton packs designed by Dr. Stantz (which were intentionally all but identical externally to the legendary original packs) Kylie had stubbornly insisted on keeping her proton pistol and deluxe trap.
Just about then, they heard Eduardo screaming Spanish insults.
"Maybe we better check on Eduardo..." Kylie grimaced. "He's probably in over his fool head again..."
"But the other ghost..." Roland started to say, though Kylie had already moved off. Even though she was married to him all but legally, Kylie sometimes made Roland question whether it was because she loved Eduardo Rivera, or because she relished the thought of saving his ass and lording it over him. Again. I guess it isn't impossible for it to be both, actually...
"Eddie!!!" she exclaimed as she ran up.
"Throw the f***ing trap!!!" he screamed. "It's trying to get away!!!"
"With language like that I'm not sure I should."
"THROW THE F***ING TRAP POR FAVOR!!!"
She smirked and threw the trap, quickly confining the blue ghost.
Garrett, meanwhile, had the pink ghost in a full Nelson. "Say Uncle, Sheet Breath!!! Say it!!!"
The pink ghost grunted and exploded into a cloud of pink ectoplasm.
It recongealed, and threw an obscene gesture toward Garrett---just before Eduardo and Kylie zapped and trapped it.
Garrett sneered with disgust. "Little buttf***er slimed me!!!" he said as he wiped the bright pink slime off of himself.
Kylie and Eduardo helped him into his chair, the former then retrieving the discarded proton gun.
"Where's Roland?" Garrett asked Kylie.
"He's still going after the last ghost."
Garrett rolled off "Then we better get moving!!! Put it in gear, Torgo!!!"
"DON'T CALL ME TORGO!!!" Eduardo yelled as they ran (and rolled)
Roland barely dodged the box that the fourth ghost--being orange with a derby--pushed down. It crashed to the ground scattering phone books everywhere.
"If there's something wierd at the phone company, who they gonna call?" Eduardo bantered.
"Nobody, if we don't do something about it..." Garrett finished, both Ghostbusters drawing a bead on the orange ghost.
Roland smirked, readying his own gun. "On three..." he barked.
"THREE!!!" all four shouted in unison, four beams slamming into the orange ghost.
"This sucks!!! This isn't fair!!! We will avenge!!! We will..."
The orange ghost vanished into the trap.
"Get sucked into the trap like a good little ghostie." Kylie observed.
The four whooped and carried on.
"You mean you never noticed it?" Eduardo was saying incredulously. "I mean, it's so obvious: just lower the voice about maybe half an octave...The Brain sounds almost exactly like the Professor!!!"
"And Doctor Stantz sounds like Pinky, then?" Kylie suddenly interjected. "You'd have to be about as dumb as Pinky to think that..."
Roland raised an eyebrow...Kylie had gone into the first session of Parapsychology 101 with such an obvious crush on it's teacher...she had any hopes dashed quickly when a certain redhead with a Brooklyn accent sashayed into the class, but still...even with Eduardo and Chonchita, he figured that's why she jumped into the conversation so harshly.
"Doctor Stantz sounds more like Fred from Scooby Doo..." Garrett deadpanned. "I dunno, Kylie...I think Torgo has a little bit of a point...though what I was thinking is that Doctor Vee sounds like Garfield"
Roland rolled his eyes. "Make it stop..."
"And you sometimes sound just like that guy who was Will Smith's straight man on Fresh Prince..." Garrett said mischieviously.
"I do not!!!" Roland yelled.
"Hey!!! Over there!!!" Eduardo shouted, pointing off to the left. "99 cent Whoppers at the Burger King!!! And we handn't had lunch yet!!!"
Roland sighed in relief. "All opposed?"
No sound.
The ECTO-1 turned into the Burger King, Garrett and Eduardo chanting "Food fight!!!"
With hate.
He had dirty black hair and a straggly beard, with an enormous, hooked nose. He appeared to be dressed in what looked, at first glance, to be the tattered remnants of a lab coat that was way too big for him.
"It's them..." his voice snarled. He turned and ducked into an alley.
There was snoring coming from one of the two refrigerator boxes sitting next to the dead car, and a pair of decaying boots sticking out of the bottom.
As the man approached, a squirrel monkey in a beany with a propellor on top screeched angrily and threw it's feces at him.
The dirty bignosed man screamed at the monkey, and it hid behind the other refrigerator box, still hissing and growling.
The man kicked on the box. "Herbert!!! Wake your ass up!!!"
There was some whoozy grumbles, and the occupant of the box emerged. He was just as dirty, with a white beard just as unkempt and straggly. He was in what looked to be the remains of another lab outfit. The remains of a toupee sat atop his head like a dead animal. "Wha...what's got you in a knot, Norman? MacShayne's gestapo sweeping this street again?"
"Quit with the stupid jokes, Herbert!!!" the first man screamed. "We have our golden opportunity laid before us!!!"
Herbert blinked. "You found the Powerball winner when you were digging for lunch?"
"Even better, my friend..." the shorter man responded, grinning maniacally. "We have our chance to defeat the imposters..."
Herbert's eyes gleamed just as madly as Norman's.
"I'm serious this time!!! I just saw their clown car pull into the Burger King!!! Grab your gear and get moving!!!"
The monkey hit him with another piece of feces.
Herbert was trying hard not to laugh.
"Madre dios, Senor Pigboy..." Eduardo sniffed. "I doubt Slimer would eat four of those in one sitting."
"Slimer's already dead and doesn't grow anymore." Garrett retorted. "Brooklyn Heights needs his strength to save the world from ethereal ickies. And other things." he grinned leadingly at the cashier.
Roland rolled his eyes and Kylie gagged. "More of Doctor Venkman's old cheap moves?" she sneered.
"Hey!!! These are my very own cheap moves!!!" Garrett responded
The cashier just rolled her eyes. This is exactly what my older sister at the sub shop had to go through...
The four Ghostbusters got seated and started to eat...
"Dammit...I said no pickles..." Eduardo groused.
"Just pick them off..." Kylie offered.
"It's the principle of the thing, Spooky...I..." Eduardo stopped, and wrinkled his nose. "What the hell is that smell?"
"Gross..." Roland remarked, suddenly noticing it himself.
Several other patrons were starting to make noise about the stench.
"Torgo, did you load your diaper again?" Garrett asked, unlike the other not stopping his eating yet.
"It isn't my fault this time!!!" Eduardo replied indignantly. "And don't call me Torgo!!!"
Just then a dirty squirrel monkey wearing a filthy vest and beany (with a propellor on top) jumped onto Garrett's head, howling and screeching. "Ow!!! Damn!!! Get it off me!!!" Garrett yelled. Then the monkey jumped off of him, grabbed a Whopper, and scampered under the table to devour it.
"Nobody move!!!" a pitched voice shouted, and the Ghostbusters turned to see two bums blocking the doorway. The two looked like they hadn't bathed in literally years. One had black hair and a huge nose. The other was sporting an ugly toupee.
"Uhhngh..." Kylie gagged. "I think we found the smell..."
The tall big-nosed man brandished what looked like a corny sci-fi ray gun attached to his battered backpack. "Today we get our revenge!!! Today we show that world that WE are the Ghostbusters and that Venkman ass and his friends are the imposters!!! Today..."
"Norman, I don't see that Venkman guy or the others nowheres..." the other guy interjected.
"Huh?" the taller man stopped, suddenly taking a look at his prey.
"Can we help you with something?" Roland asked calmly.
"Where the hell are the Ghostbusters!?" Norman ranted. "We saw their stupid clown car pull into this place!!!"
"We're the Ghostbusters, Dumpster Breath." Garrett informed him, still wiping his face after the monkey's attack.
"You want something to eat?" Kylie asked simply "You look like you can use it..."
The man with the gun lit up. "Well, now that you mention it..."
The taller man slapped him and screamed at him. "WE DON'T WANT THEIR PITY!!! WE WANT OUR REVENGE!!!"
"But Herbert..."
"Now where are they??? Venkman, Fat-ass, Supergeek, and the N..., um, African American one?! The real imposter Ghostbusters?!"
"You haven't been reading the newspapers, have you Muchacos?" Eduardo observed.
"Doctor Venkman and that team split up about ten years ago." Roland continued, something starting to roll around in the back of his mind. "Professor Spengler..."
"Supergeek" Eduardo clarified, bringing a dirty look from Kylie.
"Professor Spengler formed our team a little while back. So you see...we are the Ghostbusters."
The tall bum took it in for a few seconds, then seemed to have some sort of seizure. "Imposter imposter Ghostbusters!? Will the indiginity ever end?!"
The shorter bum started to back away. "Well, um, sorry to bug you but, maybe we better get going before the cops..."
"NO!!!" the tall man howled. "I WILL STILL GET MY REVENGE!!!" With that he grabbed the gun from the shorter man, and jammed on a button on one handle...
The device made a few little fizzling noises. Nothing else happened.
"JESUS MOTHERF***ING BULLS**T PIGF***ING CHRIST!!!!" the tall bum screamed and slammed the device to the floor, clearly losing it.
The shorter man heard sirens starting to approach "We gotta split, Herbert..." He whistled under the table. "Elizabeth Two?" The monkey run out, part of a Whopper bun still hanging from it's mouth.
"NO!!! THIS ISN'T FAIR!!! I'M THE REAL GHOSTBUSTER NOT THEM!!! I MUST HAVE MY REVENGE!!!" As the taller man continued ranting similarly, the shorter man dragged him off. The monkey stopped to bite the tall man on the butt as they left.
The four Ghostbusters just sat and looked at each other.
"Anybody have any idea on God's green Earth that was all about?" Garrett asked the other three.
They shook their heads in unison.
"...Pulled the same kinda thing at Katharine's, Mom." They had all noticed her Brooklyn accent became more pronounced when she was talking to her family. "They built a volcano in her bathtub. 'Course she wasn't quite as upset by it---'Kind of nice to have kids building volcanoes in my house again'. You should've seen Egon turn red..." She nodded and made agreeing sounds as her mother spoke to her some more. "No, no, no...believe me, they rewire your toaster again, and they get banned from watching Bill Nye for a week--it's that simple. I keep tellin' you, Mom, call Katharyn for survival tips...she knows how to keep minds that precocious in check. And maybe offer her some tips--dealing with more than one high-strung kid at a time is HER new territory..." Some more talk back. "Look, Mom, I gotta go...Roland and the gang just got back. Love to Dad, allright? Bye..."
Janine Melnitz Spengler, Chief of Business for Ghostbusters Inc (the original New York franchise of Ghostbusters International), regarded her employees and wrinkled her nose. "What the hell have you been playing in? I thought the job was at the phone company, not the junkyard..."
Slimer appeared, and sniffed at the four Ghostbusters. He babbled something that sounded vaguely like "Garbage?"
"A long story, Ma'am" Roland replied simply.
"Must be a good story. Garrett looks like a monkey peed on his head"
Garrett grimaced. "Everything but"
"Where's the Professor, Ma'am?" Roland asked her.
"Upstairs with the twins. What's up?"
"Something weird happened tonight...we think he might know something about it"
"Give me a sec to send these little twerps to thier new home..." Kylie said, hefting the ghost trap. "Then Eddie and me really need to get back to Carlos' and pick up Conchita."
"You know Beth and Kevin don't mind lookin' out for her..." Eduardo replied. "It was kinda nice with just the four of us gettin' out and bustin' some ecto heads."
"It was a lot like old times..." Roland agreed.
"Yeah, I know..." Kylie nodded. "But I don't want to overimpose on Beth or anything...do that too often and she really will mind the imposition, whether she says or not."
"Maybe we'd better get with Professor Spengler quickly, then..." Roland recommended.
The two four year olds were transfixed, their eyes wide with anticipation.
Murray the Mantis opened the door to his apartment, still grumbling about the strange encounter with the Herb King...and did an exaggerated wild take
"SOMEONE'S REARRANGED THE FURNITURE IN MY APARTMENT!!!" Murray cried.
The screen cut to the Hypno-Snake, laughing hysterically "My brilliant revenge!!! Muh ha ha ha ha ha!!!"
The two kids and Egon were in stitches.
"No accounting for taste...." Eduardo sniffed.
At this point, Johnathan Christopher heaved a piece of popcorn at his sister. He was tall for his age, and already showed signs of having his father's distinct jaw line. But the mop of red hair on his head and the mischievous gleam in his green eyes were clearly inherited from his mother...
"Do not throw popcorn at me!!!" Eden whined back. She was also tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes. But the tone in her voice as she yelled at her brother couldn't help remind Egon of Janine's I don't have time for this shit, Doctor Venkman mode...
"Does it hurt?" he teased, throwing another.
"That's enough..." Egon said sternly. "There will be no throwing of popcorn or any other food item this evening. Bill Nye is about to come on, and you mother made it quite clear that if you don't behave..."
"Recieving loud and clear, Pop." John Christopher replied, sitting up straight.
"Understood, Father." Eden chipped in.
Egon noticed the Ghostbusters standing in the rec room; he rubbed both the kids' heads affectionately as he got up. "Enjoy, children...this is a good one, but I've seen it three times already and it looks like the Ghostbusters want to talk." He turned just as John Christopher began to grin maniacally. "And don't forget I can deactive any electrical appliance in the firehouse at will. Is that understood...Son?"
John Christopher laughed weakly. As soon as Egon turned, Eden stuck her tongue out at him.
"Nothing of the sort--pretty standard zap and trap..." Garrett smirked. "I already gave Mrs. S the payout--$8000 and free voice mail..."
"It's more...well...what happened after the job..." Roland clarified, then beginning the account of the strange encounter in the Burger King.
"A big nose, you said?" Janine asked.
"Yeah...we're talking Jimmy Durante schnozz action here..." Roland commented.
"Who's that?" Eduardo asked, clearly confused.
Kylie rolled her eyes. "No taste for the classics."
Kylie produced the battered, dirty weapon the shorter man had threatened them with.
Egon and Janine looked at each other. "I thought so..." she growled.
"You know who they were?" Roland asked expectantly.
"Norman Draverhaven and Herbert Loone" Egon answered flatly.
"Who?" Eduardo asked, confused again.
Janine rolled her eyes. "Back when we hit it big, this moron Dweeb showed up and loudly declared that he was joining the Ghostbusters. After Doctor Venkman pantsed Dweeb and threw them out of here, he started to make a lot of noise about how they were the Ghostbusters and Egon and the guys were just frauds."
"Loone was obsessed with Peter." Egon interjected. "He was also a college roomate of Draverhaven's and also insisted on joining the team. He invented an authentic ghost containment device, a 'ghost sponge', but it proved more dangerous than useful"
"But that wasn't enough." Janine continued. "They was jealous of the guys---Doctor Venkman especially---and put together this budget anti-ghost weapon, a 'photon pack', (Adonai knows how, as neither of those two seem to have the brains to screw in a lightbulb), and Dweeb went on a supposed crusade against a 'vast, otherworldly conspiracy'"
" 'Vast, otherworldly conspiracy'?" Garrett said, practically choking on the words, trying not to laugh too hard.
Egon and Janine exchanged a meaninful look.
"What?" Kylie asked, genuinely curious now.
"They did indeed have a foe. A rather disgusting Class Five calling himself 'the Sleaze'..."
Garrett grinned evilly as he looked at Eduardo.
"What?"
Egon cleared his throat loudly. "Um..anyway..."
"The truth is that Egon and the guys busted this 'Sleaze' dork in about half an hour" Janine said, not without a bit of smug pride showing. "After that, Dweeb and Loone were complete laughingstocks, and just kind of vanished from public view. We kinda wondered what happened to them after the asylum they were sent to closed..."
"So now we know." Garrett intoned with mock graveness.
"Whooooaaaa..." they heard coming in unison from upstairs. "Coooool..."
"Must be a good one." Janine smirked.
"Oh yes. It's the one where Bill Nye follows a blade of grass through a horse's digestive tract. The esopahgus, the stomache, the small intestine--which is the best part, by the way--the colon..."
All of the four of the younger Ghostbusters except Roland looked at each other and grimaced in disgust.
Roland was delighted. "That IS a good one...I can watch it again and again..."
"Once was enough for me." Janine rolled her eyes.
"I think once would be too much" Eduardo said, pantomiming throwing up.
Then the phone started ringing again.
"No no no no no..." Garrett growled. "That absolutely cannot be a call after this morning..."
"Ghostbusters." Janine answered with practiced expediency. "Hello? Hey, listen, if this is one of those obscene calls I...oh, sorry. No problem. Uh huh. Yeah. No, they'll be right there." She turned and glared at the four Ghostbusters, who collectively rolled thier eyes and groaned. "Thanks for your call."
Roland sighed. "So what we got?"
"Laundromat on 53rd street--poltergiests hitting the sheets..."
"Aw, man...and with maybe kids around..." Eduardo deadpanned.
"Then I suggest you get on it." Egon said sternly.
"Sir yes sir!!!" the four said in unison and soluted him. He rolled his eyes and smirked approvingly as they piled into the ECTO-1 and left.
Janine went over to her husband and put her arm around his waist. That intense look was one she knew very well.
"This about Dweeb and Loone?"
He pushed his glasses up with one finger. "It's bringing back a memory or two I'd rather not relive. After what nearly happened to..."
"Don't worry about that, Egon. That was seventeen years ago. You heard what Roland and the others said--these two are even more of a pathetic joke than they were then. Far more likely to hurt themselves that one of us--I mean, look at this piece of crap Kylie brought back. They ain't gonna hurt anyone with that."
"True." he admitted.
"Now maybe you'd better get back up there--the little monsters are being waaay too quiet for my liking."
"True enough. They might be trying to rewire the satellite box again..."
"Well, we know which side of the family they get that from..."
Egon Spengler laughed, spared a quick kiss to his wife's cheek, and went upstairs to see how their children were getting along.
"Besides, if you think I'm goin' up there with 'This Horse's Anus' running, forget it" she smirked, and plopped back down at her desk. But somehow, she just couldn't relax. Somehow, the voices of her children...and the mention of Dweeb and Loone...something seemed to tug gently at the edge of her memory...
"Heh heh heh..." Norman chuckled from the phone booth across the street.
"A brilliant plan..." Herbert gloated. "We distract them with a fake call..."
"Then we get what we want..." Norman finished cryptically.
She smirked and handed him the keys to her yellow Volkswagen. "Any chance you can get the little monsters to go with you?"
"I'll go!!!" Johnathan piped up. "Road trip!!! Road trip!!!"
Eden looked up from the reception desk computer, staring with her large blue eyes. "Um...do I have to?"
"Of course not, Sweetheart..." Janine responded. Rats...she thought to herself. So much for Word Whomp!...darn kid's almost beat my high score already...
"I guess it is Guys Day Out, then..." Egon stated simply, picking up John.
"Cool!!!" the boy shouted, making sure to look back and stick his tongue out at his sister. She just stuck hers back out at him.
With them gone, Janine walked over to her daughter. "So I guess it's just us girls then, huh?"
"It would appear..." Eden responded simply.
She's definitely her father's child...Janine remarked to herself, not for the first time nor the last...The most precisely speaking four-year old I ever met...
Slimer floated down, a banana peel still sticking out of his mouth.
"Except, does Slimer count, Mother? I know everybody refers to him with boy pronouns, but is that technically accurate."
"Kiddo, after twenty years I still don't know." Janine chuckled. "Not even your Dad knows..."
Eden whirled around with a look of shock on her face.
"You are joking!!!'
"Eden, dear, your Dad may be the smartest man in the world, but there are some things even he doesn't know."
Slimer floated over to the computer screen. He babbled something quite confused...but he knew better than to touch the screen. Janine had threatened him enough times...
The doors to GBCentral loudly crashed open.
Two dirty men walked into the garage. One of them kept looking back and forth.
"May we help you?" Eden asked innocently...
Slimer wrinkled his nose. "Bleck..." he sputtered.
"You are quite stinky..." Eden commented.
Janine studied the two dirty fellows for only a few seconds....they looked different, to be certain, but with Roland's account fresh on her mind..."YOU!!!"
Loone jumped and grabbed her. "I remember you, too...you were the little bimbo hanging around with Supergeek..."
"Eden!!! Run!!!" Janine shouted.
But Draverhaven was faster. He grabbed the girl. "Don't try anthing stupid, Miss Melnitz, or this child will be the worse for it."
"Mother?" Eden cried out.
"Just do what the dirty jerk says for now, Eden." Janine responded. Draverhaven tugged his collar-- they had to get this done quick. There was murder in the redheaded woman's eyes now.
"Cooperate with us, and noone will be harmed." Draverhaven said, grabbing one of the extra proton packs from a locker. It was one of the "older" packs, ironically enough, the ones that Roland and Egon had created six years before...
"What do you want, Dweeb?" Janine asked him with icy anger.
"Where are the Ghostbusters? The real Ghostbusters?" Loone demanded.
"Doctor Venkman is in LA. Doctor Stantz and Mister Zeddemore are in England on company business."
"Explains why all of the scabs are here today..." Loone chuckled. "And I'm sure they'll be occupied with their false alarm for a while--by the time they drive to the laundromat and get back, we will be finished with what we need to do..."
"Which is?"
"Have what is rightfully ours restored to us..." Draverhaven answered with an evil smirk.
Egon's eyebrow shot up. "Son, do you even know what a, um, 'porm' magazine is?"
"Nope...but I heard Uncle Pete talking about his porm collection..."
"Son, between your Uncle Peter and your Cousin Victor, I have concerns about the influences on you..."
"You're still mad about Vic and I dropping water balloons on Doo Doo Head?"
"His name is Louis, not 'Doo Doo Head', and he's an important officer of Ghostbusters International. Your cousin is twenty four and should really know better..."
Egon and John headed up to the counter. "So about the porm mags..."
"They don't sell those here." Egon told him briskly. The cashier stared at him as she rung up his purchases.
"Hi lady!!!' John chipped in.
The cashier smiled as she took Egon's GBI SuperCard. "This little charmer takes after his dad, doesn't he?"
"So I've been told by his mother." Egon replied with just a touch of amusement showing, scrawling his signature on the charge slip.
Suddenly, Egon was hit with a wet, green ball of green slime.
"Slimer!!! Maybe he knows where to get a porm mag!!!" John giggled.
Egon pulled the frantic Class Five off of him, as it babbled with much excited worry. "Slimer, slow down, what..."
Slimer spun three times, and babbled again, a little slower, but still quite clearly panicked.
"Eden and Janine!!!" Egon said, teeth clenching.
"Ghostbusters Mobile" Garrett said, picking up the phone.
"Probably Missus S..." Eduardo sneered. "Forgot to buy another crate of doughnuts for Slimer or something..."
"Slow down, Professor...you want us to what?"
"Abort the call and return to GBCentral..." Spengler barked into the phone. "Something is happening there--the call can wait."
Garrett turned to Roland. "Back it up, Alfonso...the Brain says something's up at HQ.."
"Great..." Roland muttered, hitting the ECTO-1's turn blinker.
Garrett made a rude face as the connection with Egon was abruptly cut off.
"So much for picking up Conchita early, huh?" Eduardo said, resignedly.
"Yeah..." Kylie agreed, squeezing his hand.
"Shut up, bitch!!! We're calling the shots here--do what we say or..." Draverhaven said threateningly, pressing the thrower he was carrying into Eden's cheek.
Draverhaven and Loone had outfitted themselves with two proton packs from upstairs--ironically enough, two of the plasma core-based packs used by Garrett, Roland, and Eduardo years before.
"You harm one hair on my daughter's head, you sorry excuse for a scientist, and I'll hunt you down to the far corners of the Earth..."
Draverhaven and Loone shrunk back just a little. Truth to tell, neither of them were nearly as in control as they tried to appear. The look in Janine Spengler's eyes was scaring the hell out of them.
They went up to massive Ecto Containment Unit, humming steadily.
"We want you to take something out of there." Draverhaven said.
"You're shitting me." Janine bit back.
"We want you to unleash the Sleaze, Norman's old enemy..." Loone explained. "It was when the...other Ghostbusters captured him that our fortunes changed...it was when they caught him that we ended up as laughing stocks and got thrown into that asylum..."
"And you guys trying to murder Doctor Venkman and me had nothing to do with any of that, right?"
"Shut up and just let the Sleaze out!!!" Draverhaven roared.
Janine turned and glared at them. "I can't. I could open a pinpoint fracture in the containment grid..." You don't know Egon Spengler as long as I have and not pick up things like that... "But picking one entity out of the thousands in there is impossible."
"You got the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man out!!!" Draverhaven pointed out. "He appeared in that commercial."
"True..." Janine admitted. She was telling them the honest truth, of course, but also stalling for time. She'd seen Slimer barrell out unnoticed and hoped to Adonai he had enough sense in his mind to find Egon, and lead him here..."But we had our pet ghost enter the grid with a return system. And not only is Slimer not here, I don't even know if Egon has the equipment anymore. I think Doctor Venkman cannibalized it back in '86 to build his 'ghost attractor'..."
Loone was in the middle of an appropriately scatological response when a new sound entered the room. The familiar click and whine of a proton accellerator being armed.
"I would recommend you stand away from both my wife and my daughter immediately." came an even, but stern command.
"Father!!!" Eden cried happily to the man standing at the top of the staircase, training a particle thrower on the crowd in the basement.
"We have hostages!!! Don't do anything hasty!!!" Draverhaven cried out, nevertheless feeling more nervous by the moment. It's the look in his eyes...He thought to himself...the same scary look the woman has...
"Harm one follicle on my offspring's head, and every particle of your body will be taking seperate vacations. You have my word on that." Egon replied, his eyes narrowing.
Draverhaven and Loone threw the two female Spenglers, and backed off, Draverhaven quickly sweeping the thrower back and forth. Janine grabbed Eden and ran for the staircase.
"They want to open the Containment Unit and release the Sleaze!!!" Janine shouted.
Draverhaven and Loone fired at Egon, incincerating part of the railing and knocking him back. They both missed, but Egon was stunned.
"Egon!!!" Janine yelled, reaching him. Eden hugged him, tears starting to well into her large blue eyes.
"...i feel like the floor of a taxi cab..." he moaned, to his daughter's delight.
Janine had grabbed his thrower to return fire...But how can I fire at them in here? I'll hit..."The Containment Unit!!!" she shouted, in horror.
Draverhaven and Loone had fixed their beams on it and were firing.
The familiar klaxon began to sound. Egon and Janine had heard it several times before, though the first time--when Peck shut them down in 1983--would always remain the most fixed in their minds.
"The armor plating on this thing is deflecting most of the charge!!!" Loone snarled.
"Aim at the part on the front!!!" Draverhaven replied, training the beam on the ghost trap access portal on the front.
There was a loud sizzle and electronic popping from the portal.
"YOU IDIOTS!!!" Janine screamed, by now having gone back down to the floor. They were so caught up in their handywork they didn't realize she was there--until she grabbed their heads and slammed them together.
"Janine--the plasma induction regulator!!!" Egon cried, pulling himself back up unsteadily, trying to keep Eden behind him. "The blinking red light on the access--you need to hit it before..."
She was too late.
The trap access exploded in a shower of dark green ecto slime.
The backup inductors have activated...but something was at the accessway when the containment field weakened for a millisecond...Egon's computer brain told him automatically. But what got out? "Janine?"
She shouted something that, in her right mind, she would not be saying with her four year old daughter in earshot.
"Janine!!! Don't move!!!"Egon commanded as the slime began to bubble and warp. He flailed for the thrower he'd dropped...
The green slime congealed into a human shape. A gangly figure wearing biker leathers and boots; his head was a skull, however, adorned only with straggly wisps of hair and a biker cap. "Whoa..." it said, looking around. "Thanks for springin' me, Babe...your little sister like put me in there, so it's like totally cool..." it said, regarding Janine sputtering on the floor.
Egon's computer brain flashed through it's data banks...but under the circumstance it might be forgiven for not coming up with an immediate match. "Do not move!!!" he commanded, finally locating his thrower.
"F*** you, PIG!!!" the skeletal figure replied, shooting Egon a middle finger. There was another blast of ectoplasm and a Harley Davidson, enshrouded in whispy green smoke appeared.
"Wicked!!!" the biker cried, hopping on the cycle.
"I said don't..." Egon tried to reiterate.
The spectral motorcycle revved it's motor and it charged him, the rider laughing maniacally...