By Fritz Baugh
GBI Case File GBNY-1986-4/141
Legal Stuff that's Boring Unless You're Louis Tully...
Ghostbusters is©1984 Columbia Pictures. Ghostbusters 2 is ©1989 Columbia Pictures The Real Ghostbusters is ©1986 Columbia Pictures Television and DiC Productions. Extreme Ghostbusters is ©1997 Columbia Pictures Television and Adelaide Productions. The 88MPH comic book is © 2004 Sony and 88MPH Studios. Ghostbusters: The Return is © 2004 Sony and iBooks. No use of characters and images associated with the above is intended for profit, or to challenge the copyrights of the above holders. Characters not appearing in the above copyrighted works are to be considered © Fritz Baugh and/or their respective creators.
Prolog: 2023 CE
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Forty-One
"Duck and roll, JC!!!" Eric's voice rang out.
John moved with a speed and grace that belied his large frame, neatly ducking and rolling under the fire blast the pissed off dragon spirit was attempting to nail him with.
"Any time now, Eric..." John's voice rumbled, it's usually pleasant basso just a bit arched from having nearly been barbecued by an overgrown lizard.
"These sutras take time, JC--I can't rush this or I might trigger a PK backlash"
"Oh, sure...I can just get roasted in the interim..." the taller man deadpanned. Bringing himself upright, to his full six-six height, he aimed his particle thrower and hit the gnashing dragon right in it's eye.
"I'm done with the Class Five..." John's GBX crackled, a lilting female voice, heavily accented with uppercrust English, informed him. "I am coming to back you up."
Sure enough another particle beam hit the snarling reptile, and a short woman with long dark hair appeared at the other end of the beam.
"So glad you could make it, Milady"
"Dry up , Doctor." she sniffed back.
John at times wished he didn't enjoy irritating her so much, but TJ had been raised a Proper British Lass and was such an easy target. For what it was worth, she didn't take much of his crap, and simply refused to be intimidated by him. Which made her all the more irresistable to him, not that he'd ever admit it.
Eric just rolled his eyes, wishing John and TJ would save the flirting for later. He intoned the last few words of the "binding of the Ryu" spell his mother had taught him, and let it fly.
The long, snakelike dragon howled every Chinese obscenity it knew. Eric smirked and pulled his GBX off his belt.
"Trap mode!" he said, pushing a button on it marked in yellow and black striping. He held it up to face the dragon as the display began to emit a cone of white light.
Still howling angrily, the dragon was sucked into the small device.
Eric pushed a button or two, and a hologram appeared, the dragon writhing and snarling; the words containment 67 capacity flashed on the bottom of the display.
He switched the display off and put the small device, resembling nothing more than a pager as used a generation or so before, back onto his belt. "One more ready to flush"
"I...is it over?" the owner of the Chinese restaurant appeared.
"The entities are in secure confinement." TJ confirmed briskly.
"Now comes the part where you pay us..." John said simply, just standing right next to the owner. Towering over him by about a foot.
The little oriental man gulped and smiled weakly, and tapped some information into his unicomm. John called up some numbers on his own GBX, and nodded at Eric.
Eric dialed up the image of the dragon again. "Hey, Eden---you copy?"
A few seconds later, a smooth contralto voice responded "Ghostbuster Central on line, Eric."
"We got another one ready to download" he told her as he pressed a button a few times, leading to a new message download data?
"Acknowledged, Eric. Download ready...now..."
download enabled
Eric pressed the action button, sending all of the data accumulated on the dragon to the computers at GBC
download complete
"Confirming download at this end, Eric. Anything else?"
"Nope. Thanks as always, Edie..."
"Do not call me Edie. Central out." Eric and John chuckled as the dragon image was replaced with the familiar red circle and ghost design...the logo of Ghostbusters International for over thirty years.
The ubiquitous ECTO-1 pulled into the garage at the now-legendary headquarters. Not the original ECTO-1, or even it's first replacement, but a modern vehicle with current amenities (fuel cell engines, polyplast shell) cast in the image of the original two 1959 Cadillac ambulances.
The three Ghostbusters got out of the car, each stretching and placing their proton packs back into the lockers. Externally, the proton packs were effectively identical to the ones made since the 1980's--with a five thousand year half-life, the consensus came to be "Why mess with success?", though improvements had been made to their internal systems over the years, especially after one short-lived radical redesign in the late 90's
John was the tallest of the three by far, as mentioned standing some six-six, with a powerful frame to match. His unruly mop of thick red hair tapered into a squiggly tail at the back, and his angular features, cleft chin, and bright green eyes had made more than one woman swoon. HIs particular uniform featured a sleeveless version of the ubiquitous Ghostbuster jumpsuit colored purple with red trim over a short-sleeve red shirt.
Eric was smaller, and a bit wirey. HIs dark hair was curly, but he had an open face that dimpled when he smiled. He was seldom without a set of goggles perched on his head, whether they were ecto-scopes or, more likely, a battered set of aviator goggles he'd had about as long as John or Eden could remember. He wore a red and blue bombadier jacket, and his uniform was trimmed in tan and green.
"Up for some barbecue, JC?" Eric asked playfully (Christopher was John's middle name)
"Not after nearly being one." John replied blithely.
TJ (short for Tessa Jane) brushed a dangling hair from her face. She was a short woman (about five-three) with deceptively delicate features, but as a former member of Scotland Yard she was well-aquainted with police work and all of it's messy necessities. She was a lot tougher than she looked, to put it simply. Even a casual observer might have noticed a small difference with her proton pack--the particle thrower had been modified to latch at the left shoulder, as she was left handed. Her uniform was far less customized that theirs, a standard cut in orange and purple.
Jeremy Cranston was over at the main desk, trying to eat his lunch and having a little trouble in that regard--the old firehouse's perennial haunter, the green spud-like entity nicknamed Slimer long ago, kept trying to steal some of it. Jeremy was the team's office and buisness manager, a man of average build and of mixed Oriental blood, dressed in a tie and khakis in blue and yellow that really didn't go well together.
"I am so glad you all are back. John, you got a message from the lab--they say the stress tolerance on that ion rate would blow you to kingdom come so don't do it."
John rolled his eyes and mumbled truculantly
"And Charlene Zeddemore called from Paris--she says the check on the Eiffel Tower came out totally on target, all systems functioning well."
"Considering Gustav built the thing like, almost a hundred fifty years ago before they heard of PK flux or even modern electromagnetic theory, I'd say that's better than expected." Eric had to admit.
Eden came down the stairs, still typing some fifth dimensional matrix calculations on her data pad. John looked over her shoulder and said mischieviously "I think the 3xy over there is supposed to be 3xz..." She bopped him on the head with the pad.
Eden and John were fraternal twins, but other that the fact that they were both tall (Eden standing a good five-nine) and quite attractive, you might not have guessed that at first. Eden lacked her brother's musculature, naturally enough, but was well-proportioned in more...female ways. At times, she'd almost be willing to admit, too well-proportioned, having had to turn away quite a few annoying would-be suitors since age fifteen. Her long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes didn't help keep men away, either. But she dressed slightly conservatively, such as the bulky purple shirt with red below-the-knee skirt and matching vest she was wearing now. Her look was completed with blocky red earrings and a pair of white sneakers.
"I was just going over the latest plasma shunt moduli..."
"Time to tune out." Eric smirked at TJ
"Quite all right with me. I think I need a shower anyway..."
John turned to leer at her as she headed to the stairway. Eden bopped him again.
"All right, all right, the shunt moduli..." he grumbled.
Eric smirked and sent downstairs to the rumbling containment unit. Eric was a pretty smart guy, but some of the stuff John and Eden involved themselves in was too esoteric even for him. They were dear friends--he'd known them since childhood--but sometimes they were just too wierd for him.
He went over to the platform at the front of the chamber, and opened a hatch. There was a slot that his GBX fit perfectly into. The device in the slot, he called up the dragon image once again.
entity containent download?
He hit the confirmation button on the GBX
ready for entity download
He pulled the lever on the side of the containment unit. A light flashed red.
The image of the dragon swirled and vanished. The light turned green.
entity download complete
He pulled the GBX out of the slot and shut the containment unit. Just for safety's sake, he called up the GBX's trap status screen to confirm that it was now empty.
containment 0 capacity
When he got upstairs, John and Eden were still arguing in polynomials. Jeremy was sitting at the desk trying to ignore them
Then the door opened, and a woman with short brown hair, wearing a purple outfit with a cape, stepped in. "Ghostbusters." she said loudly, getting their attention.
"My name is Delphia. And there is a matter of literally grave importance demanding your attention."
Ghostbusters Central. Some Thirty Plus Years earlier...
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Four (1986), just after "Robo Buster"
"Welcome back to Channel Six news...here's the lovely Ellen MacNiell with another report on the Ghostbusters' war against the otherworldly conspiracy of evil..."
"Oh, you have got to be pulling my leg." Janine Melnitz rolled her eyes and started to chuckle. She was currently alone in the firehouse save the ectoplasmic entity known as Slimer, stretched out on the sofa in the rec room, her light blue pumps sitting on the floor. She pulled another Stay-Puft marshmallow from the bag and ate it. "Result of an idiot tampering with shit he didn't understand, but hardly an 'otherworldy conspiracy'..."
Janine was ruefully referring to the events only a few days before...an executive of Grossjuck Industries had created a robot Ghostbuster that had completely ionized it's opponents instead of containing them; as Egon Spengler accurately surmised (as always...) the entities hadn't been destroyed, instead they accumulated into an ectoplasmic maelstrom that would've destroyed Grossjuck Plaza in it's anger...save for the timely intervention of the Ghostbusters.
Janine was about to turn the channel, not wanting to relive that mess for a variety of reasons, both professional but mostly personal...when with a shock Ellen appeared on location at a run-down skating rink with a dumpy, bispectacled fat man with a lab coat and one of the hugest noses she'd ever seen appeared on the screen. The graphic GHOSTBUSTER NORMAN DRAVERHAVEN appeared on the screen.
We're here with the Ghostbusters' stalwart, intrepid leader, Professor Norman Draverhaven, to get the latest in the war against the malevolent Sleaze"
"Draverhaven?!" Janine cried in surprise, spitting a marshmallow half across the room.
The big-nosed man smiled with pride at the description. "Well, the evil demon sent his powerful henchmen to attack this skating rink and terrorize all of these innocent children and teenagers. Well, of course I am the only one equipped to handle the nefarious Sleaze..."
Janine's eyes narrowed. It wasn't the man she thought it would be when she first heard the name "Draverhaven", which was more than a little bit of a relief. This guy has to have an ego to rival Doctor Venkman's, too...just listen to his crap...
A ten year old came up to Draverhaven and Ellen. "Hey, Mister, where's Peter?"
"Peter? I assure you...there is nobody named Peter here!" Draverhaven responded, anger brimming in his voice.
"Of course there is, Mister...Peter Venkman. He's, like, the coolest Ghostbuster."
"You don't understand, kid. Peter Venkman isn't a Ghostbuster--he's a con man. He conned New York with all of his nonsense. You didn't see him and his imposter patrol stopping the Sleaze, did you?"
"You son of a bitch..." Janine growled at the screen. Watching a friend dearer to her than she'd ever admit out loud being savaged by an idiot who didn't know what he was talking about was one thing, but to have Egon lumped into an "imposter patrol" was really beginning to raise her hackles. And when the hackles of this Brooklyn girl get raised, there will be pain dealt out.
"If they're the imposters howcum they got a movie made about them? Howcum they got Bill Murray to play Peter?...and since you weren't in the movie I bet you aren't a real Ghostbuster..."
"I AM A REAL GHOSTBUSTER, YOU LITTLE..." Draverhaven screamed, grabbing the kid and shaking him.
Ellen looked helplessly at the camera "Commercial!!!"
Janine couldn't help but laugh.
The ECTO-1 (at this date, the one true original ECTO-1) pulled into headquarters, and three of the four Ghostbusters got out. Peter Venkman deftly dodged the green, potato-shaped ball of slime that hurled itself in his direction, and moved over to his locker, doffing his brown and blue Ghostbuster uniform. "Try something new, Slimer. I"m sure Ray would love some gooey green kisses right about now..."
Ray Stantz, dressed in his tan and brown uniform, hefted two smoking ghost traps. "Two class sixes...now that's what I call a day's work."
Egon Spengler was missing one sleeve of his blue and pink uniform and went to the tail of the ECTO. "Peter, help me get Winston out of the car."
Venkman grumbled and helped Egon haul the last Ghostbuster, Winston Zeddemore, out of the vehicle, where he'd been lying face first. His aqua and red uniform was in tatters, and a pillow was belted to his rear end. "Goddamn ghost dobermans..." he was grunting. "Are you sure I ain't gonna get rabies or something from this?"
"Rabies is an infection carried by living organisms." Egon assured him. "I've done a thorough psychospectral scan on our way back, and can detect no signs of any sort of lingering supernatural after effects."
"Meaning you ain't gonna turn into a doberman at the full moon, which is good, because I don't think Ray has a recipe for dobermanbane soup in his book." Venkman chattered, trying to annoy a laugh out of his friend. "Though if anyone offers to start a game of musical chairs, I'd recommend passing on that."
"I was afraid you were gonna say 'Sit it out' " Winston smirked.
"Aw, c'mon...I can't go for the easy gag every time, right?"
Ray didn't say it out loud, of course, for fear that Winston would strangle him, but looked at the smoking ghost traps with a little bit of sadness. They got so scared when we started to fire our proton beams...I kinda feel sorry for the poor things... He shrugged and went downstairs to flush them into the containment unit.
"Holy crap, what happened to you?" Janine exclaimed as the guys came up the stairs, bracing Winston.
"Ghost dobermans decided he was a real bite in the ass, and proceeded accordingly." Venkman smirked.
"And they left you alone?" As hoped, that brought a pained smile to Winston's face.
Venkman and Egon took Winston to his bunk, carefully removing what was left of his uniform and placing him on the bed face down.
"You know I can't sleep this way..." Winston whined.
"And you'll sleep even worse with pressure sending throbbing, shooting pain up your butt, Zee" Venkman retorted. "Unless there's something about you all of us and your girlfriend should know about..."
"You suck, Venkman, you know that? And you don't just suck, you suck a lot. You suck almost as bad as those dobermans..."
"Don't give him ammunition." Egon said flatly. Just about then Janine noticed the left sleeve of his jumpsuit was torn off
"Egon, are you all right?" she said worriedly, going over to inspect it
"Um..." he stammered, drawing away. "I am unhurt. One of our opponents snagged the upper sleeve with it's teeth, and the cloth proved the less endurant part of the grip."
"They bit you too? But I don't..."
"The creature's incisors missed my actual dermis by approximately a half centimeter. So I was fortunate." He tugged on his collar self-consciously. "Though I, as always, appreciate your concern."
Venkman mused to himself with no small satisfaction. After all the crap with Paul Smart and Robo Buster...it's nice to see things returning to normal for them. Normal being, as always, a fairly relative term in thier case...
She beamed for a few seconds, then turned away abruptly. "Yeah, I...I better get Winston something to drink. Bud okay?"
"Anything stronger?"
"You know better than that. Slimer's bad enough when he gets into the beer."
"Okay, okay..." Winston grunted. "Just bring a straw, I guess..."
Slimer floated into the room, getting an eyefull of Winston butt high into the air, and started to laugh. He floated over and raised an ectoplasmic arm.
"Don't even think about it." Egon and Venkman intoned in unison.
Slimer looked forlorn for a few seconds, then bearhugged Venkman.
Suddenly, a pinpoint of light appeared in Central Park.
From the light came a swirl of color. A growing kaleidoscope of energy...swirling and roiling...it began to take shape...a human shape...
The man who stood there was gaunt and dressed in an eccentric outfit of mismatched patches of clothing. He wore a visor that obscured his eyes and a haircut that looked remarkably like the one sported by Peter Venkman.
"With that level of pollution, it has to be New York in the 1980's" he said, half serious half mocking. "Transit is complete. Now to find the Ghostbusters and stop what's going to happen before it's too late..."
"Interesting stuff on TV..." Janine was telling Venkman and Egon as she was packing her purse to leave. "I saw a report about the 'Ghostbusters' on Channel Six earlier..."
"Was it that April chick?" Venkman asked excitedly. "She's hot..."
"Curious..." Egon rubbed his chin. "I don't recall a Channel Six truck at the doberman job..."
"That's the wierd part. They didn't say a damn thing about the doberman job. And it wasn't April it was Ellen MacNeill, Doctor Venkman."
"She's hot too. For a redhead."
Janine scratched her temple with her left middle finger. "She interviewed some guy named Draverhaven."
Four sets of eyes (or I guess five if you counted Egon's glasses) stared in mute shock.
"That's what I thought, but it wasn't him--his name was Norman Draverhaven. Had a bigger waistline and a nose to match"
Ray gulped audibly. "Norman Draverhaven? I don't..."
Venkman muttered to himself. "Crap in a hat...Dweeb"
Janine walked to the door, heels clicking. "He sure got mad when some kid mentioned Doctor Venkman, but I bet that won't be on the rerun. It was a sight, let me tell you...wish I'd taped it."
"Do you know something about this Peter?" Egon asked sternly.
"I'd rather not say yet, but...maybe..." Venkman mumbled.
"See you guys tomorrow. Let me know how it comes out..." Janine waved and almost closed the door. Then she opened it back up. "Oh, and Egon?"
"Hm?"
She blew a kiss to him. "Good night..." she purred breathily. He turned bright red. She closed the door.
Venkman elbowed him. "See? You still got it, Spengs...It's practically already 'Paul who?' "
Egon cleared his throat forcefully, not rising to Venkman's transparent attempt to redirect the conversation. "Perhaps we should concentrate on the matters at hand..."
The three of the four Ghostbusters watched the Channel Six News at Six with rapt attention.
They hadn't said more that five words since Janine left. The name "Draverhaven" was one that affected them all...
Years before, Micheal Draverhaven was an occult dabbler attending Columbia University, an expert in Polynesian runes. Inevitably, his interests led him to a circle of friends that included three young men named Ray Stantz, Peter Venkman, and Egon Spengler.
Then, on a spring day in 1979, things went horribly wrong. The experiement Micheal, Egon, and Ray devised malfunctioned...Draverhaven was driven mad...and Ray nearly met death at his hands. Micheal was committed to the Albany Psychological Corrections Facility.
Until 1984. His three former coresearchers and Winston Zeddemore had been in business for some six months, when Micheal assumed control over Slimer, and used him to break out of the APCF. Draverhaven had nearly called destruction down on New York City, a veritable legion of ghostly minions, before the Ghostbusters stopped him.
Egon finally appeared in the media room. "Micheal Draverhaven is still comatose. Just as he's been for the last two years."
"Here it is!" Winston noted as Ellen MacNiell came on. He had about three pillows piled under his ass.
"We're here with the Ghostbusters' stalwart, intrepid leader, Professor Norman Draverhaven, to get the latest in the war against the malevolent Sleaze"
" 'Ghostbuster Leader Norman Draverhaven'?" Ray read incredulously.
"Janine's right.." Winston whistled. "That dude does have a big nose."
"Well, the evil demon sent his powerful henchmen to attack this skating rink and terrorize all of these innocent children and teenagers. Well, of course I am the only one equipped to handle the nefarious Sleaze..."
There was a noticable jump in the frame. "I suspect that was the edit splice." Egon noted.
"You see, Ellen..." Draverhaven continued, stopping to smooth a mussed hair and take her microphone. "Some so-called paranormal investigators only deal with the little ghosts. Slimy things at the Hotel Sedgewick, ghost dogs, and other assorted riff raff. They're glorified garbage collectors..."
Four sets of eyes were now very narrow.
"But where are they when the Sleaze is on the attack? Schmoozing with has-been comedians like Bill Murray while I do all the hard work of keeping the world safe from slavering supernatural domination. Accept no substitute--I am the real Ghostbuster!!!"
"You asshole!!!" Venkman shouted, and reared up as though to punch the television.
Egon placed a hand on his fist. "This isn't worth it, Peter."
"Remember how much that set cost" Winston added, counting on Venkman's inherent cheapness to restrain him. It worked.
"I suppose Gozer, Samhaine, Cthulhu, Proteus, Tiamat, Mee-Krah, and all the rest don't count as 'slavering supernatural domination' then..." Ray snarled. Ray Stantz didn't snarl very often.
"Strong words from the intrepid Norman Draverhaven, leader of the self-proclaimed real Ghostbusters. We here at Channel Six are dedicated to bringing you the true exploits of these real heroes, who's exploits don't seem to be sung as much as some other so-called 'Ghostbusters'. This is Ellen MacNiell, Channel Six News. Back to you, Vernon..."
Venkman angrily switched the set off.
Ray stewed. "One things for sure...I'm cancelling my membership in the Channel Six Kid's Club"
"When I called Albany they did tell me that Micheal had one visitor over the last two years besides his mother and Raymond: his older brother, Norman Draverhaven, PhD." Egon explained.
Venkman groaned.
Ray shook his head sadly. "I don't think Micheal even mentioned him...I didn't even know about him until just now. I told him about Carl a few times, and he nodded, but..."
Egon nodded, able to relate some to Ray's relationship with Carl Stantz, then turned to glare at Venkman. "I think it's time you came clean."
Ray and Winston looked at both of them. "About what?" Ray asked.
"You know something about this, don't you?" Egon asked Venkman.
Venkman nodded and slouched back onto the couch. "I didn't think any of this would come back to bite me in the ass like this, guys. It was a really small matter and I thought I'd taken care of it..."
"What did you do, Pete?" Winston asked sternly.
Venkman paused and drug on a cigarette. "It was about nine or ten months ago...When this guy came in, he was ranting like a maniac. Said he 'deserved' to be a Ghostbuster because of what we did to his brother. That he would revolutionize the field with his new invention, the Photon Pack."
"Anyway, he was such a prick I pantsed the jerk, renamed him 'Professor Dweeb', and had Slimer bear hug him. I threw him out and threatened to call the cops if he showed up again. He swore unholy revenge and that he'd show the world who the real Ghostbuster was, but nothing came of it until now. So I thought the story was really over---until today."
"And you didn't say anything sooner? That Micheal's brother was here?"
Venkman was quiet for a while fifteen seconds. "Ray...I just didn't want to deal with it right then."
Egon put his hand on Ray's shoulder. Micheal Draverhaven's attempted destruction of New York had occurred just as Venkman's relationship with a certain celloist was disintigrating. And Norman's arrival "nine or ten months ago" came rather close to said celloist marrying a violinist...
Winston popped open a Bud. "So how much of a pain in the ass do you think these guys are gonna be?"
"That Dweeb's a loser and a wanna-be of the first order" Venkman spat. "About the only danger is that people will start to believe the crap he's spouting on Channel Six and give us a bad name." It said a lot about Venkman's current mental state that he didn't pounce on Winston's "pain in the ass" remark.
"That could hurt our business." Ray agreed. "Good thing it's Channel Six, though--if it was a station that actually had any journalistic integrity..." Which was a good point. In the New York area Channel Six had the journalistic credibility of the National Enquirer or Lurid Weekly Gazette.
"I'm more interested in finding out about this 'Sleaze' he mentioned." Egon mused. "If there's any chance that Draverhaven has encountered some sort of honest supernatural threat, it's something we should be aware of"
"I'm not real worried, Egon. He probably just made it up..."
"But what if he didn't, Peter?" Ray countered.
Venkman grumbled to himself. There's absolutely nothing dangerous about Dweeb and his deluded fantasies...
A glow appeared in the morning skies of Central Park, an elliptical accessway from a temporal null zone.
John came out first, particle thrower armed. He looked back and forth, then signaled to the others. "Coast clear"
Eric and Eden came out next, TJ taking the rear. Like the others, Eden was now dressed in full 21st Century Ghostbuster uniform, hers being purplish blue in color with magenta trim. She turned back to the portal.
"Are you joining us, Lady Delphia?"
"I cannot step out of the portal, as it would violate the First Law of Time. I already exist in this era, and it would provoke an unfortunate paradox backlash"
Eric's eyes narrowed, wondering...Just how old is this Delphia lady, anyway? She doesn't look any older than us...
"If you need to contact my 20th Century self, the information is enclosed in your devices, as well as all that Romulus could tell me about the conspiracy."
"I just wonder...why us? If this Romulus guy and you could pick, I dunno, anyone from time and space to save the Ghostbusters, why us?"
"An insightful question, Johnathan Christopher." Delphia smirked. Something about the way she kept looking at him was beginning to unnerve him. "The simplest answer...is that you are the ones closest to the endangered in time, able to understand them and their culture easier than any who come after, yet at the same time none of you exist yet, eliminating the aforementioned paradox danger."
"Perhaps I can tell you more once your task is completed..." with that, the portal snapped shut.
Eden was wrinkling her nose as she activated her GBX. "The pollution level is certainly consistant with late 20th Century New York."
"I think Delphia likes you, Dude..." Eric teased John, making sure to keep one eye on TJ's reaction.
"Oh, get real..."
"Aw, c'mon, old buddy...she kept looking at you really, intense-like"
"Oh good grief..." TJ muttered. "They can't concentrate on their work even in this circumstance..."
"Hormonal derangement. Testosterone does that to them." Eden deadpanned, not looking up from her GBX.
"Would you let that drop?" John was saying, getting honestly aggrivated. "Delphia does not have the hots for me!!!"
Eden grabbed her brother's ear. "Could we get back to matter at hand, Johnathan Christopher?"
"OW! Hey, Eric started it..."
"I've attained a PK lock on the Ghostbusters...four of them appear to be at Ghostbusters Central, the fifth...hm...of course, Canarsie, Brooklyn..."
"Janine Melnitz." TJ surmised.
"She may not have left for work yet..." John said, looking at Eden.
"Or it could be Wednesday or Sunday...those were her days off most of the time, as I recall." Eden nodding. "This could be helpful, actually."
"Do you think that means she's the target?" Eric asked, a little worried.
"We can't discount that, but I was thinking more in the sense of temporal contamination. The less people know of our presence in this era the better."
"Anything yet on the others?" John asked her.
"No...it's harder to track them, as their PK traces were never downloaded into GBI's computer base. We may have to engage in some..."
"Detective work." TJ finished Eden's thought. "That, of course, is my field."
"But we still need to make contact with the Ghostbusters..." Eric reminded everyone.
"We split up." John said simply. "One team looks for our would-be assassins, the other goes to GBC. TJ's a lock for the hunt, while..."
"You and Eden go to headquarters, JC. Our best bet of convincing the current Ghostbusters of the situation is Professor Spengler, and..."
"But..." Eden sputtered. "That has the greatest potential temporal contamination!"
"Maybe, but you two know how to watch what you say. And more importantly, you speak Spenglerese!"
John shook his head. "We don't have time to argue about this, guys...Fine, TJ take Eric with you. But watch out for his pick-up lines about tantric sex magic."
TJ shot an incredibly disapproving look toward Eric. The goggled man laughed nervously and backed away from her.
The foursome moved off in two seperate directions. "That was rather forceful, Johnathan..."
"Oh, shut up."
Eden smirked knowingly. She knew her brother too well...
Acknowledgement: Dr. Loone is another character I lifted out of the West End role playing games, this time from the 1989 edition of Ghostbusters International
Micheal Draverhaven was a character created by Andrew Dabb for the 88MPH Ghostbusters: Legion mini-series. His connection to Professor Dweeb was inspired by commments posted on Ghostbusters Central by Matthew Riddle. Actually connecting them was all my fault, though.
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