Author Note: This is a later chapter in a story I have had in my head for a while. I wanted to see if anyone would be interested in reading a fic of this type before I started work on it. It takes place a few years after Ghostbusters II. The main character, John (name probably will change), has come from Boston, MA to New York to try and open a Boston branch of the Ghostbusters. The idea of the Ghostbusters opening branch offices or franchising came from other fics, fan movies , and the Ghostbusters RPG, not to mention the Ghostbusters III script. At the moment, this is a one-shot. If enough people like it, I will start on yet another series. If not, it at least can stay as a one-shot. Thanks and be sure to tell me what you think.
"Why am I doing this?" John thought to himself.
He was getting odd stares from all the people in the subway car. Then again, if saw a guy with an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back, you would probably stare too. John shrugged, the weight of the Proton Pack starting to cause pain in his lower back. The trap hanging from his belt banged loudly against the subway car cab he was leaning against.
"How do those guys not have serious back problems after wearing these things for so long?"
He began to think about what he had done. Everyone back home thought he was nuts for wanting to become a Ghostbuster. He had just graduated from college no more then a year ago. He spent most of that year going from job to job, not finding anything that could hold his attention for more then a few months. Two months ago, he heard a new report about the Ghostbusters looking to expand their company into franchises across the country. He quickly got as much money together that he could get from his savings and willing family members, determined to become one of the newest Ghostbusters. It was a dream of his ever since the Ghostbusters busted some ghosts in his aunt's apartment building on a family visit.
"They thought I was nuts then, I wonder how they would feel about me "borrowing" a proton pack to prove myself to those guys..."
He was suddenly brought back to reality by the chime of the subway doors. He saw that it was his stop and quickly threw his arm into the door to stop it from closing.
"Ow!!!"
John rubbed his arm as he walked up the stairs to the street. "Don't they have safeties on those things? That could have taken off my arm!" Looking up, he took in his surroundings. It was a dark city street, a few cars parked on either side. Some of the street lights were out, with those that were still working casting weird shadows on the buildings. Pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket, he tried to read a few scribbles written on it.
"Parken ... Driv? Wow, you would think Janine would have better handwriting, being a secretary and all."
John put the paper back in his pocket and started to walk down the street. A few blocks down, he barely made out a street sign that read "Parker Drive".
"Guess this is the place." John turned down the street. To his surprise, most of the street lights were actually working. Halfway down the street, underneath a street light, was a small, plump Arabic man. John walked over to him.
"Are you," John said, taking another look at the rap sheet, "Mr. Nahasapeemapetilon?"
"Yes sir. I am he," said the man with a heavy accent.
"Ok so whats the problem?"
"As I told the shrill woman on the phone, my store is being destroyed by ghosts!!!"
"Ok sir. You can calm down now. The Ghostbusters are here." John smiled and tried to look heroic.
"But there is only one of you."
John almost fell over trying to puff out his chest. "Um.. ya... About that. The other Ghostbusters are busy on a big job. They asked me to take care of this for them."
"So who are you? And why do you not have that fancy uniform you guys are always wearing?"
"Um.. I am the new guy. My uniform didn't come in yet. You know how UPS is." John started to get a little nervous. "All that matters is that I have this baby." He pointed to the proton pack on his back.
"I guess that you are correct sir." Mr. Nahasapeemapetilon nodded his head. "I am surprised you came at all. Usually its hard to get the police to come here when those punk kids come in my store to start trouble."
"What was that?"
"Oh nothing," said Mr. John started was starting to think this was a bad idea.
John started was starting to think this was a bad idea.
Mr. Nahasapeemapetilon turned and pointed towards a store on the other side of the street. "My store is right there, across the street from my car. Please save it from those ghosts!!"
"Um. No problem sir. Just stay back here where it is safe."
"Oh yes! That would be good. I will stay here and call for help if it is needed."
"Ya... sure." John sallowed deeply, then started to walk towards the store.
As he neared the store, he heard some crashes coming from within. "Oh boy..."
He quietly opened the door and looked inside. The store was trashed. The floor was covered with broken bottles and ripped open boxes and bags. John walked inside, stepping on a open bag of potato chips. John winced at the noise. "Shh..."
A low growl came from behind a shelf at the back of a store. John grab the neutrona wand from his proton pack and slowly made his way to the back of the store. As he neared the last isle, he ducked down behind a shelf.
"Ok," he said to himself. "This is it."
John took one last deep breath and jumped out from behind the shelf, neutrona wand ready to fire.
In front of him was what seemed to be a small dog. John look at it in disbelief.
"WHAT?!? Its just a dog!" he shouted angrily. He kicked a nearby can of corn. The can flew across the store and hit the wall next to the dog. A low growl came from the dog. John stopped dead as the dog turned to face him, its eyes glowing red.
"That can't be good." John turned and ran towards the door. The dog howled and began grow. It quickly became the size of small child with horns growing out of the sides of its head. It jumped over the shelf and dove at John, knocking the two of them out of the shop's pane window.
John landed on the ground hard, losing is grip on his neutrona wand. The demon dog jumped off his back and landed a few feet in front of him. John quickly pulled himself to his feet, grabbing his dropped neutrona wand. He point it at the creature. Panicked, he flipped random switches on the wand, trying to make it fire. "Come on!!! WORK!!"
Suddenly, a proton beam fired from the gun, knocking John off his feet. The demon dog dodged the blast, which hit the parked car across from the store. It blew out the car's passenger side windows and left a large hole in the door.
A cry came from down the street, "MY CAR!!!"
John responded, with "Sorry about that!!" and pulled himself to his feet. He looked at the last switch he flipped. "I guess that is fire." Taking hold of the neutrona wand again, he turned towards the demon dog. "Ok pup! Your toast!!" He fired the neutrona wand, this time bracing himself. The dog jumped, dodging the blast again, and and landing behind John. It dove at him again. John barely dodge it by jumping out of the way, landing near the car. Pulling himself to his feet, he turned to see the demon dog getting ready to pounce He turned to run, only to be faced with the car. With a howl, the dog began to run towards him. Thinking quickly, John pointed the neutrona wand and fired. This time he connected. The demon dog gave a howl of pain as it was lifted off the ground. "ALL RIGHT!! Maybe next time you won't attack a guy packing a proton pack!!" John smiled at his triumph. He was brought back to reality as he saw that the demon dog was fighting the beam. He remembered the trap and made a quick grab for it with his hand. He felt nothing. Looking down, he saw that the trap was missing. Looking around the area, he saw it: resting with the broken glass on the sidewalk. "That's not good..." John's bad luck got worse as the demon dog threw itself to the right, pulling the bewildered John with him. Falling to the ground, John lost control of his neutrona wand, causing the beam to stop and freeing the demon dog. The dog shook itself, shaking off the effects of the beam. John looked up to see it growl at him, its red eyes glowing brighter. It dove from him, fangs reared. No time to get up, John quickly rolled out of the way. The dog crashed into the side of the car, causing the trunk to open and leaving a sizable dent near the rear bumper. Ignoring the cries of the man, John crawled away, trying to get to his feet. The dog slowly got to its feet, giving a low whimper. John finally got himself up and ran towards the trap. The demon dog quickly turned, following the sound of John's quickening footsteps. As John near the trap, the dog began to run towards him. He was almost there when he slipped on the broken glass, falling into the ground. He landed on his hands less the a foot away from the trap. He cried out in pain as he looked down at his now bleeding hands. The demon dog let out a evil howl and dove for him. He reached the trap and pointed it at the dog. Just as the demon dog was about to reach him, he hit the trap's activation peddle, opening the trap. The demon was sucked into the trap, a painful howl coming from its mouth. The trap slammed shut and a wave of electrical current ran over the outside, causing John to drop it. It hit the ground, smoking.
---------------------------------------------------
"WHAT?!?! YOU LET HIM RUN OFF WITH ONE OF THE PROTON PACKS!!!" cried Vankman.
"NO I DID NOT LET HIM!" yelled back Janine. "He snuck into YOUR office and grabbed the extra one there while I was getting a cup of coffee. He took the latest rap sheet of my desk and ran out the door before I could stop him. Not my fault you guys don't lock up your equipment before you run out on a job."
"This is not good." said Stanz. "No telling what he could do with that thing."
"I know exactly what he is going to do with it!" said Vankman. "He is going to put us out of business. That is all we need. I can see the headlines now, 'Crazy Ghostbuster blasts up Downtown'."
"Relax, Peter." said Zeddmore. "Thats not going to happen. The kid just got a little heated when you yelled at him. Probably thinks that if he prove himself, we will let him join and open up that shop in Boston."
"I don't care what he thinks!"
"Instead of fighting over what he is going to do with it, we should try and find him." Egon can walking out from behind them. "He also got a trap."
"This just gets better and better!"
"Egon's right, Peter. We need to find him." Ray turned toward Jenine. "Jenine, I need you to try and remember the address of that last call. Winston, I need you to call your buddy in the transportation department. See if he has heard about anyone with a pack on the subway. He doesn't have a car, so that is the only way he can travel."
"No problem." Winston grabbed the phone off of Jenine's desk.
"Egon, is there a way..."
Suddenly, Ray was interrupted by a call from behind them. "That won't be necessary."
The group suddenly stopped talking and turned towards the firehouse door to see a badly beaten John standing there, holding a smoking trap by its cable.
"Why you little..." Peter started to say, but was interrupted by Ray and Egon running up to John.
"You actually CAUGHT it?" said Ray, surprised.
"Ya, but it wasn't easy." John raised his other hand to show them several deep cuts.
"Oh gezz!" cried Ray. "Winston, get the first aid kit!"
Ray and Egon helped John take off the proton pack and lead him to a chair near Janine's desk as Winston produced a first aid kit from the nearby lockers.
"How did you figure out how to use the equipment?" asked Egon.
"What was it?" asked Ray, taking the first aid kit from Winston.
"What happened?" asked Winston.
"Get out of my way!" Janine cried as she pushed the three away and took John's hand, looking at the cuts. John blushed a bit. "Why don't you guys do something useful and get me some rubbing alcohol?"
The three stood still, shocked. Winston came to his senses first and ran upstairs.
Soon he returned with a bottle of rubbing alcohol. "Here."
"Thanks" said Janine. Opening the bottle and pouring some of a piece of gauze, she turned to John "Hand." John did as he was ordered and gave her his hand. She daped at the cuts, causing a few groans of pain from John.
"Oh don't be such a baby." A few minutes later, she has bandaged both of his hands. She turned to her employers. "Now you can kill him." She walked away and took a seat in a chair near the stairway.
Peter was the first to speak. "Who the hell do you think you are stealing our equipment?!?"
"I didn't steal anything!! I ... borrowed it," responded John.
"BORROWED!?!" Peter looked as if he was going to strangle John just as Ray got between them.
"Peter, relax. He came back,didn't he?"
"He was also able to trap the ghost by himself," said Egon, "Not an easy feat."
"Ya but.." Peter tried to argue, but Winston spoke up. "That is something special."
"Ya ..." Peter could see he was losing his friends to John, and slowly accepted his defeat.
"Ok, so you took the pack. That is Bad. But you did catch the ghost. That is Good. But now comes the really important question: Did you get paid?"
John smiled, and produced a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. "He signed the bill. He will be sending a check here tomorrow. He was a little angry about his car though..."
Peter ignored that last line and grabbed the piece of paper out of John's wounded hand. Quickly looking it over, he turned back to John. "you charged him for a Class 5? Nice."
"Well from what I read in Ray's book, it seemed to be a Class 5."
"I see..." said Peter, looking over the rest of the statement. "Nice, you got him on storage. Very Nice."
The group was silent for a moment. "So?"
"So what?" asked Peter, looking up for the bill.
"So... am I in?"
"Well, seeing as you stole equipment and put our entire organization at risk, I am thinking no." He turned away from John and the others and walked over to his desk.
The rest of the Ghostbusters gave out a cry of anger. "Come on Peter!!"
Peter raised his hand for silence before falling into his office chair. "But, since you DID catch the ghost. And you actually remember the charge the customer, I think I can overlook those little indisgressions." Vankman smiled. "Welcome to the team. You are now the proud owner of one of the first Ghostbusters branch offices."