Chapter One: How It All Began
I was about your age when it happened, around five months after a brief encounter with a strange female apparition who approached me at Central Park; but that's an entirely different story altogether.
Anyway, I think it was during a routine ghost busting assignment out on the docks of the New York Harbor; around the exact same time a horrible thunderstorm was coming just around the corner, and the guys and I were just about to capture a Class-V roaming animator that was terrorizing the sailors. It was a pretty nasty case as I remember; Winston had it cornered around a few crates full of freshly caught fish as the ghost seemed to have a weird connection with fish and other sea salt type elements. By the time Winston prepares his wand to wrangle the apparition, the creature already began to summon its abilities to throw the fish carcasses at him.
I cried out to warn him. "Winston, look out!"
Winston, of course, was able to dodge the ghost's attacks, while me, Peter, and Egon finally fired our wands at the roaming animator, wrangling it into position. Winston pulls out a ghost trap and instantaneously tosses it across the floor, operates the mechanism, and finally the ghost was successfully captured.
Soon afterwards, the guys and I returned over to Ecto-1, after earning our daily fee of course from the harbor master, but at the same time the thunderstorm quickly caught up to the city and began to start off with a light drizzle. So by the time we readied ourselves to drive back to headquarters, Janine called up on the radio, telling us of an incident going on back at HQ.
"Hey guys, I think you'd better stay over at the harbor; there's a very big blockage of building debris at the main doors of the firehouse and it's probably going to take maybe a few hours before the officials of the city's construction company get rid of it all. I'll report back to you for any incoming calls, alright?"
Egon picked up the receiver and replies with a steady tone. "Copy that, Janine; as long as this storm doesn't further anymore damage, we'll be returning as soon as possible." Then he started to report to us of the problem. "It appears there's been an accident over at headquarters, so we'd better stay in our present location until Janine calls up for further assignments."
"Jeez, I didn't thing one lousy thunderstorm could cause some accident in just a few minutes." Peter said, who felt a little annoyed on Egon's report.
"Hey, you'd be surprised with what nature can do, you know?" Winston replied.
That was about the time I began to hear faint cries and pleas just across the harbor, sounding as if someone was calling for help.
"Guys, did you hear something?" I asked.
Egon, Peter, and Winston each stood quiet and hear the faint sounds as well. I, myself, couldn't make out as to what it was at first, but something was telling me I have to go check it out, or it might be too late. So I quickly rushed over toward the next couple sets of the harbor piers, trying to find out who or even what it was. Then, around the fourth set of the pier, the thunderstorm began to worsen as lightning and thunder cracked and roared into the sky; soon the waves of the ocean crashes and hits over the harbor, and as soon as I reached the end of the pier, I didn't see anyone around that was calling for help.
I looked and searched all over, but then a huge wave crashes over the pier, making the four of us wet momentarily, but luckily it wasn't as bad as I thought; until, from a good distance, from the edge of the harbor docks, I finally hear a woman's scream.
"Help! I-Is anyone out there?! Help me!"
Just then, it looked as if a maelstrom had formed just within a hundred feet from the harbor itself, and that's when I notice a female swimmer, struggling to keep herself at bay, as well as from the whirlpool. The guys and I quickly rushed over toward the far east side of the harbor where the girl continued to struggle up toward the docks as quick as possible to get away from the heavy wakes and other waves; until one of the waves instantaneously rushes over her, picks her up, and finally swoops her over toward the harbor walls where she possible knocked herself out at the moment.
I quickly took off my proton pack, jumped right into the water, and as fast as I could I swam toward the swimmer, who slowly began to sink right into the water; I dove in as quick as I could, grabbed the woman, and finally carried her up into shore. The guys followed behind as they watched me pull the swimmer up to the beachside of the New York Harbor; and that's when I carried her unconscious body back over to the pier, and all three of my colleagues couldn't believe their own eyes as to what they saw.
"Guys, this woman's unconscious, but I think she'll be able to recover in a matter of minutes!" I said as I continued to carry the woman up to the pier.
By then, the storm began to settle down slightly, but continues to rain hard; at the same time, Peter, Egon, and Winston each had their jaws gaping open and their eyes widened with shock as they noticed something very, very, very unusual about the swimmer I rescued. I didn't notice anything myself at the moment, but I'll tell you what, it's the one major discovery we will never forget.
I asked with a curious tone as I noticed the looks on the guys' faces. "What're you guys staring at?"
"… Uhh… Ray;" Peter said, pointing at the woman's lower half. "I-I think you'd better take a look at her legs."
"Her legs? Why; what's wrong with them -?"
By the time I looked down at the swimmer's legs, it turns out they weren't legs at all! Believe it or not, it was an actual seaweed green colored fish tail; and by the time I inspected the tail all the way up to her entire human half, Egon, Peter, Winston, and I realized at that moment… I had just rescued a real live mermaid!
Momentarily, the mermaid finally recovers from her unconsciousness and notices she was in my arms, possibly realizing she was saved.
"Oh thank you, thank you;" She said with gratitude. "You saved my… life."
As soon as she noticed me, she must've realized I was a human as well as she wasn't in the water anymore. I just stood there however, mystified over the fact that I held an actual live mermaid right in my own arms, but at the same time I wanted to say something just to break up the awkward silence all five of us were showing.
"Uh… um…" I began, stuttering at first. "… I-I'm Raymond Stantz; but everybody calls me 'Ray' for short."
The mermaid must've quickly figured out that I didn't mean her any harm, and so she gave a sweet and innocent smile as she introduced herself as well. "Oh. My name's Ariel."
"Ariel? Wow; t-that's a - pretty name."
I couldn't help but stare aimlessly at her red rose hair and those pretty blue eyes; she didn't look to be no less than fifteen or sixteen at the very least, and for a mermaid, she was a very beautiful girl.
