Chapter 5:
Sargassi's By The Sea
"Hey! Is that a bathtub overflowing up there?" Ray's voice crackled over the radio clipped to Marty's right shoulder strap.
"More specifically a 7,000 cubic meter bathtub filled with psychokinetically charged seawater and, um, sea cucumbers?" responded Egon's voice, slightly confused.
Marty thought it was odd as well; he should have thoroughly soaked by the deluge but he wasn't. Maybe the water was more ethereal than actual? Part of the ghost's tricks? In any case, as he trudged down the halls in the ankle deep "water," he saw that the floor had undergone a radical change. It looked more like pictures he'd seen of the inside of underwater wrecks, covered in coral, barnacles and the sea cucumbers that Egon had mentioned. Also the deluge had knocked out most of the lights, leaving the halls in uncomfortable semi-darkness.
"This is getting more like DOOM by the minute…" Marty muttered.
Suddenly, the Fisherman came roaring around a corner and blew past Marty, stinking of dead fish so strongly the twenty-three-year-old almost threw up.
"Gah! Oh that does it, you're mine now, you fat, stinking son of a…" snarled Marty but the Fisherman was already gone. This time, Marty remembered his PKE Meter and goggles. Using them, he tracked the ghost to the elevators. Egon's voice crackled through his radio as he homed in on an ornate lamp fixture on the wall between two of the elevator doors.
"Ray, did you warn the Recruit about semi-dimensional rift entities? This type of highly agitated environment would be perfect for them."
Marty was about to ask what the hell a semi-dimensional rift entity was when the light fixture tore itself off the wall, contorted into a vaguely insect-like posture and scuttled angrily in Marty's direction. Marty yelped, grabbed his proton gun and fired just as it leapt up towards him, destroying it outright and releasing a glowing ball of light that floated upwards and then faded away.
"I guess THAT was a semi-dimensional whatever," said Marty breathily. And then he heard more scuttling. He poked his head around the corner and saw at least a half-dozen more of the things heading straight towards him, like Lumiere's deformed Satan-spawn.
"You've GOT to be kidding me…" Marty groaned.
About ten minutes later, after some jump scares and another attack by the candelabra crawlers, Marty found himself in one of the Sedgewick's restaurants, a place called Sargassi's, which was decked out entirely in a nautical theme. Marty was just thinking this would be a great place to find the Fisherman, when said Fisherman rose up out of the floor, cackling madly.
"Oh I am beyond not in a laughing mood, Fatboy," snarled Marty as he aimed his proton thrower at the ghost. The Fisherman was wily and used the furniture and decorations of the restaurant to hide from Marty's proton beam but the young time traveler managed to blast a few good times, causing the ghost to retreat into the kitchen. Marty was just about to follow him when the doors to Sargassi's were kicked open and Ray, Peter and Egon burst in.
"Great work cornering him in here Kid!" said Ray, grinning at Marty who could only manage a small smile in return; he was way to stressed and tired for much else.
"Yes, you have destroyed a significant section of a five-star New York hotel in just under three hours. Your mother and I are so proud, aren't we Egon?" snarked Peter. Just then their PKE Meters flared to life.
"Significant spike! Let's track down the source." Said Egon. But they didn't need to bother as the source came bursting out of the kitchen doors, tearing them off their hinges and a good chunk of the wall as well. At first Marty thought it was some new creature they would have to fight and it was in a sense, but creature was not quite the right term. It was shaped like a humanoid but it was made out of objects. Pots, pans, dishes utensils, colanders, pipes, a cooking spit of lobsters and an oven all made up the creature. A familiar roar bellowed forth from it and it charged at them, causing the Ghostbusters to scatter.
"Uh, Egon, Ray, this is something new for us, isn't it?" asked Peter, his voice much more strident than the swaggering bravado he usually projected.
"It's a bi-dimensional attractor! It can pull objects to itself and use them to materially manifest its rage!" said Ray, sounding both terrified and excited at the same time.
"That's great Doc Stantz, but can we blast it?" cried Marty.
"Only one way to find out!" replied Ray, blasting the golem with his proton beam. It did seem to work and some parts of the golem fell off but the proton beams also seemed to enrage it, causing it to charge after Ray. The Ghostbusters found themselves not able to blast the golem as much as they wanted, having to dodge its attacks. Egon noticed that even as they shot it, the golem seemed to be drawing new bits of detritus to it.
"It's generating a field of attraction strong enough to regenerate itself! Keep firing!" he yelled.
The Ghostbusters spread out and poured fire on the golem. Gradually it lost enough cohesion that a bright blue light flared up around the thing's "head."
"Wrangle the head!" cried Egon. Each of them set their beams on the capture stream and aimed at the head. Marty was the first to wrangle the head and although he tugged as hard as he could, it wouldn't budge.
"I need a little help here!" he cried.
"Don't worry, I've got it!" said Ray as he leapt up on top of a banister, impressively balancing on it as he directed a capture stream at the golem. Peter had gotten on top of the gran piano that was set up on a balcony overlooking the restaurant and Egon clambered aboard the half-demolished bar and soon, with all four of their strength against it, they ripped the golem's head clean off. The golem stumbled, and then fell over, exploding its part all over the room. From the wreckage, the Fisherman ghost rose up, roaring angrily at the Ghostbusters. But it was four against one now and soon they had him wrangled in a web of proton energy and into a trap, the Fisherman wailing the whole way down.
The four Ghostbusters surrounded the trap, now quietly sitting on the floor, the capture light on the back, under the handle blinking softly.
"I thought I didn't like knives and forks flying at me, but when knives and forks become a big, angry giant that tries to smash me, that's me really not liking it. A lot." Said Venkman, gasping for air in between sentences.
"Happens every day, right?" added Ray, with a tired smile.
"Seriously?" gasped Marty, the adrenaline he'd been running off of ever since the wave of water finally draining away.
"More or less," grimaced Venkman.
Having finally gotten a moment to breathe, Ray asked, "Anyone heard from Zeddemore?"
Before Peter or Egon could answer, there was a loud thudding noise that reverberated through the whole building. It seemed to get louder and closer with every second.
The radios clipped to their shoulder straps crackled and the deep voice Marty assumed was Winston Zeddemore's crackled through.
"Uh guys, I'm right outside… and so is something else."
"Gosh we've missed you partner," said Peter sarcastically into his radio, "But first, how was Aida, hmm? While you were gone we had to make do with this, er, new specimen here."
"I've been trying to get here for over four hours Peter!" shot back Winston, "Traffic is a little blocked right now!"
The thudding was becoming even more intense now.
"Um… guys?" asked Marty uncertainly.
"Wait…" said Ray, his eyes widening in horror, "I know that thud!"
Egon grabbed his own radio and thumbed the button.
"Winston, what do you see out there?"
"It's big, it's clean and soft and white. And you guys are not going to like it," he said flatly, just as something began to move across the windows outside. Marty stared in half shock, half confusion as what looked like a large puffy white hat with a blue brim and jaunty red ribbon on top, bobbed past the windows with each thundering vibration.
"What in the hell…?" he began but was cut off as Ray gasped, "No! Not here! Not now, not again!"
"Let's get down to street level NOW," said Egon grimly, turning towards the door and jogging out. Ray followed him and Peter was about to when he noticed that Marty was still staring at the strange sight.
"C'mon Junior!" he said, dragging Marty out by his elbow. Marty thought, why do I have this horrible feeling this is gonna be worse than Hell Valley?!