Ghostbusters: Chicago Division
Heat Rising
By Dan Shannon
Chapter 7: Borrowed Time
"Are you sure you haven't seen him?" Ronny was on his cell phone driving around in his brother's Mazda. He had told his family he was back and that he needed a car, so now he was in the process of bringing back this car to the Firehouse talking to Zach.
"No, Ronny. I've been trying to call him, but his phone's off. This time a year he usually goes to the Cubby Bear, but I just got off the phone with the bartender. He left not even being there for fifteen minuets with a girl who I assume is the PCU detective."
"How can you be sure of that?" the Physicist asked.
Zach was at the firehouse standing next to the reception desk with the phone to his ear, "She came here earlier after you two left. I assumed that's where she went to talk to him."
"Well, when he gets in, we need to have a meeting about this. Dan's our Chicago Expert and everything going on right now, I know that Fire Academy was a historical site. He would know what the hell's going on."
"That's not the only thing, Ronny. Me and Mark pulled up some disturbing shit at the Chicago Historical Society and at the local Potawatomis Indian Reserve. We need him to hear this shit." There was a clank at the side door leading to the garage, "Hold on," Dan walked in the door, bags under his eyes, "Yeah, he just got here. When you get here, we all talk. Later." Zach hung up the phone and walked toward Dan, "Be honest, how hammered are you?"
"I only got two beers in me and that was four hours ago," the engineer stated.
"You're gonna wish you had more to drink," Zach said taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.
"Why are you still awake? It's friggan one in the morning."
"We all need to have a talk."
"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Dan said as he started to walk upstairs, "It's been a emotionally fucked up day, and for once, they weren't all my emotions."
"Dan," Dan stopped on the stairs. It took a moment, but Zach finally spoke up, "We're on borrowed time as of now."
4 am. It was close to morning's first light. The information was reviewed again and again and now everyone was in Ronny's lab looking over information pulled out of the Indian reserve, the Chicago Historical Society, from the local library, as well and numerous printouts from Wikipedia. Spread out over the metal table, everyone pulled out notebooks as Dan grabbed an old Dry Erase board from one of the other rooms and placed it on an easel.
"Okay, time to put this mass of shit together." Dan drew a line on the board going across the top half, "The demons. They have the ability to draw PKE from either heat or cold depending on their ability and they can either gain or lose power depending on the opposite of those same powers. These things had to come from somewhere. Zach, we start off with you."
"From what the Potawatomis Indians were able to tell me, it sounds like we're dealing with a Brother-Sister demon type, class 6 environmental inhibitors, very nasty. There were the vengeful spirits of the Algonkin Tribe territories that went from the east shore of Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains and front Churchill River to Pamlico Sound. Basically, a grand portion of North America."
"Their jobs, missions, whatever?" Dan asked as he grabbed his coffee cup.
Zach pushed his glasses up on his nose and looked over his notes, "Since the Indians of the time before settlers arrived were extremely savage, invading territories and the like, a higher spirit cast these two demons to act as Chlorine to the Gene Pool, igniting fires and causing extreme winter colds that would usually wipe a chunk of the Indian populations out every thousand years.
"In what sounds like the 1300's, the demon of fire, named Pyrosys, caused a massive fire that was so intense in the southern region of what is now Wisconsin in one of the fall months, the Potawatomis said the Sulk and Fox tribe, who were inhabiting the territory at the time, could see it from their territory that was located just north of where we're standing. They called it, 'The Great Orange Sky'. The fire itself spread all the way to the south passed the now existent Illinois border and was about to wipe out the entire forest in Chicago when the Miami tribe, a neighboring tribe, called upon the Algonkin War spirit to send the winters for she could stop the terrible tragedy. The demon of cold, Cryoka, was sent from her place in what is now the Yukon Territories to destroy her brother for he had broken his vow and became insubordinate, killing for the sake to kill."
"Okay," Dan pulled out a red marker and drew a tick mark on the line and marked it, "1300's: Great Orange Sky." "Alrighty, where does it go from here?"
Zach looked to his notebook, "Cryoka uses her powers full force, yadda yadda, bullshit bullshit, freezes Pyrosys into a crystal of ice so cold, only the falling stars could ignite it. The Sulk and Fox bury the crystal in an undisclosed location."
Dan pointed to another person in the group with his marker, "Mark. Your turn."
"Okay, the next event that I think ties this whole series of disasters together is the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It was said a cow in a Mrs. O'Leary's barn kicked over a lantern and started the major blaze that torched the city."
Dan blinked a couple of times, "Mark, that was debunked when the asshole who worked for the Chicago Tribune flat out stated he lied about it." "I know," Mark said, grabbing one of the printouts from Wikipedia, "But here, it states in 2004, 'engineer and physicist Robert Wood suggested that the fire began when Biela's Comet broke up over the Midwest and rained down below.' In the archives at the Chicago Historical Society, there were eyewitness reports of fires breaking out across the Midwest at the same time, but none more messed up than Chicago. The comet fragments had to have landed on top of this Pyrosys dude, melted him, fired him up and caused the guy to just go berserk torching the city."
Dan nodded, "That does sound like a good point. Zach just said the fires of a falling star would wake his ass up, that would do it." He uncapped the marker and made another tick mark on the line putting in the notation, "Great Chicago Fire, Oct. 8-10, 1871 – Possibility". "Okie Doke, what's next?"
"Nothing else other than a list of fires including The Iroquois Theater Fire 1907, the Chicago Union Stock Yard Fire of 1910, and the Are Lady of Angels School Fire of 1958, all in instances where the fires were started by people or circumstances unknown. Or at least, with someone nearby the instance when it happened."
Dan put the capped marker to his bottom lip. He paced back and forth past the other Ghostbusters as they watched him think for as minuet. He turned around and walked back, now tapping the marker to his lip, looking at the whiteboard, "Ronny, I'm having a thought."
"I thought I smelt something burning," Ronny joked. Everyone looked at him including Dan who turned to look at him, all with a disheartening look. Ronny realized what he just did and lowered his head, "Sorry, no pun intended." "Anyway," Dan said trying to get back on track, "Is it possible these demons can inhabit a human host and use their life force energy as a kind of, I donno, lifeboat?"
"It's been known that ghosts class 3 up can possess people, but why would they do that to suck energy out of people if they can get it from the type of acceleration of particles?"
"Maybe they're using people to not only keep them with sufficient energy, but protect them from the opposing acceleration type. Like, wearing a coat in the winter."
"You mean, use them as a host to build their energy and store what they have until they use it for their purpose?"
"Yeah," Dan concluded. Zach came into this conversation, "With an ability like that, they would use human shells to protect themselves in certain weather conditions. Like, how in hell's name can Pyrosys survive Winter? Take a human host and set fires to structures. The Stock Yard, the Theater, and the School fires all took place in the winter months of the year. The Great Orange Sky and the Great Chicago Fire were also in slightly cold fall months, but this is assuming he didn't exhaust his PKE accumulations throughout the year."
That was when Mark made an out of the blue observation, "A lot of people died in those fires, as well. Is it possible he needs to kill people to help collect more PKE?"
"What do you mean?" asked Dan. Ronny quickly interjected, "I see where he's going. They say a ghost is the lost soul of a person who has unfinished business. Dr. Spengler put a logical idea to the superstition in saying that the mind and the nervous system are the anchor to the soul, and that the essence of a human's mind is an accumulation of PKE in itself. When someone dies a tragic death, the mind works in overtime putting off massive amounts of PKE. If it's possible for them to use a person as a lifeboat, they could suck up random PKE from dying people, but only where it involves hyper or hypo acceleration."
That concerned Dan, "What about the other one?"
"What other one?" Ronny asked.
"Cryoka. She's around here somewhere. She has to be. I've had two experiences with her already, Zach being with me on the second one. You think she's doing that, too?"
"Doubtful," Zach states, "if what Ronny says is true, it doesn't seem like she wants to kill us. Besides, she'd use up all her power killing someone in this heat."
Dan turned to the whiteboard again. He marked the other 3 events on the board, then made another mark. Dan capped the marker and walked out of the room into the kitchen. Everyone looked at what Dan marked aside of the other 3 incidents. It read, "July 4th, 2004: Exelon Power Plant."
The next day, there was a knock at a door. Janice opens the door to find Dan standing on the pad of the back apartment door dressed in his uniform. Janice was surprised to see him there, "Dan, what are you doing here?" "You and me need to have a talk. Now." He made his way past her and walked into the apartment.
"Why are you here?" the detective asked.
"Oh, you know why..." Dan turned around and looked her square in the eye, "...Cryoka."
"What?" She asked with a smile. Dan smiled back and nodded his head, "Don't insult my intelligences. Why were you at my customer's house talking to Alex the same day an ice machine started shooting ice at me? Why was I at a job where they didn't have home phone service, had a repair call put in, but instead of that they had a nasty ghost that just vanished when we shot it? Why was the firehouse so cold when you were in my lab? Why is it every damn moment I'm with you, you seem to have another set of eyes observing me?"
"Look, if this is about last night, I was just a little dru..."
"Cut the bullshit!" Dan screamed as he pulled out his Ectoplasmic Destabilizer Pistol and pointed it at her. She in turn pulled out her Beretta and pointed it at him. They were in a standoff. Dan noticed it again. The cold was getting colder in the room. He started seeing his breath. He kept his eyes trained on Janice as he noticed suddenly she started looking feverish. She started to act as though she was about to pass out, but then started to regain herself. Without immediate explanation, she holstered the gun.
Dan kept his pistol drawn as Janice stood up straighter, almost having a regal sense to her, something he didn't see before in her, "Cryoka, I presume?"
"Yes, Ghostbuster, I am Cryoka, Algonkin Servant of Ice and Winter. I had assured the Detective you would not discover before time."
"It was you who truly saved her life in that explosion at the Power Plant off Pulaski. Even with a fire jacket and another human body covering her, in such hot conditions she still would have been killed. That's just common sense."
"Yes, Ghostbuster, I did. It was because my brother was at the controls of the plant's coal stockpile and I witnessed her grandfather sacrifice himself to save her. I did not want her grandfather to die in vain."
Dan lowered his pistol slightly, "So, you're not here to kill us?"
"That was never my intention." Her voice was as though it was reverberating. Although he was slightly unnerved at the event, he placed the pistol into the holster on his belt.
"So, Cryoka saved you from the steam and three months later she had asked you to help her?" Dan was now sitting at the dining room table having a cup of coffee with Janice, Cryoka relinquishing control of her body back to her.
"Yeah. After the fire and the boiler explosion, I wanted to know what it was that killed him. I started to do more criminal studies work to move up in the department. When Cryoka asked for my help, I knew it was to stop the thing that did it. After a while because of her power inside me I started seeing the dead. They told me things that helped me discover what happened to them as an officer. Over time, they moved me from a Patrolmen to a Detective in Homicide. After that, when your team broke up, GBI's Internal Affairs wanted to make a team of police officers that handled crimes of a paranormal nature in every city. We're a test city and I volunteered to lead the team. After me and Cryoka noticed Pyrosys was back and now he was going for the big kill, she had to convince you – I had to convince you – to come back."
Dan placed his cup of coffee back onto the table as he folded his hands together, "Alright. One thing still bothers me: Why did you not go to GBI and have them start a new team of Ghostbusters here with Zach as team leader?"
"I did, but they said you were still active, even though you left the group."
"Are you being honest with me? Look into my eyes and say that."
She locked eyes with him. Dan could see almost immediately she wasn't honest with him. She had almost a shameful look in her eyes, "No, it's because I like you. When I first met Cryoka, I researched everything about the paranormal. I learned a lot about you, what you were like, what accomplishments you made. I saw you in action once even before that and I was amazed at how you kept cool in a hot situation..."
Dan raised an eyebrow as he gave her an inquisitive look. "No pun intended." Dan just picked up his coffee cup and had another sip as Janice continued, "But, you were just amazing. I believed in the paranormal a little at the time and thought it was mind blowing. I wanted to get to know you more and more the more I looked through Ghostbusters: Chicago Division's history."
"So that's why all the social calls," He plainly stated with a smile. She nodded her head. There was a moment of silence between them. She looked up at him and locked eyes again. The warmth. Something about her eyes entranced him. He broke the stare and looked at his watch. He took a double-take as he noticed it was 1:30 in the afternoon, "Shit, I need to get back to the Firehouse. I have to let the guys know what I learned!" He got up and was heading to the door when he felt a hand grab him from behind.
"Dan, wait," Janice said, tightly holding his hand. He turned around as she spoke, "Please, don't tell them about her. I'm afraid if they know all of it, the department will find out and they'll throw me off the force. Or worse, your team will try to destroy her. She's the only chance we have to stop him!" Dan looked down for a moment thinking about it. "Please!" He looked back up and saw the fear in her eyes. She was genuinely worried about the spirit within her.
"I won't tell them anything," Dan grabbed her other hand and held them tight, "I promise." She looked into his eyes. Now she was brought in by his eyes. They inch closer as they close their eyes...
Dan's cell phone goes off. Dan opens his eyes as an irritated look comes over his face. He let go of Janice's hands and reached into his sleeve pocket to get the ringing phone, "Ghostbusters: Chicago Division, Dan Shannon."
"Dan, Ronny. We got a call from Bryan, he says there's a heat increase around Lake and Wacker heading south. It looks like he's heading toward the Civic Opera House. We're heading out to cut him off."
"Alright. Did Zach get all he shit he needs for the spell?"
"Yeah, we got what we need. Wasn't easy."
"Okay, I'll meet you there. Shannon out." Dan hung up the phone and turned to Janice, "Jen, call your team and the fire department out to the Civic Opera House. If they can get CO2 fire extinguishers or anything cold, tell 'em to take them with them." With that Dan headed for the door once again when Janice stopped him, "Wait, are you sure you can do this?"
"We figure if we hit him with a heat dispersion spell, hose him with water, and then use our Mood Slime, we can drive him out of the host's body and trap him."
"Are you sure it'll work?"
"At this point, it's all we can do. Sure or not, it's all we got." Dan walked out the door and ran down to his car. Just as Dan got to his car, Jen called out to him from her apartment, "You won't get there fast enough with that thing. We can take my cruiser, get there in half the time!"
Janice's police cruiser was now heading southbound on the Kennedy Expressway toward Congress Parkway. As Janice drove Dan grabbed the radio mic, "This is Ghostbusters: Chicago Division member Dan Shannon, civilian access code David-Sam-272-Frank. Get me Fire Dispatch." After a burst of static, a voice came over he radio, "Dispatch." "I need every available engine company in he vicinity of Wacker and Lake to converge on the Civic Opera House."
There was another burst of static as the dispatcher on the other end, "We already have a 476 in progress there." Dan looked at the radio mic and blinked his disbelief, "What?"
Janice reached over and grabbed the radio from the shocked Ghostbuster and spoke into it as she dodged traffic, "This is Detective Bellum, Paranormal Crimes Unit. When did the call come in?" "Fifteen minuets ago. Tripped fire sensors." "I want the PCU there now! Do you hear me? NOW!"
Along North Wacker Drive, Fire trucks, police cars, news crews, anything and everything was at the Civic Opera House. On the north side of the street, Janice's cruiser pulls up to the barricade risen along the northbound section of the road. On the southbound section of the road, Chi-Ecto pulls up to he scene and stops. Dan and Janice stepped out as Dan spotted the Ectomobile on he other end of the blocked off traffic. He started running when the officers cordoning off the area stopped him briefly only for them to wave him through upon notice he was a Ghostbuster. Janice flashed her badge and ran with him to the Chicago Division's truck.
The others started to unload from the truck as Dan ran up, "Guys! He's already inside. The fire alarm was tripped about 20 minuets ago." Mark stepped out of the driver seat, "We know. There's also a man inside with the gates over the doors shut and locked. We heard it on the police band on he way over." Zach opened the back hatch to the truck as everyone started loading up with Proton Packs, Traps, detection equipment, and finally Dan came back and grabbed a small box in front of the Pack rack. He opened it to have 2 more pistols in them complete with holsters. Dan took them out and handed them to Ronny and Mark, "Put these on."
After Janice talked to the Battalion Chief in charge of the situation, a small team of S.W.A.T. Officers approach the main doors with a couple of battering rams. The Ghostbusters and a few of Janice's officers follow behind the S.W.A.T. Team as then enter the building. In the main lobby Zach pulls out a PKE meter and starts scanning, "He's in the main theater." "Got your bag of tricks?" Dan asked, pulling his thrower off his pack and activating it. From off Zach's belt, there was an old worn leather pouch next to his belt circuit. He patted it with his free hand and commented, "It's all hear, Mon Frère."
"Get it ready." He turned to the S.W.A.T. Leader, "send the firefighters after us and tell them not to use their hoses until Dr. LaVoy finishes the incantation." With that he turned to the others, "Guys, let's have ourselves a barbecue." Mark and Ronny grabbed their throwers and fired up their packs and Janice and her team pulled out their pistols and turned off the safeties. They approached the doors into the main theater and walked in.
The rank smell of burnt flesh filled the large room as it was seen that people – assuming to be the cleaning crew due to the fallen vacuum cleaners near them – were on the ground, flesh charred to a cinder and slathered in orange slime. Looking up to the ceiling, both the Ghostbusters and the PCU officers noticed the black marks above covering the fire sensors. "Okay guys, lets take this fucker by the numbers," Dan stated as he walked ahead of everyone, "I'll take point, Zach with me."
On the stage, a man wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket, his face covered in piercings and facial hair, his long hair tied into a ponytail sat on one of the prop chairs at a table drinking a glass of wine. For the first time, the Ghostbusters saw their adversary. Dan stopped Zach and everyone behind them. He held out his hand to Zach indicating he wanted the PKE meter. As soon as he turned it on, the meter went insane. "He's the one. Jen," Janice came up from behind him and stood between him and Zach.
"You know, there was a time I wanted to be a heavy metal artist." The first words to come out of the man's mouth. It startled everyone, his voice projecting across the opera hall with clarity. He took a sip of the wine and put it back down on the table as he spoke, "But, as life turns out, some people don't appreciate certain forms of artistic expression as much as other forms." He stood up revealing himself to be wearing a Megadeth shirt under the jacket. He walked toward the orchestra pit to get a better look at his visitors, "Hello, Janice."
There was a look of terror on Janice's face as she exclaimed, "Matt!" Dan turned to her, "You know him?"
"Know me? She better, she always loved to show me up," the man states as he looks down at her, "and it looks as though you're now a Detective in the Chicago Police. My, you've come a long way since Grandpa killed himself because of you, Sis."
Dan looked over at her again with extreme shock, "Your brother?"
"Matthew J. Bellum. Pleased to make your acquaintance," he bowed toward them then looked up slowly as he spoke, "Daniel Shannon, leader of Ghostbusters: Chicago Division." Dan gripped his thrower harder as the look in the man's eyes made him unnerved. Just then from all the fire exits, firefighters ran in with hoses primed and ready to be used at the man on the stage. Janice noticed this and threw up her hand and screamed, "Firefighters, don't spray!"
"What is this, a splash party?" Matt laughed as he paced back and forth on the stage, "Daniel Shannon. Little Danny Shannon. The man responsible for beating a fellow Ghostbuster because of a disagreement." He laughed again as Dan's heart started to race. "You had a little disagreement with Lynn, and all of a sudden, you beat her down in the middle of her home town with everyone watching, making her bleed, making her scream for you to stop!" "That's not true! That's BULLSHIT!" Dan raised his thrower and was about to blast when Zach grabbed his thrower and lowered it.
Dan looked at the man on the stage, "That's a lie. A lie started by her and another Ghostbuster!"
Matt still looking to the floor laughed again, "You honestly believe that? Did you not hit her?"
"Yeah, but..."
"Are you guilty?"
"What does that ha..."
Matt turned dramatically at Dan and screamed, "ARE YOU?" It was in a reverberated voice similar to what he heard Janice do as Cryoka spoke. "Yes. I did slap her. But I did NOT beat her! It was a sin I am greatly sorry for doing and promised myself never to let it happen again."
"Unfortunately," suddenly, Matt's voice changed from a regular voice to a reverberated one, meaning Pyrosys had taken control of his body, "the fact others believe the lie to the truth, makes the lie true. Everyone in this room has believed the lie as the truth, and for that you must be punished for being a SAVAGE!"
"Zach! The spell!" Zach started muttering the words as he reached into the pouch on his belt, pulled out a stone on a leather lace, and started waving it back and forth toward Pyrosys. The crystal glowed and shined bright as energy swirled out of the crystal and around Matt's body. Suddenly, Matt became encased in ice as Zach completed the incantation.
Dan screamed, "Firehoses, now!" The firefighters didn't do anything. They stood there and just looked at the Ghostbuster, "What are you doing? Come on, guys, hose him!" "Why should we?" Others around them started screaming, "Yeah!" around the Ghostbusters. Another firefighter who was holding the nozzle of the hose spoke up, "Lynn Springsteed was my friend. When she told me what happened, I was in total shock of what you did. Why should I help you, you crazy, woman beating fucker?"
"Are you all insane?" Janice cried out, "This is our only opportunity! Man your hoses and hose him down before he breaks out of that thing!" That was when all the PKE meters everyone was holding started buzzing and humming. Ronny and Mark looked to their meters as Ronny stated, "Too late! It's gonna crack!"
The ice shattered, sending chips of ice everywhere. A wall of flame rose up from the spot where Pyrosys stood. A fire started breaking out around the opera house as the firefighters are now turning on their hoses. As soon as the water came too close, it turned to water vapor. He was too hot to cool off. Subsequent explosions started going off inside the building, particularly in the audience seats as flaming balls of fury shot from the wall of fire.
"Evacuate the building!" one of the firefighters screamed as everyone ran out. Another explosion rocked out of the seats by the main entryway trapping a firefighter under a bunch of seats. He started screaming for help.
Everyone had reached the lobby and was about to run outside when Mark heard the firefighter in distress. Out of the corner of his eye, Zach saw Mark turn around and run back into the theater to help him, "Mark! What are you doing? Mark!" Zach ran out of the front of the building and grabbed Dan, "Dan, Mark went back into the building!" "What?" the engineer screamed.
Dan grabbed the talk button on the radio on his left shoulder strap and spoke to him, "Fontanetta, what the fuck are you doing?" After a burst of static, Mark replied, "There's a down firefighter in here! I went back to get him, but I need help!" Ronny took off his Proton Pack and started running for the door, "Ronny," Dan screamed, "You insane bastard, get back here!"
Inside, Mark was kicking the seats off the firefighters legs to get him free. Ronny came in and started pulling under the firefighter's arms to get him out from under the chairs, but he was stuck. It was extremely hot, but because all the doors were open in the building oxygen fueled the flames more and left very little smoke. The firefighter started screaming, "That slime shit! It's burning my Nomex! My Nomex is on fire!"
Ronny let go of the firefighter and roundhouse kicked the seats off him, knocking the seats to the side. Mark got the fireman up and managed to get his fire pants off him as they started running out the door. Suddenly part of the ceiling caved right in the spot the Ghostbusters and the firefighter were.
In the basement of the building, a gas line ruptures as all three men run out of the main doors. A violent explosion rocked a ball of fire behind them, throwing them out the main doors and into the street face first. Mark, who was still wearing his pack, hit the ground first with his pack following behind him, top of the device smacking him in the back of the head rendering him unconscious. Paramedics and police retrieve the three men.
Suddenly on top of the overhang to the Art Deco building, Pyrosys in the possessed man's body rang his voice out, "Because you refused to die for your savage behavior, Shannon, you shall instead watch the innocent suffer for your actions." Dan looked up, "Why?" "Because," the man smirked, "if I cannot kill you, I shall instead break your soul. If you solve this riddle, they can be spared, 'On the head of a king does the cold water spray, even after a thousand years you shall remember this day. Unless you stop the flame before the hour draws nigh, you shall witness all the children die!'" With that, the man vanished in a ball of flames.
