Elimination

Four Full Moons

"Is that all you're going to do? Play with that box?" Peter stuck his head in the library door.

"It's the only potential lead we have, and I'm good at puzzles." About half the box was a picture. "I think this has to be thirteen full moons for us to open it." She paused. "Do you need something?"

"Well, I'm curious to know why you aren't attending this Museum charity ball." He dangled two tickets in front of her eyes.

"Where did you get those?" She tried to lunge, but thought better of it at the last moment.

"Your planner. You left it open downstairs and they were sticking out." Peter grinned. "They're for tonight, everyone else is chasing shadows, and I'm not interested in movies."

"I don't have anything to wear . . ."

"What about that dress Janine and Ruth got you to buy?"

"Uh . . ." She tensed.

"Hey, it'll be fun. You need to get out more." Peter's smile softened to something more genuine. "Trust me."

" . . . What would you wear?"

"Ed's about my size. He's got a nice suit."

"I'm not interested in going."

"Dr. Spengler! I'm pleased you could make it!" A smiling man, (who peter was struggling to think of who he resembled) greeted them at the door.

"Thank you for the invite, Dr. Peck." Peter struggled not to whip his head around and stare. He only partially succeded. "Quite a gathering."

"The quality of the party has just elevated my dear." He smiled, kissing her hand. "May I reserve a dance?"

"Uh- yes." Another smile, and he drifted off to greet other guests. "That was the right answer right?" Janice looked at Peter.

"Depends, is he as big of a jerkwad as his greatgrandfather?"

"He's always been nice to me, offered me a job here." She fidgeted, staring at the dance floor. "I help out here sometimes, we talk." Peter nodded, silent.

"Shall we tour the exhibits?" He watched as she visibly brightened at that. The point wasn't to scare her, it was to get her to relax.

"Still have this thing?" Peter stared at the painting of the four with Oscar. It was the center of the ghostbusters pictures, while Ecto One and Two were in the center of the room. He absently patted Ecto's hood.

"Yes . . . Dana helped design it." Janice smiled.

"I know you can't talk much about the other's future to them . . ." Peter stared at a slightly grainy TV ad of ghostbusters with the original four. It was next to a slightly melted and twisted pack, with a card designating it as the pack he was wearing when he died. "But please . . ."

"Winston died in a car accident when he was 67." Janice directed him to a series of articles. "Egon and Janine died within a day of each other, natural causes. Ray was the last to go. He was a little over a hundred." She watched Peter give a sad smile. "He had the most children of you all. Seven."

"He named his first kid after me?" Peter stared at the picture.

"Yeah . . . Egon and Winston had your name as their kids middle name." She glanced at a section that was still blank. "Became a tradition in the ghostbuster line, I guess. First born guy always has Peter as a middle name."

"Edward Peter Stantz? Alan Peter Venkman?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Alan's the middle child. Yes to Stantz, Chad doesn't have a middle name, eldest sister does though." She shrugged at his look. Moving on, they came to a old fashion ballroom.

"You really like history, don't you?" Peter watched her point various things out.

"I find it fascinating how people were able to survive. Without technology or any modern convenice. No pollution, no traffic . . . but that's me."

"Most everyone has a point when they fantasize about some time period. I wanted to live when men were allowed to have more than one wife." He watched her laugh, a white gloved hand covering her mouth. "What? I think I could pass as royalty."

"Well, that's one thing we have in common. I wanted to be a princess and get rescued by a Knight when I was little. Then I got tired of waiting." She gave a half smile. "I still want it, though."

"Most kids do. Girls, well, most of them, want to be fought over and won by the good guy, Guys are possessive and somehow, fighting for or protecting a girl makes them feel like a man." Peter shrugged. "It's probably some deep seated instinct, back when women only took care of the cave and raised kids, and were therefore important to protect."

"I probably wouldn't actually do very well sitting and waiting for the hero, though. I'd probably help him fight."

"Well, depending on the guy, that's a good thing to." Peter grinned, and bowing offered his hand, "May I have this dance, fair maid?" Janice laughed.

"Of course, sir." She curtseyed and they danced for a bit. Then they moved on.

"Nothing!" Ed growled at the PKE meter. "The readings aren't changing, Maybe it's the equipment?"

"Equipment's fine." Chad looked up. "Magic shouldn't affect machines like this . . ." A scraping sound brought their attention to Winston and Egon, who were lifting the manhole cover.

"Last place to check." Ray offered.

"Yuck, sewers." Ruth made a face.

"I call first shower when we get back." Alan went down the ladder, then poked his head back out. "Sooner we get this done, sooner we can stop the end of the world." Ray was right behind him.

"I don't get paid enough." Ed grumbled as he followed his sister.

"Neither do I." Janine frowned as she stepped down.

"Got a reading over this way."

"Then let's go."

"Nice statue . . . looks like modern art." It was a twisted bunch of metal. Janice shook her head.

"It's a part of a temple. Dating has it around the bronze age. What it was used for isn't known, it was in the center."

"Is it supposed to glow?" Peter frowned, something in the center was glowing.

"I don't think so- " Something burst out of it. "Just my luck."

"I think it's more mine." It was a pink glowing thing, that probably would've looked cute, if it wasn't tearing things apart. "What is it?" Janice slid and stared at a panel, quickly typing in information.

"Uh, potentially, I'd say the deity that the altar was for." She got to his side. "We might want to run now."

"Does that half melted pack of mine on display still work?"

"I haven't a clue . . . traps might." The two took of, and the entity chased them. "Duck!"

The entity crashed into the display.

"Hey, pink stuff, over here!" Janice called it's attention, long enough for Peter to grab the pack and look at it.

"Jan-AHH!" Dr. Peck walked in, took one look at the entity, and yelled. Janice yanked him behind a low railing, almost crashing into Peter. He passed her a trap and grinned as the pack turned on.

"It does have a half life of 5 thousand years, you know." Janice shook her head at his grin.

"I know, Spengs told me. Ready?" She nodded, while Dr. Peck hyper ventilated. "GO!" Peter wrangled the entity and she tossed the trap, activating it by stomping on it. The entity screeched, and went into the trap. "One busted ghost."

"Hey, Mack, you okay?" Janice let Peter turn off the pack and put it back, while she dealt with the scared museum director.

"G-g-g-host!"

"It's gone now." She patted his shoulder. "We won't charge you, since you're going to need to use the money fix up the exhibit, okay?" He nodded. "We better get back to the traps might have been built to last, but that's been sitting doing nothing for a good amount of time."

"You can . . . take my car." He regained some color. "I'll pick it up tomorrow."

"Thanks. And you might want to get an expert from Arkham to go over that altar piece in the bronze age exhibit." She accepted the keys and she a Peter quickly left with the trap.

"Ray . . ." Ray nearly jumped a foot as Slimer touched his shoulder. They'd been walking for quite some time, even dropping a couple levels at one point.

"What's wrong Slimer?"

"Something ahead . . . something baad . . ." Slimer droped ectoplasm and Egon glanced at the PKE meter.

"The needle's twitching."

"Shouldn't it be moving more than that?" Chad scowled, absently. "I'm going to have to rework the meter again . . ." Something roared up ahead.

"This night just got better." Ed's sarcasm was followed by Alan and Winston's cry of, "Duck!"

"And in." Janice sighed, relieved as she locked the unit.

"Night's still young, we can probably go clubbing." Peter offered.

"I'm afraid not, we're going to Arkham."

"Why?"

"Their library has more in it." She looked at him. "That altar has been there for fifty years, I find it interesting that it chooses now to release the entity."

"I'm going to be sleeping in a chair, aren't I?" Peter sighed. "We can't catch a flight . . ."

"We'll take Ecto 27. You might want to change." Moments later, both where on the roof of the firehouse.

"I hoped it was a gyro or something . . ."

"What's wrong with a hover bike?" It had a resemblance to a jet ski, but with a wider base.

"How's it work?"

"I kinda zoned on the technical part of how it works." She gave him a helmet with a sheepish grin. "Ecto 28's a helicopter, but it's being repaired."

"Just . . . don't do any stunts." He wrapped his arms around her waist. "I don't want to re die just yet."

"Hush." Janice sped across the tops of buildings, ignoring Peter's grip tightening. "While I'm thinking about it, what do I call you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Peck didn't notice I didn't introduce, and I doubt he very much noticed that you look like your life size picture." She glanced over her shoulder. "I need to be able to call you something."

"Just call me Dr. V., then. You did that once before."

"Yeah . . . gut reaction."

"That . . . is one large terror dog . . ." Ed gulped. Gray skin and gleaming white teeth, filled the tunnel up ahead. "We left the destabilizer in Ecto 25, didn't we?"

"It's was your turn to carry it!" Chad snapped at him.

"We just found the reason why Times Square is giving weird readings."

"No, we found part of the reason." More glowing red eyes were farther down the tunnel. "It's a pack!" Janine glanced at them.

"Um, maybe we should come back later . . . like when we have the destabilizer and more traps." Ruth gulped, backing into Slimer.

"I second that . . ." Alan glanced at Egon, who had also backed up.

"Yes, it would be more prudent." The terror dog didn't case them, content with the intruders leaving it's packs territory.

"Well . . . might want to try central park."

"After we get some sleep. It's almost dawn."As they pulled up to the firehouse, they noticed a car in the spot just outside. "Who's car is that?" Slimer just floated up the stairs as they got out.

"Janice and Peter must be asleep."

"Janice and Peter are gone." Slimer's announcement made them pause from unloading Ecto 25.

"Here we go again . . ." Ed's head hit the side of the truck. He began muttering under his breath.

"What's that noise?" Ray glanced up, it was coming from upstairs.

"Ecto 27!" Chad shot up the stairs, Alan and Ruth right behind him.

"Peter! Janice!" Slimer disappeared through the ceiling.

As the originals joined them, they could hear Peter yeliing at Slimer. Opening the door revealed the two missing ghostbuters, covered in slime and either annoyed (Peter) or amused (Janice).

"Why do you have to keep sliming me? Slime Egon or someone!"

"He loves you Dr. V. It's like telling an over affectionate dog not to lick your face." Janice took a box from the back.

"Let him be affectionate with someone else!" Peter scowled, arms crossed. Janice grinned, and playfully swatted his hair with a slime covered hand.

"Think of it like how cats go to people who don't like them." She yelped as he tossed a particularly congealed slime blob at her. "Hey!"

"Where were you?" Ed glared at her.

"Arkham." She grinned, holding up the box. "Necronomica didn't have anything, but it did gives us clues for this book."

"Which you are not reading right now." Peter stole it away. "Alan, hide this."

"Hey!"

"You need sleep. You spent most of the night reading old books." Peter crossed his arms.

"But we've only got two more days . . ." She was quickly overruled.

"Oh, yeah, a guy called Dr. Peck who works at the museum let us borrow his car and will be by to pick it up later." Peter noted the looks the younger ghostbusters gave him. "Janice knows him."

"That jerk?" Ed scowled.

"Here we go again . . ." Ruth sighed.

"Why is he a jerk?"

"Ed and him had some rather unfriendly rivalry in college. There are still some . . . hard feelings left over."

"Well, he's sweet on Janice, so you might want to be careful." Peter noted the look of horror on Ed's face. "What?"

"He's not dating her. Ever." Ed turned. "Hey, Slimer, I'm going to need a favor!"

"I'm staying out of this." Ruth shook her head.

"I'd like to look at the volume . . ."

"No way. No Spenglers are touching this book. You're sleeping for at least four hours." Peter nodded at Alan.

"I'm with him on this, Spengs."