Pauline looked around the city as she zoomed along on her motorcycle, it being about the only thing currently moving on the streets. Traffic was at a virtual standstill and there were police and paramedics all around assisting motorists who'd gotten caught in the quake. Large fresh cracks in the road cut across and down the middle, some spots had caved in entirely and several cars were half swallowed by the holes in the asphalt. She sincerely hoped the others would be able to get home alright but judging by the scenery around her, she had her doubts. She still wished she'd gone with them, at least she'd know for sure that everything was alright.
When the streets got too damaged for her to trek across without being jolted and almost thrown off her Harley, Pauline switched tactics and sped up onto a sidewalk that was unscathed by the tremors and made her way along from there. Sure it was illegal but she doubted anybody was going to pay too much attention to her at the moment, and she didn't plan on waiting around for damage control to be done with all the vehicles stuck in the middle of the street. She cut across two more sidewalks before she veered off into a residential area which didn't seem to be as affected, here the streets were still in one piece and no more torn up than usual. Pauline slowed her bike down and rechecked the address she was looking for, and found it up ahead.
She parked her motorcycle at the curb and let out an impressed whistle as she took in the large two-story house on the large piece of land with a big swimming pool in the side yard. Fancy, a bit above a person's means but she wouldn't peg the people living there as being rich. Just as well, it had been to Pauline's understanding after several experiences on the job, that like with most other things, rich customers were the worst ones to have in every detail except when it came to getting paid. Many was the time growing up her dad had told her about their first real job in the hotel when they trapped Slimer, and in 30 years' time the rich and snooty hadn't come down off their high horses too much, they still complained about everything except that moment when you did catch whatever was haunting them.
Pauline unstrapped the trap but had a second thought before she grabbed the proton pack. It was true her back still wasn't up to par, and if she didn't have to lug this thing around and wear it, she'd just as soon not. She looked back at the house, and from the outside there were no signs that anything abnormal was going on here. Of course she knew that didn't mean anything, but all the same, she decided to check it out first. What she wouldn't give to just catch the little bugger right over the trap, just like she'd been telling Jamie about. If it turned out to be more trouble than that, she could always come back and get her pack. Even if somebody would be dumb enough to try stealing it, it didn't look like anyone else was even home on this block. So, trap in hand, Pauline headed up the sidewalk to the front porch and knocked on the door.
The door opened and Pauline saw a man and woman inside who both looked frantic, and her appearance didn't do much to change that.
"Ghostbusters," she announced as she stepped in, carrying the trap in one hand like a repairman's toolbox.
The man did a double take and asked her in disbelief, "You're the Ghostbusters?"
"That's right, we're the Ghostbusters, open 24 hours a day, no job or fee too big," Pauline said. She reached for a card in her pocket when she realized something, she looked down and saw she'd been in such a hurry to get to the job that she hadn't put on her coveralls first and was just in her jeans and muscle shirt, no wonder they were confused. Thinking quickly, she looked back up at the couple and added, "Plainclothes division…we're expanding our business."
This still didn't seem to satisfy the man and despite the ordeal they'd been put through, he couldn't resist commenting, "Funny, I thought there were more of you."
"There are," Pauline answered, "Business is in high demand right now and everyone else is out on other calls. Never fear, I'm sure whatever the problem is I'll be able to take care of it no problem, I am a professional. So, what is the problem and where is it?"
"It's up in the attic," the woman told her.
Ah geez, another attic. Pauline was starting to wonder if it meant something. For once couldn't these things raise hell in the basement? Oh well, Pauline maintained a professional face and responded, "You are in luck because it just so happens attics are a specialty of mine."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" the woman asked.
"That won't be necessary," Pauline replied, "I'll show myself up."
She took the stairs and made mental notes along the way if anything seemed out of the ordinary, so far nothing. So far everything seemed perfectly normal. Pauline headed to the end of the hall on the second floor and looked up the stairs leading to the attic, and watched for a moment, listening for any signs of paranormal activity. So far, nothing. For a minute Pauline was starting to wonder if this had been a prank call, then it occurred to her that these people weren't that imaginative, most people weren't. She climbed the stairs and looked around the attic.
Sometimes attics were just a crawl space you literally couldn't fit in unless you were on your hands and knees, sometimes they were whole rooms, she was thankful this one was the latter. A large room full of boxes and crates stored away up here, and a large set of bay windows across from the stairs. Pauline went over and looked out and saw that the windows overlooked the side yard. The afternoon sunlight shining in did little to improve the gloomy atmosphere in the attic, but Pauline still didn't notice anything wrong. A new thought entered her mind, one that troubled her deeply. Maybe the reason why she wasn't finding anything wrong up here was because maybe she'd already encountered the ghosts downstairs. Now that she thought about it, that couple was plenty odd in their own rights. If ectoplasm could temporarily possess her…maybe a whole ghost could take over a whole living body…and if there were more than one ghost around, maybe…
There was a shift in the air current in the attic. Pauline looked behind her, and didn't see anything, but she would've sworn that some of the boxes moved when she wasn't looking. She looked around again and tried to determine if anything had changed, physically everything looked to still be in its place, but she could sense something was different. Then she heard a small sound, she wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded like the click-click-click when a projector started running, but there wasn't one up there. Then suddenly she was hit by a gale wind that came out of nowhere and nearly blinded her. She raised one hand to shield her eyes as she tried to see what was causing it, but she saw nothing. The wind was strong but Pauline still managed to stay on her feet and move forward, intent on finding the cause of this. Then, just as suddenly, she got an answer as she saw something come through the wall. At the moment she couldn't figure what class it was supposed to be, but it was a full torso apparition that didn't look like it was entirely human, even in life. It looked like it was seven feet tall, its whole body white with an icy texture to it, glowing eyes and a horrid face like it had died in the midst of an agonizing scream. Pauline threw the trap at it but before she could step on the control, it let out a screeching breath that only made the winds blow harder than before, and now Pauline couldn't see anything in front of her and she was aware that she was being blown back against the wall.
Check that, blown back against the bay windows which unexpectedly flew open and she fell out and let out a yell of panic as she fell 30 feet and landed…right in the swimming pool. She hit the pool's bottom before rising back to the surface. She pulled herself out of the in-the-ground pool and looked back up to the windows, but she didn't see the ghost and it looked like the gusts had stopped. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she hollered up to the specter, "So you want to play rough, huh? Well two can play that game!"
Undeterred, Pauline went back around to the front of the house and rang the doorbell. The man answered again and he looked aghast at the sight of her.
"My goodness, what happened?" he asked.
"Oh nothing to worry about," she insisted nonchalantly as she stepped back in, "Just a typical minor job hazard, happens all the time." She headed to the stairs and called back to them, "As you were," and went back upstairs to face that thing again.
And that's pretty much how things went for the next hour or so. Pauline would get up to the attic, the ghost would start blowing up a strong wind, Pauline would get blown back out of the window, land in the pool, go back around the front, climb back up the stairs to the attic, rinse and repeat. After about the tenth time of getting knocked into the swimming pool, Pauline pulled herself out of the water and announced, "Alright, that does it, I'm starting to get pissed off!" and headed back around to the front.
Once more she charged up two flights of stairs and reentered the attic, her eyes scanning the whole place looking for the…whatever it was.
"Alright you undead son of a bitch," she said, "I'm done playing around, come on out and prepare to suffer!"
The air was still now, like the calm before a storm, Pauline watched and waited, hearing only the sound of her own breath and the beating of her own heart. Then, the winds started gusting again, not as strong as before, just enough at first to blow some of the boxes around the room, then the ghost came tearing through one of the walls and flew straight at Pauline, who took a few steps back and fell backwards on the floor, hitting the control to the trap in the process. The trap opened and a blinding pink and purple light shot out of it and there was a great noise as the ghost fought against the force sucking it down into the box.
"I…hate…poltergeists," were Jewell's first words as the Ghostbusters returned to the house.
"I'm just glad to be back," Ray said, "I thought we'd never get home with the way traffic is now."
"Yeah," Winston agreed, "We've had some weird jobs before but I don't ever recall trying to catch 30 ghosts during an earthquake before."
"You guys are back!" Jamie said as she came up to them, then she noticed something was different and asked Peter, "Are you wearing lipstick, Uncle Peter?"
"Don't ask," he replied as he tried to smear the makeup off with his glove.
"Those ghosts are just getting weirder and weirder," Raynelle said with a huff.
"Yeah, wait'll Pauline hears all about it," Peter said, then looked around and asked Jamie, "Where is she?"
Jamie's big bug eyes changed into a look of panic, and she explained, "Well you see, a call came in after the earthquake, they sounded frantic, and Pauline figured she could handle it herself."
"Where?" Peter cut her off.
Jamie just continued, "She took one of the proton packs and one of the traps and went on her motorcycle."
"Where?" Peter repeated.
Jamie continued to have a panicked look on her face as she continued to explain, "She figured with the damage from the earthquake, she'd be able to get around the traffic on it."
"Where is she?" Peter asked.
"Here I am!" they heard behind them. Everybody turned and saw Pauline entering the front door with a smoking trap in one hand, a big grin on her face, and her whole body was covered in clear ectoplasm.
Assuming the worst, Benjamina's eyes bugged out and she exclaimed in shock, "Oh my God, you're coated!"
Pauline was unfazed though, and she told them, "It's alright, it's just regular ecto-goop."
"What happened?" Peter wanted to know.
Pauline held up the trap and told Ray, "Here's one to watch in the unit. I've never seen anything like it, it looks like it was a person in life but it also looks like it's half ice, and anytime it opens its mouth it puts out some kind of straight line wind."
"And it did that?" Jewell pointed at her.
"Well no," she answered, "Whatever it was, it had a friend with him, and that thing slimed me before I got it in the trap." She looked at them and asked, "What about you guys? Are you alright?" She looked at her dad and asked him, "Why're you wearing makeup?"
"It's a long story," Egon told her with a small amused smirk.
"Well I sure wish I'd been there for it," Pauline responded.
"No you don't," Raynelle shook her head.
Pauline looked at her and asked, "Are you wearing rouge?"
Raynelle scowled at her and said only, "These ghosts are getting a sick sense of humor."
Pauline went over to Jewell and asked her, "How about you? Did they do that with you too?"
Jewell gave her a no-nonsense look and told her, "You know better than that, you know ghosts are scared of me."
"I think they're allergic to you," Benjamina commented with a small smirk.
Pauline noticed that none of the others had come back from their job wearing any slime, clearly theirs had been a very different job.
"If you stand around much longer," Raynelle told her, "You're going to stick to the floor. You need a shower."
"Ironic," Pauline replied, "I've already taken about 10 baths today." As soon as Raynelle had her back to her, Pauline got a mischievous look on her face similar to her father's, and crept over to Raynelle and sneak attacked her in a strong bear hug and transferred a lot of the slime onto her, Jewell and Benjamina could actually hear it squish and they managed not to make a sound but made amused faces at each other, about to die from a silent fit of laughter. Raynelle's own face was frozen in an open-mouthed grimace until she was able to breathe again when Pauline let go of her.
Raynelle looked down at her coveralls that were now also coated in ectoplasm and let out a disgusted, "Ugh!" and glared over at Pauline and charged at her, "Venkman! You did that on purpose!"
"You catch on fast, Raynelle," she replied with a cocky grin.
"You did what?" Jewell asked Pauline that night when the four women were getting ready for bed.
Word about Pauline's attempt at selling the Ghostbusters' story to Hollywood had been stirred up earlier and she'd been taking jabs from the other girls for 15 minutes now. She made a deflective gesture and told the others, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Seemed like a good idea?" Jewell repeated, "Pauline you know damn well if you want something done right, you never bring Hollywood into it, they wouldn't know how to do something right if it fell on their head."
"Maybe it should," Benjamina commented from where she lay in her bed smoking a cigarette.
Pauline rolled her eyes and told them, "Alright, it was a bad idea, I'm sorry, alright?"
The other three seemed to think it over for a few seconds before responding, "Alright."
"I still don't get what you were thinking," Raynelle told her.
Pauline shrugged, "I figured either they could use the story for a movie, and if that didn't work…"
"What, a TV show?"
"Not exactly," Pauline said, "I was thinking more that it's just crazy enough they could probably make it into a Saturday morning cartoon show."
That drew a chorus of laughs from the other girls.
"Get real," Jewell told her, "Who'd ever want to see a show about our dads working?"
Pauline shrugged again, "The business had been dead for years at the time, I thought it'd be nice if there was some way people would remember them, nothing's more permanent than film. Is that so horrible?"
"I suppose not," Raynelle said, "But now that business is open again, people are definitely going to remember them now."
Benjamina took a drag on her cigarette and added, "And I suppose now that they're going to remember us as well."
For some reason this comment above all others made the other three look to one another and contemplate what it meant. After a brief silence, Pauline broke it by announcing, "I'm going to bed."
"Me too," the others agreed.
Benjamina half shrugged and stubbed out her cigarette in an ashtray next to her bed, then turned on her side and pulled up the covers. Pauline more or less lay in her bed but her head didn't touch the pillow, instead she watched as Raynelle returned to bed with a beat up teddy bear that had been in their combined family for years. Instantly she shot up in bed and cornered Raynelle and exclaimed, "Aha! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a grown woman your age sleeping with a stuffed animal, give me that," she stole the bear away from Raynelle and whopped her over the head with it.
"Hey!" Jewell called over to them from her bed, "Both of you, shut up and go to bed or I'm putting you both in a headlock."
Pauline dropped the bear like a hot iron and the two of them each jumped into their own beds without a further word.
"That's more like it," Jewell said, "Now, goodnight."
"Goodnight," they replied.
"Oh shut up," she told them.
It was the middle of the night, and try as she might, Pauline couldn't sleep. She turned every which way in her bed and couldn't get comfortable. She listened to the even breaths of the other three women in the room, clearly none of them were having the same problem. So why was she? Well, if she wanted to stop lying to herself it was less to do with physical discomfort, and more to do with something that had been in the back of her mind all day. The earthquake earlier that day. It was true New York had had its fair share of earthquakes over the years, and maybe this had just been another one of them, maybe it was just coincidence, but in her mind she kept going back to something she'd discussed with Jewell the other day.
"It's like in their own paranormal way they've found a way to manipulate the elements, the weather, granted it's all in a controlled environment in the legion of the dead, but still…"
Still…what if the earthquake hadn't just been a random act of nature, but instead the work of a higher powered ghoul lurking out there? And why not? The first time the Ghostbusters went into business, they had to save the world from Gozer. The second time they went into business, then they had to save all of humanity and her own brother from Vigo the Carpathian. But what the hell could possibly be out there now that could possibly rival their reign of terror they inflicted upon the city, if anything?
Quietly, she threw back the covers, got out of bed and crept out of the room, down the stairs, down to the basement, and went over to the containment unit and peered in. The latest ghosts they'd caught took up the forefront view inside. Egon had had a theory about the gusting ghost she'd managed to trap. Once it was actually contained and could be viewed without the high winds, it was plainer to see that for a full torso apparition, it did look once human, and in fact was dressed in very old clothes. Egon's educated guess had been that perhaps this was the spirit of one of the unfortunates who froze to death in the Great Blizzard of 1888, when New York City had been hit with over 4 feet of snow and winds had blown up to 80 miles an hour. From her own experience with the ghost she considered it a fair guess. She looked in at the ghosts and noticed that something had vastly changed from the last time she saw them. They weren't doing anything, least of all nothing that would automatically raise an alarm, but something didn't seem right.
"Quit pushing," Benjamina groaned as Pauline all but shoved her down the basement stairs, "You know this gets old after a while."
"Shut up, Benjamina," Pauline told her, "I need to get somebody's opinion on this."
Benjamina yawned and put on her glasses and told the other woman, "You do know it's 2 in the morning, right?"
"The dead never sleep, you know that," Pauline said.
Benjamina grunted as she was pushed over towards the containment unit. She slapped Pauline's hands away and asked her, "Now what's so important you had to drag me out of bed in the middle of the night?"
Pauline pointed to the viewing holes on the front of the unit and told her, "Look in there and tell me what you see."
Benjamina shrugged and took a look inside, and Pauline noticed she became very still.
"Well?" she asked.
The younger Spengler took a step back from the containment unit, turned around and said to Pauline, "They're waiting. They're not fighting each other, they're not floating around, they're not doing anything, they're just…waiting."
"Yeah," Pauline said, "But for what?"