Hello all! I didn't abandon this story. Just been busy but with this whole virus going on, I have a lot more free time at home. So here is chapter two. Please leave a review. It helps a lot in keeping motivated and lets me know people are actually reading this. Till the next chapter! Stay safe out there!
The car ride to the Sedgewick Hotel was an interesting one to say the least. Brian kept fiddling around with the strap of the new pack he was handed by Ray and shooting nervous glances at Juliet every time the car made a particularly tight turn. Juliet looked unfazed at that and Peter continued to give the kid a judgmental look as he leaned forwards to talk to Ray who was in the driver's seat.
"Hey, uh," he said to Ray, who only glanced his way for a second. "How come this mump gets all the new stuff?"
Egon rolled his eyes and turned to Peter. "He's our new 'Experimental Equipment Technician'."
"He gets a cool title too?" Peter said with a frown.
Ray sighs. "It means he gets to carry around a bunch of untested, extremely dangerous hardware that if not handled correctly, could blow him somewhere into New Jersey."
Peter nodded slowly. "Oh. So this knucklehead lugs around our very dangerous prototype hardware that could potentially blow us into New Jersey?"
He sat back in his seat and looked over at the kid, who was now extremely pale and sweaty. Juliet glared at Peter for saying all of that very loudly but he only smirked and gave Brian a hard pat on the back that made him flinch.
"Thanks! Keep the title, kid. It'll work hard for you."
"You are a real piece of work, you know that, Venkman?" Juliet said and Peter only shrugged and gave her a grin.
"So I've been told."
They finally arrived at the hotel and the minute they stepped past the front doors, the manager from the first time they were there came running up to them. Slimer wasted no time at all in getting noticed again.
"That disgusting green blob is up on the 12th floor again, wreaking havoc! I demand a refund right now!" He fumed and Peter looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Sir," he started. "If you check the fine print on our invoice."
"Invoices." Ray adds under a fake cough.
Peter smiles. "Right, invoices… you'll see that your warranty on re-haunting expired some time ago. You should've taken the extended service agreement."
The manager looks at him for a split second wondering if he's joking but just shakes his head and sighs. "Fine, fine. Just get rid of it!" he says and walks away, still shaking his head.
Peter and Ray share a grin but their little win is cut short when Egon pulls out his PKE reader.
"I'm getting some interesting PKE spikes here." he said and he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Disturbances don't seem to be exclusive to the 12th floor. I'd like the chance to look around the building a little more."
Ray ran a hand through his hair. "Alright, good. Dig up what you can. Julie, stay and help Spengs. That little greenie shouldn't cause us too much trouble."
Not wanting to get slimed again, Juliet quickly agrees. "No problem."
"Great. Rookie, you come with us." Ray jerks his head towards the elevator where Peter was already waiting.
Brian stiffens but follows him anyways.
"Brave little guy, isn't he?" Juliet says with a smile.
Ray chuckles. "I guess so. He'll get used to it though."
Juliet walks over to him and kisses his cheek. "Be safe."
He smiles, blushing slightly. "Of course. You too."
She returns the smile and goes to catch up with Egon. Ray sighs, reaching into his pocket, feeling the small box he recently started to constantly keep there. He shook his head and walked over to the rookie and Peter.
After a few minutes, the elevator doors open and a woman emerges from it. Peter perks up at this, which earns an eye roll from Ray.
"Well, hello." he says slyly and with an annoying amount of confidence. "You're perfectly safe now, Miss. The Ghostbusters are here."
The woman looks at him and frowns at him. "Back off, loser. Never gonna happen."
She walks off and Ray chuckles at Peter's rejection. Brian only looks at Peter, a confused yet slightly amused look on his face.
Peter shrugs, forcing a small laugh. "Haha. That approach rarely works with me. I'll show you why later."
They step into the elevator and Peter hits the 12 button. The doors close and Ray turns to look at Brian, who gives him a nervous look.
"Alright ace, get ready." he says to him and Brian musters a small smile, nodding to him.
"Dr. Stantz," Peter says with a smirk. "If you'd do the honors?"
Ray turns to Peter and grins. "Proud to, Dr. Venkman." he turns on his proton pack.
Peter looks over at Brian with a small look of annoyance. "Part of our settlement with the city: proton packs must remain off in heavily populated public areas." he finished with a little wave of his hand and a roll of his eyes.
Ray nods and gives the rookie a sheepish look. "And in close quarters." he motions to the elevator. The doors open just then and they step out.
Ray continues. "It minimizes the city's liabilities and satisfies the restraining order the maid here had put on us."
Peter sighs. "World we live in today. You shoot a proton stream of highly charged particles at someone… they get all sue-happy."
At that moment, a porter with his cart rounds the corner and Peter stiffens.
"It's him!" he opens fire at the luggage on the cart and the porter gives a small yelp before booking down the hall.
The trio stare at the damage Peter did and he gives Ray a sheepish grin when he sighs.
"Nice. Now we got another plaintiff." Ray mutters with a frown.
Peter's shoulders slump. "Aw, come on, Ray! I didn't want to end up like Juliet with a face full of slime. That little bastard always seems to go after me or her when he escapes. He doesn't even know me well enough to hate me."
Before Ray could respond, the luggage on the busted cart starts flying at them and the three of them immediately move out of the way.
They stick to the walls in order to avoid getting hit and Ray looks around the corner. He spots Slimer and his face goes tense.
"Alright… showtime." he turns to Peter and Brian. "We wear him out, then we capture him." he nods over to the rookie. "That's what your proton stream is for. Just give it your best shot at aiming and fire."
Brian nods and takes a deep breath. He turns the corner and aims right for Slimer, firing his proton stream. He misses and Slimer runs down the hall, startled.
"Okay, you've got him on the run!" Ray grins, patting Brian on the back. "C'mon, let's go, Peter!"
Peter takes a step back and raises his hands in defense. "Nah, I've seen this one already. Know how it ends. You two have fun though. I'll cover the elevators and escort any ladies safely to their rooms."
Ray rolls his eyes but nods. "Yeah, okay. Rookie, with me."
Brian nods at him and follows Ray down the hall. Ray takes out a second pair of goggles and hands them to Brian.
"So these are linked directly to your active PKE meter." He said to him as he pointed to the reader in Brian's hand. He nods and puts them on his head while Ray continues to talk.
"Your meter there will flash and buzz when it detects a potential signal. The paragoggles are mainly for tracking so we tend to use both together during jobs like this one."
With how much information he was getting, Brian wished he could have been trained in a less stressful environment but he didn't have time to complain so he kept his mouth shut and tried to get as much info as he could.
After Ray had explained how to use everything and what all the little flashes and buzzes meant, they walked in silence for a while, the sounds of their equipment filling the quiet atmosphere.
Brian glanced over at Ray and cleared his throat. "So… are you and Miss Barlow together?"
Ray froze and lifted his goggles from his eyes. "Uh, why do you ask?"
"Well, uh, I mean, I saw how she kissed you before she went with Dr. Spengler. I was just wondering. I didn't want to assume anything." he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Oh. Right. Uh, yeah we are." Ray said, his face a bit red. "Together, I mean."
"How long?" Brian asks as he collects another sample. Ray is quiet for a second and Brian starts to retract his question.
"You don't have to answer! I don't mean to be rude. I know this is personal stuff. I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine, kid." Ray assures with a small chuckle. "Uh, we should be coming up to about one and a half years? I think? I mean, I've known her since middle school so it feels like longer."
"Oh. Wow." Brian simply says which makes Ray laugh a bit.
"Alright, kid." Ray rounds a corner, Brian following right behind him. "My turn. How come you applied for this job?
"Uh well…" Brian pauses for a minute and then continues. "Well I just got out of college and, I don't know, I figured this would be an interesting job." He looks down at his PKE meter, checking the readings.
"I'd seen all the attention you guys got on the news and press. That's not really my thing. You know, being in the spotlight. But, in all honesty, I thought that if this didn't work out, any job would be easy to handle after doing this."
Ray lets out a laugh at that. Brian feels the tension in his shoulders lessen at this and he lets out a breath.
"Well you're definitely not wrong about that part." Ray says with a grin. "But once you do this, no other job is as exciting. At least that's my opinion. Plus, you seem to be doing alright so far."
Brian lets himself smile at this. They keep moving down the halls and before another conversation can start up, they see a set of vandalized vending machines.
"Whoa!" Ray says with a grin. "He's definitely been here."
Brian watched as he picked a broken piece from the machine covered in slime and put it into a small bag. Ray noticed his staring and chuckled.
"We get paid extra for everything we collect. You know, stuff that gets wrecked and contaminated." He nods to the bag in his hand. "We roll it back into Research and Development and the extra funds let us experiment with new equipment and offensive technologies."
Brian nods and sighs in defeat. "Which I assume I have to test first."
"Exactly." he said with a grin.
Ray's radio buzzes to life and Peter's voice comes out of it.
"Ray! I don't feel so good!"
"Shit." Ray mutters. "Peter, come in! You okay?"
When no one responded, Ray frowned and put his radio away.
"Come on, something must have happened to him."
They bolt it down the hallway and they eventually find Peter. He lay on the ground, covered in green slime.
"You got slimed!" Ray said at the sight and Peter glared at him. Brian reached out a hand to help him up and Peter accepted the offer.
"How did this even happen?" he asks himself in disgust, trying to get as much slime he could off of him. "I was covering the elevators."
"Oh Juliet is not gonna let you live this down when she sees you." Ray said with a snicker.
Peter glared at him. "I'm gonna get that little bastard. It's payback time."
They suddenly hear Egon's voice over Ray's radio.
"You guys need to get down here immediately. Our live-in science experiment is tearing apart the lobby, and he's not alone."
Ray sends a look to Peter, who only shrugged at him.
"More ghosts? But we gave this hotel a clean bill of health seven years ago?" Ray said and Egon replied dryly.
"New people die everyday."
"Well that's morbid." Brian mumbled as he pressed the button for the elevator.
Once the elevator doors open, the trio step in. After a few minutes, the elevator shakes and stops.
"Alright, Slimer! You've had your fun! The elevator's off-limits!" Ray yelled. The elevator still didn't move. He reached for his radio and turned it on.
"Uh, Egon, come in. I think we're stuck in the elevator. We need some help!" he said, raising his voice at the end.
Peter gave Ray an annoyed look. "Think we're stuck? Well, let's see…" He leaned down and started pushing random buttons. "Think we're stuck, think we're stuck, think we're stuck…" he stood back up and looked at the others.
Ray rolled his eyes. Peter could be so dramatic.
"Ray, you guys uh… good with officially stuck in the elevator? Show of hands…" Peter continued and Brian raised his hand slowly.
The elevator shook and they froze. Ray raised his patrona wand up and aimed towards the doors.
"Here it comes…"
"Kill it, Ray." Peter said, taking a step back away from the doors.
The doors opened and Egon's face popped into view. "Need a hand?" he asked with a smile.
Ray lowered his blaster and Peter sighed, turning to him.
"You always fail me, Ray. Don't you?"
Ray shrugs, stepping out of the elevator. Peter followed, Brian close behind.
"So, what's the damage?" Peter asks and Egon nudges his head towards the lobby. Peter and Ray gape at the lobby, now filled with multiple bellhop ghosts along with Slimer. They see Juliet blasting at one of the ghosts, catching it in her stream.
Ray grins. "That's my girl!" he runs over to her and throws down a trap, opening it and sealing the ghost inside once Juliet got it within range.
"Thanks." Juliet grins, slightly out of breath. They smile at each other for a second until Peter comes over and hits Ray at the back of his head.
"Alright lover boy, you can flirt later. We're busy."
Ray stuttered at him, his face red. Juliet laughed and went back to blasting at the many ghosts flying around.
The group got right to work, each switching from blasting to throwing down traps. They kept this system up until there was only one left. Brian shot out a stream and caught it immediately. He froze for a bit, shocked he got it on the first try.
He shook his head and struggled holding it in his stream. Ray shot out his own proton stream and nodded over to Brian, who gave him a grateful smile.
Peter sighed. "He's a New York bellhop! Just tip him, will ya?"
"Peter, shut up." Juliet said with a laugh as she threw down a trap. She opened up the trap and in a flash, the last ghost was caught.
"Guess that convulsive PK shock wave really stirred the nest." Ray muttered, picking up the trap.
"Man, this lobby is so wrecked." Brian said and rubbed the back of his neck.
Peter looked around and frowned. "Can we please call Winston and tell him his night off has officially ended?"
More ghosts popped up right after he spoke and the five of them readied their blasters. The ghosts flew around the room for a second before flying out of the lobby in different directions.
Ray grit his teeth. "Shit, they've split up."
"Ray, follow me. The others are floating upstairs." Egon said and Ray nodded, not waiting for him and running over to the stairs. Egon turned to the others. "Venkman, Juliet, you guys pull our friend Slimer into a trap as fast as you can. There's a massive bulge in these spikes indicating that this isn't just some routine cleaning job."
Juliet and Brian nodded while Peter frowned and rolled his eyes. Egon leaves to follow Ray and Peter starts to head in the direction that Slimer went.
"He gets so bossy when he hasn't had his nap." Peter muttered under his breath.
Juliet chuckled. "Leave him alone, will ya? Besides, I think I know where that little spud went." she points over to the sign for the Alhambra Ballroom. Peter smirked.
"Oh yeah, no way he'd pass that up. I can smell the food from out here."
Before they can go in though, the manager stops them, stepping in front of them.
"Oh no, absolutely not! You can't go in, the Rodriguez Bar Mitzvah is set to start in half an hour!" he said and Peter raised an eyebrow.
"I'll bet the beef brisket is today's special." he said, glancing over to the two.
The manager glared at him. "You've done quite enough already. I'm sure the… thing will just go away…"
They hear crashing and glass shattering followed by laughter from inside the ballroom and the three of them look back at the manager.
He stands his ground. "I… I'm willing to risk it. You're not going in there!"
Peter claps his hands together. "Well! That's all we needed to hear. Alright, we're out. Coffee time, everyone! Service has been declined beyond this point."
He walks away from the ballroom and Brian looks at him and back at Juliet.
"So now what?" he asks and Juliet looks back at him.
"We have other ways." she assures him with a grin.
They hear Egon's voice buzz out of Peter's radio.
"Sounds like the Alhambra's off limits."
Juliet can hear the smile in his voice and she chuckles. She reaches for her own radio and responds.
"Yeah but I doubt Venkman here is gonna let it go." She sends Peter a smirk as she walks past him. "He did get slimed after all."
Peter glares at her and she laughs. The radio with Egon's voice again.
"Be careful, Peter. Remember the Ellis Island incident?"
Peter shuts off his radio right after that. He didn't need to be reminded of that event.
"Wait, what about Ellis Island?" Brian asks but before he can get an answer, Peter and Juliet stop walking.
Peter turns to Brian and grins. "You bring your apron? We're gonna take a little shortcut through the kitchen."