Chapter 19: Tribeca Turmoil

Luna and Artemis were walking around the neighborhood around the Ghostbusters headquarters getting more of a feel for the land. In the few days the two cat guardians have been in New York, they've come to learn the major American city was dirty, rude, and dangerous. Luna specifically was thrown off, "How can Americans live in such a place?"

Artemis, on the contrary, was more accustomed, "Eh, it's their way. Britain wasn't that much different. London was especially bad when it rained, which was all the time."

"That's right," Luna watched as Artemis jumped onto a garbage can in the alley to get a better vantage point, "I forgot you discovered Mina when she was living in London. It was so long ago." A solemn look appeared on her face as she sat and looked down, a sigh escaping her whiskers. Artemis looked down to her, "What's the matter?"

"I've been thinking about our conversation from last night," she looked up at him once again, "How is it Darien has the sense the Solar Knights are here? I remember we barely sensed Dan being Jupiter Knight; it didn't feel like when we discovered the Scouts."

Artemis sat atop the can and gave it a moment, "You know, I never gave it much thought, but do you remember what Lita told us after the Ghostbusters left? She said Darien was the one…"

THUD! The can he was on shook and began falling over. He attempted to jump down as the can toppled, but slipped and landed face first into the ground. Luna jumped out of the way of the can and just barely witnessed the white cat hitting the ground with all the grace of Curly Howard. "Seriously, Artemis, you're a cat. Could at least attempt to land on your feet?"

Artemis picked himself up and shook his head, "What was that?" THUD! Both cats - now on ground-level - felt the vibration under their feet, and they were getting more intense with each vibration. A smell was also beginning to encroach the area; the rancid smell of death. More and more a noise started to emanate down the street as the thuds grew closer. The cats reached the end of the alley and looked to the noise, Luna's voice denoting worry, "What's happening?"

A flood of people started rushing around the corner as it was apparent the noise was the collective screams of the citizenry of Manhattan Island. The people scrambled over cars, and in some cases each other as they rushed away from the street they were on. "My God, Luna, they're terrified!" Artemis's mouth hung open at the sheer horror on everyone's face.

Luna looked toward the street they were running from and saw why, "And it's no wonder! Look at what they're running from!" Artemis looked toward where she was looking and found a 25 foot tall human form walking down the street. It had a long white handlebar moustache, no hair on its head, was wearing Norse armor, and carrying a large mace. Its skin was gray and flaking, its eyes sunken in and black.

The cats nearly gagged as the full force of the scent it gave off hit them. Artemis covered his nose with his paw, "Aw, Nelly! Talk about low tide!"

"This is terrible!" Luna watched as the people fled down the street, "We have to tell the Scouts so they can warn the Ghostbusters!" Artemis went to look at her when something caught his eye. His eyes went wide as he removed the paw from his nose, "Luna, that won't be necessary, but I can't say it's a good thing!" She looked at him perplexed but then noticed where he was looking. She turned to find a familiar blue-haired woman standing beside a tall black man with a familiar red and white symbol on his arm amongst the crowd.

Luna could only reply, "Oh, this can only lead to trouble!"

Roland took the railgun off his shoulder and began firing it up, "I'm going to try holding it off!" He began flipping switches and turning dials as he gave Amy instruction, "Get back to the firehouse and have Egon recall everyone!"

"Roland," Amy had a twinge of fear in her voice, "you said yourself that weapon is experimental! Are you sure it'll work?" Roland stopped what he was doing and looked at her, "I didn't say it was experimental, I just said it was new. How did you know that?" Amy stood frozen for a moment as she had no answer. Roland shook his head coming back to the situation, "Doesn't matter! Go and warn Egon!"

Amy nodded. She didn't like what she was doing, but there was an overwhelming urge to listen to him. It also opened the opportunity to assist in another way. She began running with the crowd away from the creature and the lone Ghostbuster taking a stand. As soon as she was far enough away, she found a secluded alleyway and ducked off. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her communicator…

Dan was still in the bunk room. He sat at his computer desk looking at the binder of letters he saved from his time corresponding to Lita. Something was off about how Lita was the last few days. The more he looked at the letters, the more guilty he felt. He looked at her older photos…

There was a beeping that stirred in the room. Dan looked around and tried to figure out where it was coming from when he looked to Lita's luggage. He quickly walked to the bag, opened it, and found her Scout communicator. He activated it and spoke, "Weapons Lab; chief pyro speaking."

"Dan?" He heard Amy's voice come over as her face appeared in the corner of the device, "Where's Lita?" "She's in Egon's Lab," he noticed the worry on her face, "Why? What's wrong?"

Egon opened the bunk room door and stepped in, Lita behind him, "Dan, we just got a flurry of calls. We have another Draugr." Dan went pale.

Amy heard this over the communicator, "That's not all! Dr. Spengler, it's heading toward your headquarters! It's on Greenwich Avenue heading south!" By this time Egon and Lita approached as Dan asked, "How far away is it?" "Four blocks. That's not the worst of it." Egon, Dan, and Lita exchanged looks then looked back to the communicator as Lita spoke up, "What is it?"

"Roland was with me. He's still out here alone! I'm going to have to help!" Dan's eyes widened, "Alone?" "What do you mean help?" Egon asked. That was when he realized, "You don't mean…" "Yes. You're going to have to get here as soon as you can! Amy out!" The communicator went black.

Lita grabbed the device from Dan and tried to talk to her, "Wait Amy, our powers don't work on ectoplasmic monsters! Amy? Amy!" It was too late. Dan and Lita turned to Egon. Egon noticed the eyes, "We're going to have to go it alone. We can only hope Amy's powers are more effective in slowing the Draugr down."

Amy placed the communicator in her pocket and retrieved her transformation wand. She looked at the wand and sighed, "I hope Roland doesn't shoot me. Mercury Star Power!"

Roland had ducked behind a mailbox waiting for the creature to approach. His back was against the box as he was sweating bullets. He was nervous. Very nervous. He didn't think to grab a Proton Pack due to them being ineffective against the Man-Bat creatures, but this was the last thing he expected to come walking down the street.

He held the railgun close to him as he felt the tremors approach closer. This thing was too close to the firehouse for comfort. With Dan being injured, and Kylie, Eduardo, and Garrett not at the firehouse, the only able bodied ones to make it back quickly was Egon and Lita, and even then he had doubts; Egon having difficulty performing field work as he used to, and Lita still being green, Roland was feeling he had to work it alone.

"I smell flesh!" The Nortic accent of the creature echoed off the nearby buildings as the strongest tremor Roland felt yet came from just behind him, "I wish I brought my radio."

The creak and crunch of metal was heard as the mailbox was torn from its position out of the ground. Roland felt the crumbling concrete that held the box in fall on him as he turned to the sound, and what he saw was the creature staring at him with black eyes. Roland immediately flipped around and fell onto his back with a thud, failing to jump to his feet. The creature threw the box away and pointed to him with it's mace, "I want your life, hero!"

Roland only had one response, "Oh, man, am I in trouble!"

"MERCURY… BUBBLES… BLAST!" A blanket of fog and cold suddenly filled the area taking both the creature and Roland off guard, "What the…?" "Now's your chance!" A female voice called out. Confused, Roland answered the voice, "It's you! The one from last night!" "There's no time! Quickly before the fog clears!"

"You will not escape me. I will have you!" Roland turned over and began to run when he heard a loud SWISH and felt the mace hit the ground where he was laying, narrowly missing one of the device's spines. The impact of the blow caused him to flip onto his back again. It called out again as Roland got to his feet and started running blind through the fog, "I can smell both of you. I WILL have you!"

Roland barreled down the sidewalk as he tried to get away. He stopped in front of an alley to get his bearings when a white gloved hand reached out from it and pulled him toward it out of the fog. After reaching the alley Roland spun around, cocked the railgun, and pointed it behind him.

The woman in the blue trimmed bodysuit put her hands up and pleaded with him, "Please, I mean you no harm!" Roland lowered the weapon and sighed in relief, soon after wiping his forehead, "I believe you. You had a fair amount of time to off me in the open like that."

"We have to go!" The woman had reached to her right earring and pressed it like a button. After a weak flash of light, a visor appeared over her eyes. She produced a small blue PDA-like device in her hands and began typing on it one handed. It had a golden symbol resembling the symbol of the female sex, but the round part was in the shape of a heart. Roland saw this and was struck by what he saw, "Oh, wow! Advanced tech!"

"My VR visor is linked with my minicomputer; it allows me to scan any creature…" "...Calculatively and visually," Roland finished her sentence, "It works much like a battle HUD." The woman looked up surprised. The techno wiz of the Ghostbusters suddenly felt a bit queasy as he reached for the bridge of his nose. Almost as quickly as he felt it, it disappeared, "That was weird."

The computer beeped causing her to look back toward it, "The fog is beginning to dissipate," she looked back up toward him, "According to my readings, he's what you would classify as a class 7. We have to hold off or stop him from reaching your headquarters!" She turned to head in the opposite direction of the alleyway. "Why are you so interested in us?" Roland asked as she made her way down. She slowed, turned on her boot heel, and walked backwards talking to him, "Because you're good people. We know your Containment system is like a large bomb when shut down; we can't let that happen!"

Roland watched as the woman turned and ran back down the alley toward a fire escape. She leapt up and grabbed the ladder causing it to roll down. Roland put the railgun back on his shoulder and started heading toward the fire escape.

The roads leading to the area were blocked with people. Dan, Egon, and Lita were loaded up in the truck trying to reach Roland and Amy, but the panic was absolutely horrid. Even with the lights on and the siren running, no one could move fast enough for the vehicle to get by.

Dan slammed his hand on the horn, "Come on, get out of the way!" "This thing is really close if it's causing this much panic," Lita leaned over the front seat to look out of the front windshield. Egon had his PKE meter out scanning the area and noticed something strange. There was an interruption in the PKE siphoning that was affecting Slimer; an almost interspacial bubble surrounding the creature, "That's unusual. It's almost as if the creature has an energy field around it that the leaching effect is affecting rather than the creature's actual PKE. It's clear someone is controlling this creature."

"It can't be the same clowns trying to use the recorder," Dan said in denial, "The Draugrs are ectoplasmic; the recorder is of Negaverse origin."

Egon put the PKE meter away and grabbed his pack's particle thrower to start making adjustments, "They - whoever 'They' are - don't know that. It was mentioned in icelandic texts in the 13th century, so they have to be operating under the assumption it is a Norse artifact."

SCREECH! The familiar sound of creatures came from above as Dan and Egon looked skyward through the F-150's windshield. Lita crawled out of the back seat to join them as they saw the Man-Bat monsters fly by overhead. Lita didn't like it, "They're heading toward where Amy and Roland are!"

Dan agreed, "Great! That's all that Draugr needs; a friggan posse!" He put the truck into neutral and revved the engine. The sheer power of the 7.5L engine made enough noise to scare the crowd more effectively than the siren. Now that Dan had their attention, he stuck his head out of the window, "MOVE IT!" The crowd parted like the Red Sea and allowed the truck through. Back into gear, the vehicle lurched forward slowly toward their goal. They didn't say it, but all three of the truck's occupants prayed Roland and Amy could hold out.