Chapter 21: Hydraulic

A block away. The truck was just now pulling up to the barricade quickly and haphazardly created on the edge of the neighborhood frontier. Police cars blocked the larger portion of the street with police wearing riot gear standing in between the gaps. The black F-150 came to a slow halt. Dan rolled down the window and started addressing one of the armored officers, "Hey, Sergeant! Ghostbusters!" He did a light double tap on the horn to get the officer's attention.

One of the officers looked over, his riot helmet's face shield somewhat obscured from scratches making the officer's face unidentifiable. He broke formation and walked to the truck's driver side. As he approached, Dan spoke of the urgency, "Let us through! We have a 25 foot pissed off zombie tearing up the western section of Tribeca!" The riot geared officer raised his face shield. Dan and Egon groaned…

It was Carl.

Dan slammed his head into his headrest swearing under his breath, "Aw, shit!" "Well, ain't that a coinkie-dink," Carl said with venom, "Figures you goofballs would show up in my neighborhood."

Dan flinched at that, "Your neighborhood?"

Carl growled, "Not that it's any of your business, Chicago-Boy, but me and my partner transferred to this patrol block after the last monster attack."

Egon leaned forward to see Carl from his side of the truck, "Sergeant, there's a possibility that creature is heading toward our headquarters, and if that happens this city will be a giant ghost-filled crater if we don't stop it now!"

"I have my orders to not let a soul through," he walked closer to the driver window trying to intimidate Dan with his presence, pointing at the two men in the truck, "That includes you nutbars."

Through it all, Lita listened to all of them talk, but the insult was too far. She crawled over the seat and blurted out, "One of us is over there with a friend of ours! We have to get over there!"

Carl sneered at her, "Who the Hell are you?" Lita was taken aback at not only Carl's response, but her own outburst. She stammered a moment.

Dan looked back and forth between them, then rolled his eyes, letting out a stressful sigh in the process, "Carl, this is Lita Kino; my girlfriend. Lita, this is Sergeant Carl Rivera; Eddie's brother." As he made the introductions, he took no joy in it knowing now Lita was going to be at the ire of Eduardo's older sibling. Lita's tone changed as she looked at Carl, "He's Eduardo's brother? No wonder he doesn't like cops!"

Dan snapped his head around and scolded her, "Lita!" She realized too late she shot her mouth off, and winced as she slinked back into the back seat. He turned back to Carl and saw he was even more annoyed than before. Dan already knew what was to happen, "Look, we don't have time for an argument! Will you just…"

"Absolutely not!" Carl was stern on his answer, "Why the hell would I let you through here?" That was when the wind picked up as a stray creature started to fly down towards the barrier. He looked up and found it coming right at him. "Holy shi…" the beast's talons slashed through his riot helmet. He fell over and hit the ground, his headgear thrown away from him.

Dan witnessed this and jumped out of the truck, "Oh, fuck! Carl!" He knelt down as other riot officers approached, "Carl, you okay?" The police sergeant pushed himself up and shook his head. He didn't appear to have any damage to his face or head. Despite Dan's concern, Carl didn't reciprocate, "What's it to you?"

Dan's sense of concern was immediately replaced by hostility as he grabbed Carl's head and forcefully pointed it toward his dislodged and heavily damaged riot helmet, "That could have been your head, you fucking tool!" He released him and continued yelling, "God fucking forbid I actually fucking care about people!"

The other officers grabbed Dan and started pulling at him to restrain him as Carl stood up. He had his back to the Ghostbuster, "Why do you care?" Dan wasn't done yet, "I don't want to see Kevin without a father, you motherfucker!"

The words. It dug into Carl's mind like a nail. He turned and looked to him. Dan was serious. There was something about the words that hurt his heart. In the silence Egon stepped out of the truck and rounded the front of the vehicle. Lita crawled over the back of the front seat and looked at what was happening. One of the officers holding Dan raised his face shield and asked, "Charges, sir?"

SCREECH! Everyone looked skyward and found more Man-Bats overhead. They circled before diving toward the police cars and the Ecto-Truck causing a scramble. Carl screamed out, "HIT THE DECK!" The riot geared police turned Dan loose and all of them dropped to the ground. A beast sailed down toward Dan. Dan turned in time to see the beast heading toward him, "WOAH!"

A particle stream struck the creature in the back and it was thrown from its position into the ground nearby. People in the crowd screamed as the creature came toward them Dan looked behind him and saw Egon adjusting his particle thrower again, the tip of the gun smoking, "We're going to have to distract them! Get them to follow us!" Dan nodded and ran to the back of the truck to grab his pack as Egon stepped back into the truck.

Carl got up and saw Dan hop into the bed of the truck. As he watched him mess with his Ghostbusting equipment he called out, "Move the cars! We'll draw them away from the crowd!" Carl drew his pistol and pointed it at Dan, "I don't think so!" Dan's eyes widened…

BOOM! Dan flinched then heard a creature squeal and land on the roof of the truck. He turned and saw the beast's body slide off the top of the vehicle and land on the ground, a fresh bullet hole in it's head. Dan looked to Carl as he lowered the weapon, "You may be insane, but I ain't gonna have your death on my conscience. However," he holstered the pistol, "if you wanna commit suicide, I ain't gonna stop you." He pointed to some of the officers beginning to stand back up, and pointed to the two squads in the way of the truck.

The officers looked at each other and began moving to the vehicle's. After the squads were moved Dan looked to him, "Thanks. I owe you."

"You don't owe me anything," Carl picked up his riot helmet and sneered at him, "Just get the hell outta my sight." Dan shrugged and slammed his hand on the roof of the truck, "You heard the man, Lita. Let's haul." After that, he ducked down into the bed as Lita moved into the driver seat and started the truck.

Egon was curious as he looked at her and stated, "I didn't know you could drive." "I can't," she responded, "I can tap into Dan's skillset and use his knowledge." "Through the link?" He was intrigued, "Fascinating!" That was until it occurred to him, "Wait a minute, that means… Oh, no!" she peeled out, him sinking into the seat from the power of the engine. Dan began firing at the creatures causing them to chase after the truck.

Mercury Knight stood before the Draugr and raised his left arm to look at the screen on it. The screen displayed readouts very similar to Sailor Mercury's minicomputer. He punched in a few variables and took a scan, "Definitely a Class 7" he lowered his arm and looked to the beast, "Let's see how long we can hold you off."

The Draugr turned to the Knight and witnessed the man approach. Sailor Mercury took the opportunity to stand and back away as the Draugr was distracted. The beast stood, it speaking as it did, "You wish to challenge me, hero?"

"Not like I have a choice," Mercury Knight lamented, drawing the sword from the sheath in the back of the longcoat, "but I will defend the people I care about!" He stood ready as the Draugr came to it's feet, "Your proposal has been noted." The beast swung the mace overhead to drop it on top of Mercury Knight.

He dove forward missing the massive weapon. He rolled back onto his feet and proceeded to rush the beast's legs. Using the sword, he slashed the monster in the leg. It hollered as from the slash the leg began to crystallize. He looked back, surprised at what he just did, "Woah, that's interesting," He looked back to his wrist-mounted screen and scanned the beast, "I'm actually suspending all energy accumulation in the Draugr's cellular structure."

The Draugr was actively freezing in place. Sailor Mercury rushed around the creature and ran to her Knight's side, backing up toward him to watch what was happening. She activated her own visor as she looked at what was happening, "Roland, it looks as though it won't hold for long! We have to destroy it before the effect of your weapon strike wear's off." "Right!" Mercury Knight wound up to take another lunge at the beast when another Man-Bat dropped from the sky and began clawing at Sailor Mercury.

Mercury Knight took notice and began turning at attack back when another airborne beast grabbed him by his longcoat lifting him into the air, "Hey! Let me down, you Kirk Langstrom knock-off!" He stabbed his sword into the beast's chest causing it to crystallize. The effect spread throughout the monster's form making the beast stop it's upward accent. It was at this moment the Knight realized, "Uh, oh," he looked down to the rapidly approaching pavement, then looked at the brick wall of a nearby building he was also heading toward, "I didn't think this through!" Taking the sword out of the creature's chest, he then used the sword's hilt to break the frozen claws of the Man-Bat into pieces freeing him. Grabbing the remains of the legs, he looked down, then ahead trying to think fast.

Sailor Mercury attempted to fistfight the creature, but was doing more dodging than fighting. She jumped away from the beast in time to see Mercury Knight break away from the now frozen Man-Bat and hang on. Just as suddenly, she looked back to her own creature just as the Draugr's large mace swung past and knocked the creature away from her. The Draugr was dragging it's frozen foot behind it, "You are MY kill!" She didn't get the opportunity to see what happened to her Knight.

The wall was approaching fast. Mercury Knight was still too high off the ground, but it was better than hitting a wall then falling to the ground. He let loose the creature and dropped toward the street. The monster hit the wall and shattered. Mercury Knight fell 5 stories when he suddenly felt the instinct to fall to his feet. As he positioned himself, he felt what felt like metal-on-metal clanking on his boots. When he made contact with the ground, he actively caved in the street as he knelt down suppressing the momentum.

While still kneeling he looked at his boots and found a set of what looked like pneumatic solenoids on either side of each boot connected to a metal tread plate on the bottom. He immediately deduced what they were, "Jump actuators? I can jump?"

"ROLAND!" Sailor Mercury's voice projected stress hard as he looked behind him while standing, finding her being cornered in the front courtyard of 388 Greenwich. The Draugr was still dragging his frozen leg behind him approaching the Sailor Scout, mace in hand. He heard the monster talk, "You are delaying the inevitable. Your Kin shall lie beside you!"

A phrase suddenly popped into Mercury Knight's head like it did before. He clenched his fist and wound up his arm for a punch as he screamed out, "MERCURY… HYDRAULIC… PUNCH!" As he swung his fist in the air, a wave of water formed behind him. It snaked around him and flew toward the Draugr, the water forming into the shape of a fist. The Draugr turned in time to see the punch go right for it. The beast was thrown to the pavement.

Sailor Mercury knelt down and covered her face as dust and wind blew toward her. She looked back up and looked through the glass of her visor to see the creature fall backwards and shake the ground on collision. The wave disappeared as Mercury Knight relaxed. He turned to his Princess and started running over, "Are you alright?" He quickly came beside her as she spoke, "I'm okay." He lifted her up to her feet as she panted, "I'm a bit rusty. We haven't used our powers in a number of years."

"One of the advantages of always wearing a nuclear weapon on your back," he stated, finally getting her to her feet, "it forces you to have endurance." It was at that moment both Sailor Mercury's visor and Mercury Knight's wrist mounted scanner began beeping. They looked overhead and saw the light begin to be blotted out. A swarm much larger than the night before started to gather above them as the two of them saw them begin to circle.

If that weren't enough, the Draugr sat up, rose it's mace, and smashed the ice over it's leg off. The beast's muscle and skin went with the ice, but it didn't affect the creature for now it stood, towering over the Sailor Scout and her Knight on one uncovered skeletal leg. Sailor Mercury didn't like what was happening, "We can take out the flying monsters, but I forgot our powers don't work on ectoplasmic entities. There's nothing we can do about the Draugr."

Roland Jackson. A man who just discovered moments ago of a power he was unfamiliar with just learned of his power's limitations. Without his equipment, this young woman whom he was to protect as well as himself were to be surely killed if it wasn't for the hope he began to gain when he heard two familiar sounds in the distance. He heard the rev of a Ford 460 big block, and the sound of a repeating moan.

The black F-150 rounded the corner and skidded to a stop. "We might not be able to stop it," Mercury Knight pointed at the truck, "but there's who can!"

Dan had stood up in the back of the vehicle and hooked what looked like a webbed nylon strap from one side of the truck's roll bar to the other. He placed the strap behind him to act like a restraint. He called out as he grabbed his particle thrower, "You ready, Egon?" Egon leaned out of the passenger window with his thrower in his hand, armed and ready to fire, "Affirmative!" "Alright, Lita, light 'em up!"

Lita popped the clutch and stomped on the gas. The truck's tires made so much noise squealing the Draugr took notice. Dan braced himself as the truck flew past the beast. Dan and Egon opened fire, their beams striking the monster blowing off more of it's flesh. The Draugr took exception to their attack and proceeded to bellow in rage, it chasing after them.