Chapter 1: The Beginning Of A New Adventure

Yes, you good readers, this is the horrible horrible episode where our new friend Bane Albright enters [hopefully without knocking himself senseless] *sigh* As though Prologue Part 3 wasn't bad enough.........

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The phone rang in all its untold ecstasy.

The character on hands and knees below it was startled. He attempted to get up, and promptly whacked the back of his head on the underside of the desk.

"Like, Ow!"

The phone continued to ring without any sympathy. One thin gloved hand emerged from under the table. After some groping around, it grabbed the phone and brought it below. "Ghostbusters."

A few minutes later, hand and phone reappeared over the table. "Yours, Coach."

Garrett put down his sandwich and took the phone. "Hello, this is Garrett Miller.....Oh, hi Andy......" He stuck the receiver under his ear and picked up his sandwich again, while the hand disappeared once more under the table. "Dinner with your folks tonight? But I don't know if I'm free then.......Andy, I-"

*Bzzt*! "Oops."

"Hello? Hello?" Garrett found himself hearing nothing but the flat dial tone.

The sheepish face of Bane Albright appeared, along with the severed telephone wire in his gloved hand. "Sorry, Coach. I guess I, like, went crazy with the, y'know, the pliers."

"Don't break a sweat, Freshman. I needed that." Garrett looked down at his sandwich and made a face. "A few minutes on the phone with 'Whiny Watson', and already I'm not hungry anymore. Hey Slime-ball! Catch!"

Slimer squeaked in delight and stuffed the sandwich down his bottomless pit.

"But Coach," Bane fully disconnected the wire before backing out from under the desk. "I thought Miss Watson was, y'know, your girlfriend."

Roland walked across the room to inspect Bane's damage on the wire. "Yeah, aren't you and Andrea supposed to be getting along pretty well?"

Garrett sighed. "We are, but Andy keeps pushing me to meet her parents, and she's putting me in a spot. I'm not ready to bring our relationship that far yet."

"Why don't you, like, tell her that, Coach?"

"I don't want to get Andy upset or anything."

Kylie appeared at the doorway. "Garrett's actually showing submission towards a female? Now that's new."

Garrett turned slightly red. "Whatever." He spun around and headed for the elevator. "Let's go, Freshman. I'm gonna re-drill you on your artillery."

Bane smiled and put down the other half of the wire. "You're a real taskmaster, Coach."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Mark? Hey, Mark!"

"Down here!"

Christina Wallace walked into the garage to see her brother Marcus hovering over a shoebox.

"Are you still at it?"

The young man whirled around. "Still at what?"

Christina rolled her eyes. "Your dumb bird, duh! You've been obsessed with it ever since you got it!"

"It's not a dumb bird, and I'm not obsessed with nothing!"

"Then why don't you get rid of it?" Christina looked at the box. "Come on, Mark. That bird is all you care about! What, I don't see you caring about Duke anymore!"

"Duke's not my dog! He's the family dog! And what proves I don't care about him?! I don't spend the whole day loitering in shopping malls with a playb-"

"Alright! Shut up!" Christina spun around and stomped back up into the house. "Forget I said anything!"

"Whatever! I'm going out to mow Mrs. Monterro's lawn. Don't touch the bird!"

"Whatever!"

Christina glared into space, deep in thought. This was not her brother. Her brother was always a good-natured 'teddy bear'. This was an angry bull.

Christina fiercely believed it had something to do with that bird.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"FRESHMAN, NO!!!! LOWER!!! LOWER!!!!!!!!"

Slimer watched with amusement as a stream of proton energy streaked ten inches to his right and skyward.

There were unholy screams for the dead. Three and a half seconds later, two nuked pigeons landed on the roof like a pair of smoking black deadweights.

"Err......Oops." Bane knelt down and prodded one of the birds with his finger. They weren't dead, but they were out hot-I mean out cold. "So...Coach, do I, like, consider that a hit or a, y'know, a miss?"

"A miss. You were supposed to hit Slimer." Garrett pointed at the birds to emphasize his point. "Imagine if those two were innocent little tots."

Bane visibly shuddered at the thought.

Eduardo appeared from the door. "Come on, mi amigo. The kid's still a rookie. Go easy on him."

"Let's hear you chime the same tune when the kid shaves you during combat."

Eduardo unconsciously petted his head and stroked his beloved goatee.

"Here Freshman, I'll show you how it's done." Garrett took the proton gun from Bane. "I expect you to get it right next time kiddo, or I assign you as the target." He added in jest as he cocked the proton gun and fired.

The screaming Slimer was promptly encased in green light. Then Garrett released the trigger, and Slimer plopped down with his eyes rolled back and his tongue hanging out.

Bane broke out in cold sweat.

Garrett held the proton gun out to Bane again. "Okay, Freshman. Let's see you try it again."

"I.....err......" Bane backed off uneasily. "I'm just, y'know, gonna go wash Ecto-1." With that, he turned and fled, banging his face into the door (WHAM!) before scrambling downstairs.

"Don't chicken out on me, Freshman-GET BACK HERE!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Night had fallen. Marcus was still nowhere to be found.

Christina stared into the darkness of the garage. She flicked on her flashlight and walked in. Although all she had to do was turn on the garage light, she felt a little paranoid about possible consequences.

It was awfully quiet in the garage. Too quiet.

"Duke? Hey, boy?"

Christina shone the light on Duke's spot. There was nothing there but Duke's chain and the post.

/Mark must have taken Duke for a walk./ Christina turned away and made her way down to the workbench and the shoebox upon it.

Christina peered down at the dark mass and held the flashlight over it. The bird, a small raven, did not flinch. She felt her spine tingle.

/Jeez, get a grip! It's just a dumb bird!/

Christina reached down slowly. Her hand was just hovering one-eighth of an inch over the raven's head. It still did not respond.

Then Christina placed her hand on the bird.

Bright red light suddenly flashed from the raven in all directions. Christina stumbled backwards.

The light faded a little, and became a soft glow.

Christina heard a low growl behind her. She turned, and looking at her full in the face was a huge Great Dane, his fangs reflecting off the light and his eyes shining like red lanterns.

"Duke?"

The Great Dane growled even louder, refusing to acknowledge who she was.

A rough hand grabbed her arm and spun her around.

Her brother was glaring at her, his eyes red and shining like Duke's. "You dare to touch my bird? You think you're so high and mighty? Do you?"

Marcus started to advance on his sister, cracking his knuckles. "Well, DO YOU?!"

"Marcus! What are you doing? What is with you, for Christ's sake?! Marcus?!"

Marcus grabbed her a second time, this time gripping a handful of her long hair.

"You wanna cross the line? I'll show you what happens when you cross the line."

"Marcus......" Christina shivered. "Mark, please......"

"You like my bird, Tina?"

Marcus grinned, but his eyes made him look insane and evil. He yanked her toward the workbench and the glowing shoebox.

"Take a second look. He'll be the last thing you see."

= * =

Howling WereWolf:

This isn't a cliffhanger. This is just the beginning of a new adventure, like I said in the title.

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