"Look, I know what the old team was like, and just between you and me, chica, Venkman was their greatest member."
"Are you kidding?! Without Dr. Spengler, there never even would have been a Ghostbusters team! Now, you know I'm right, so stop arguing with me and drive!"
While Eduardo and Kylie sat in front arguing, Roland sat in back watching the people breeze by the window. Like always, no one noticed Garrett's nervous eyes or the trickling of sweat down his forehead.
The team arrived at the firehouse, surprised that there was no one there. "I'm worried about them. It's not like Egon to leave us without an explanation."
Garrett rolled onto the elevator. "I'll go upstairs and see if he left a note or something in his office."
Kylie walked over to Janine's desk to see if there was any trace as to where they went. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Eduardo lay down on the sofa and opened the latest Gore novel. "Maybe he's dead." He didn't really believe it, but he always said it just because it was an easy excuse for almost any situation. He blamed his habit of constantly saying it on all the Gore books.
Garrett came back downstairs. "Nope, everything looks normal."
"Yeah," Kylie said, "over here, too."
"I think you guys are blowing this way out of proportion," Eduardo said. "They probably just went out for a while. Hey, if there's one thing Egon needs, it's a date."
"Maybe Eduardo's right," Garrett considered. "Maybe we are making too much out of this."
And so, they decided to wait for them to return. Kylie sat down, pulled out Spengler's Spirit Guide, and began to study. Eduardo whipped out a yo-yo and tried to wow everyone with his tricks, while Garrett told him his tricks were stupid, and that walking the dog requires the yo-yo to eventually come back up. Roland read through some of the schematics for their weapons to see if any improvements could be made.
After much boredom, the phone rang. Kylie prayed it was Egon, to find out he was all right. She ran to the phone, pushing Eduardo down on her way, and answered, a little winded. "Ghostbusters...oh, okay..." they all knew it wasn't Egon, from the tone in her voice. "Your address?...okay, we're on our way. You're welcome." She hung up the phone. "We've got a call about another Marinzean sighted." Kylie couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. She handed the address to Eduardo. "Here. Drive."
As they all piled in the car, the depression and concern from Kylie spreading to the rest of the team, Roland thought to leave a note to Egon and leave it on Janine's desk.
Eduardo took the wheel while Kylie sat silently next to him in the passenger seat. The silence was unnerving to Eduardo. Whenever a situation arrived that made him uncomfortable, he normally would crack a joke. It was his way of covering feelings he didn't want to show; feelings of concern or sadness he had a natural instinct to cover up. He knew, however, that if he did that here, she would just think him more insensitive than ever. As uncomfortable as it made him, he decided to try and show a little compassion.
"Look, chi-...Kylie, I'm sure Dr. Spengler is fine. We'll go out, bust some ghosts, come back and they'll all be waiting for us, verdad?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She attempted to smile, but Eduardo could see it didn't help her concern any. What Eduardo couldn't see, though, was that she had noticed he didn't joke around, that he tried to help her. She looked at him, and another smile, a real smile, appeared on her face. Eduardo, however, didn't notice as he was trying to concentrate on the road, feeling strange about showing he cared. She moved her hand over toward Eduardo's right hand, sitting on the armrest, and gently covered his with hers. Eduardo slowly looked down at his hand under hers, then up at Kylie, and smiled.
Garrett reached over and shook Eduardo's shoulder. "Eduardo! The road! Look out!!!"
Eduardo looked up and saw the car was drifting into the left side of the road. He grabbed the wheel with both hands and steered hard back into the right. "Sorry guys, sorry," he said between breaths. "I, uh, guess I got distracted. Sorry." Kylie, Garrett, and Roland made sure their safety belts were securely fastened.
Eduardo squinted into the distance. "Hey guys, I think I see something in the sky heading our way." They all peered out the windows to find what he was looking at. There, in the distance, was a floating green blob, coming in the direction of their car.
"It's Slimer!" Kylie exclaimed. Slimer flew in low and next to the car.
"I wonder why he doesn't just fly through the window," Eduardo thought aloud. Slimer was motioning to let him in.
"It looks like he's carrying something, that's why," Kylie said. She pulled down the window to let him in. He flew in and landed on the seat between Eduardo and Kylie. He then began to try to explain where he had been, but no one could understand a word he was saying. Eventually, he handed over the two items he had been carrying, the PKE meter and the proton gun Janine had been carrying, to Roland.
Roland examined the PKE readings and said, "These last few readings indicate that wherever Egon was, he met up with a Marinzean." Slimer started nodding his head.
Kylie's face grew grim. Eduardo noticed. "Don't' worry Kylie, all the more reason we have to find this Marinzean the person called about. Maybe he can lead us to them." Kylie didn't answer, just nodded her head and stared off into space.
The rest of the car ride was quiet. By the time they arrived at the address, Roland and Garrett had both fallen asleep, with Kylie not too far behind. *They have good reason to be tired*, Eduardo thought. *After all, we've been chasing after these sightings since the morning, and it's past midnight now.*
Eduardo pulled over to park by the curb. "Okay," he said to the team, turning the indoor lights on, "everybody up. This is right about where the caller saw it. Garrett, wake Roland up."
Kylie and Eduardo got out and looked around while Garrett shook Roland awake. Kylie looked across the street at a warehouse long abandoned. "That's were the caller said the Marinzean ran off to carrying somebody with it." The warehouse seemed to contradict the apartments across from it, while the warehouse, obviously left to rot years ago, was a boarded up antique, the buildings across the street were fairly new. Kylie took out her PKE meter and started walking toward the warehouse, turned, and motioned for Eduardo and the others to follow.
The three of them caught up with Kylie and carefully walked toward the entrance. Eduardo tripped twice, partly because most of the streetlamps had blown out, making it difficult to see except by the moonlight, and partly due to the grass around the warehouse that had grown over a foot tall.
The front entrance was boarded up and sealed tight. "Maybe we can sneak through a window," Kylie whispered.
"No need for that," Garrett said, raising his proton gun. "Everybody stand back!"
They all backed up and crouched down, except for Kylie. "Garrett, don't! We're trying t-," a multicolored particle stream erupted from Garrett's gun, sending fragments of the door in every direction with a loud shi-RAK! "-to be discreet...," Kylie finished. "Well, so much for the element of surprise."
They walked in slowly, debris and smoke still making it difficult to see. "Everybody got their flashlights?" Roland asked. They all pulled their flashlights out from their belts and flicked them on.
"I suggest we all take it extra careful," Kylie whispered. "If it is here, we don't want it to find us too easy," she looked at Garrett, "if that's still possible."
An ear-splitting scream erupted from deep within the warehouse. "The time for sneaking around is over!" Garrett said. "Let's bust us some ghosts!"
They headed toward the origin of the scream, towards the center of the warehouse, then down a flight of steps into the pitch-black basement, their flashlights the only source of light. There was another scream, right beside them, making them all jump. They aimed their lights on the source. It was laying on the ground, hardly moving, its skin tinted light green, and some bones poking through the surface of its skin.
Eduardo pulled his blaster from his proton pack and aimed at it. Then, it spoke. "N-no-nooo! Pl-lease l-leave bef-fore it g-g-gets you, t-too!" They took a closer look at it, and realized it wasn't the same creature Marie had described. Kylie gasped.
"It's, he's human! He must be in the middle of some kind of metamorphic process."
His skin was already thinning and tightening too much around his body. His bones were becoming brittle, jagged, and puncturing through his skin. His eyeballs were turning as white as the rest of his eyes.
Eduardo kneeled down, so disgusted at what was happening to the guy that his knees decided to stop working.
"G-g-go before he f-fi-inds yo-," he was interrupted by a low growl, coming closer to them. Eduardo jumped to his feet as they all aimed their blasters toward the growling. As the growling stopped they shinned their flashlights but couldn't find it moving in the shadows.
Long, bony arms reached out from the shadows and grabbed Eduardo from behind. Eduardo screamed and tried to break free of its grip, but it just held tighter. The team knew they couldn't open fire, as the creature was using Eduardo as a human shield. It retreated slowly, backing into the shadows, until it seemed to just vanish. The half-man, half-creature lying on the ground before them did his best to sit up and say, "F-f-oll-ll-ow, quickly!!!" Already his voice had become even less human, more growling the words than speaking them. The team wasted no time as they ran into the shadows where the creature had run.
"Are you kidding?! Without Dr. Spengler, there never even would have been a Ghostbusters team! Now, you know I'm right, so stop arguing with me and drive!"
While Eduardo and Kylie sat in front arguing, Roland sat in back watching the people breeze by the window. Like always, no one noticed Garrett's nervous eyes or the trickling of sweat down his forehead.
The team arrived at the firehouse, surprised that there was no one there. "I'm worried about them. It's not like Egon to leave us without an explanation."
Garrett rolled onto the elevator. "I'll go upstairs and see if he left a note or something in his office."
Kylie walked over to Janine's desk to see if there was any trace as to where they went. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Eduardo lay down on the sofa and opened the latest Gore novel. "Maybe he's dead." He didn't really believe it, but he always said it just because it was an easy excuse for almost any situation. He blamed his habit of constantly saying it on all the Gore books.
Garrett came back downstairs. "Nope, everything looks normal."
"Yeah," Kylie said, "over here, too."
"I think you guys are blowing this way out of proportion," Eduardo said. "They probably just went out for a while. Hey, if there's one thing Egon needs, it's a date."
"Maybe Eduardo's right," Garrett considered. "Maybe we are making too much out of this."
And so, they decided to wait for them to return. Kylie sat down, pulled out Spengler's Spirit Guide, and began to study. Eduardo whipped out a yo-yo and tried to wow everyone with his tricks, while Garrett told him his tricks were stupid, and that walking the dog requires the yo-yo to eventually come back up. Roland read through some of the schematics for their weapons to see if any improvements could be made.
After much boredom, the phone rang. Kylie prayed it was Egon, to find out he was all right. She ran to the phone, pushing Eduardo down on her way, and answered, a little winded. "Ghostbusters...oh, okay..." they all knew it wasn't Egon, from the tone in her voice. "Your address?...okay, we're on our way. You're welcome." She hung up the phone. "We've got a call about another Marinzean sighted." Kylie couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. She handed the address to Eduardo. "Here. Drive."
As they all piled in the car, the depression and concern from Kylie spreading to the rest of the team, Roland thought to leave a note to Egon and leave it on Janine's desk.
Eduardo took the wheel while Kylie sat silently next to him in the passenger seat. The silence was unnerving to Eduardo. Whenever a situation arrived that made him uncomfortable, he normally would crack a joke. It was his way of covering feelings he didn't want to show; feelings of concern or sadness he had a natural instinct to cover up. He knew, however, that if he did that here, she would just think him more insensitive than ever. As uncomfortable as it made him, he decided to try and show a little compassion.
"Look, chi-...Kylie, I'm sure Dr. Spengler is fine. We'll go out, bust some ghosts, come back and they'll all be waiting for us, verdad?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She attempted to smile, but Eduardo could see it didn't help her concern any. What Eduardo couldn't see, though, was that she had noticed he didn't joke around, that he tried to help her. She looked at him, and another smile, a real smile, appeared on her face. Eduardo, however, didn't notice as he was trying to concentrate on the road, feeling strange about showing he cared. She moved her hand over toward Eduardo's right hand, sitting on the armrest, and gently covered his with hers. Eduardo slowly looked down at his hand under hers, then up at Kylie, and smiled.
Garrett reached over and shook Eduardo's shoulder. "Eduardo! The road! Look out!!!"
Eduardo looked up and saw the car was drifting into the left side of the road. He grabbed the wheel with both hands and steered hard back into the right. "Sorry guys, sorry," he said between breaths. "I, uh, guess I got distracted. Sorry." Kylie, Garrett, and Roland made sure their safety belts were securely fastened.
Eduardo squinted into the distance. "Hey guys, I think I see something in the sky heading our way." They all peered out the windows to find what he was looking at. There, in the distance, was a floating green blob, coming in the direction of their car.
"It's Slimer!" Kylie exclaimed. Slimer flew in low and next to the car.
"I wonder why he doesn't just fly through the window," Eduardo thought aloud. Slimer was motioning to let him in.
"It looks like he's carrying something, that's why," Kylie said. She pulled down the window to let him in. He flew in and landed on the seat between Eduardo and Kylie. He then began to try to explain where he had been, but no one could understand a word he was saying. Eventually, he handed over the two items he had been carrying, the PKE meter and the proton gun Janine had been carrying, to Roland.
Roland examined the PKE readings and said, "These last few readings indicate that wherever Egon was, he met up with a Marinzean." Slimer started nodding his head.
Kylie's face grew grim. Eduardo noticed. "Don't' worry Kylie, all the more reason we have to find this Marinzean the person called about. Maybe he can lead us to them." Kylie didn't answer, just nodded her head and stared off into space.
The rest of the car ride was quiet. By the time they arrived at the address, Roland and Garrett had both fallen asleep, with Kylie not too far behind. *They have good reason to be tired*, Eduardo thought. *After all, we've been chasing after these sightings since the morning, and it's past midnight now.*
Eduardo pulled over to park by the curb. "Okay," he said to the team, turning the indoor lights on, "everybody up. This is right about where the caller saw it. Garrett, wake Roland up."
Kylie and Eduardo got out and looked around while Garrett shook Roland awake. Kylie looked across the street at a warehouse long abandoned. "That's were the caller said the Marinzean ran off to carrying somebody with it." The warehouse seemed to contradict the apartments across from it, while the warehouse, obviously left to rot years ago, was a boarded up antique, the buildings across the street were fairly new. Kylie took out her PKE meter and started walking toward the warehouse, turned, and motioned for Eduardo and the others to follow.
The three of them caught up with Kylie and carefully walked toward the entrance. Eduardo tripped twice, partly because most of the streetlamps had blown out, making it difficult to see except by the moonlight, and partly due to the grass around the warehouse that had grown over a foot tall.
The front entrance was boarded up and sealed tight. "Maybe we can sneak through a window," Kylie whispered.
"No need for that," Garrett said, raising his proton gun. "Everybody stand back!"
They all backed up and crouched down, except for Kylie. "Garrett, don't! We're trying t-," a multicolored particle stream erupted from Garrett's gun, sending fragments of the door in every direction with a loud shi-RAK! "-to be discreet...," Kylie finished. "Well, so much for the element of surprise."
They walked in slowly, debris and smoke still making it difficult to see. "Everybody got their flashlights?" Roland asked. They all pulled their flashlights out from their belts and flicked them on.
"I suggest we all take it extra careful," Kylie whispered. "If it is here, we don't want it to find us too easy," she looked at Garrett, "if that's still possible."
An ear-splitting scream erupted from deep within the warehouse. "The time for sneaking around is over!" Garrett said. "Let's bust us some ghosts!"
They headed toward the origin of the scream, towards the center of the warehouse, then down a flight of steps into the pitch-black basement, their flashlights the only source of light. There was another scream, right beside them, making them all jump. They aimed their lights on the source. It was laying on the ground, hardly moving, its skin tinted light green, and some bones poking through the surface of its skin.
Eduardo pulled his blaster from his proton pack and aimed at it. Then, it spoke. "N-no-nooo! Pl-lease l-leave bef-fore it g-g-gets you, t-too!" They took a closer look at it, and realized it wasn't the same creature Marie had described. Kylie gasped.
"It's, he's human! He must be in the middle of some kind of metamorphic process."
His skin was already thinning and tightening too much around his body. His bones were becoming brittle, jagged, and puncturing through his skin. His eyeballs were turning as white as the rest of his eyes.
Eduardo kneeled down, so disgusted at what was happening to the guy that his knees decided to stop working.
"G-g-go before he f-fi-inds yo-," he was interrupted by a low growl, coming closer to them. Eduardo jumped to his feet as they all aimed their blasters toward the growling. As the growling stopped they shinned their flashlights but couldn't find it moving in the shadows.
Long, bony arms reached out from the shadows and grabbed Eduardo from behind. Eduardo screamed and tried to break free of its grip, but it just held tighter. The team knew they couldn't open fire, as the creature was using Eduardo as a human shield. It retreated slowly, backing into the shadows, until it seemed to just vanish. The half-man, half-creature lying on the ground before them did his best to sit up and say, "F-f-oll-ll-ow, quickly!!!" Already his voice had become even less human, more growling the words than speaking them. The team wasted no time as they ran into the shadows where the creature had run.
