PROFESSIONAL PARANORMAL ELIMINATORS
#1
"MIRROR MIRROR"
Story by Chris Buchner
Written by Chris Buchner
Night looms over New York City, accentuated by the ominous presence of a full moon. For the moment, all is quiet in the city that never sleeps, especially for the most hard working of its residents; the Ghostbusters. At the old firehouse on N. Moore street in the heart of Manhattan's Tribeca area, the boys in gray are taking full advantage of the rare supernatural downtime…some more than others.
"Well, I look forward to seeing you too, Cherri," Dr. Peter Venkman says into the phone held between his cheek and shoulder as he leans back in his chair with his feet propped up on his desk before him. He plays with a deck of cards between his hands as he sits alone in the office area at the back of the ground floor garage bay. "Tonight at 8 it is, then. Oh, and make sure you wear that short little number. Yeah, that's the one…you definitely know what I like." He smiles to himself, knowing full well what the evening has in store for him. "'Till later, babe."
"Personal calls on company time again, Dr. Venkman?" Dr. Ray Stantz asks as he descends the stairs into the garage bay, looking down at Peter in the office. Peter leans forward to hang up the phone and place the cards on the desk, then leans back and puts his arms behind his head with a contented smile.
"And when was the last time YOU had a date, Dr. Stantz?"
"Touché," Ray says as he takes a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk, folding his arms across his chest. "So, what time's your date?" Peter brings down his left arm to check his watch.
"About an hour."
"Guess you'd wanna shower then," Ray says, trying to hold back a laugh. Poorly. Peter raises his eyebrow as he looks at his old friend curiously.
"Huh? Why?" Ray casually lifts one of his fingers to point upwards. Peter looks up, and his curiosity is rewarded by a shower of slime from a bucket attached to a radio controlled zeppelin hovering over his head. Ray bursts out laughing as Peter looks at him angrily, slime oozing down in streams in front of his face.
He turns towards the basement stairs as their secretary Janine Melnitz and fellow Ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore emerge, practically rolling on the floor. Dr. Egon Spengler follows them, holding the controls for the zeppelin with a mildly amused expression on his face; his equivalent to the others' reactions.
"Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry funny," Peter growls, angrily clenching his hands into fists, "I hope you all can sleep with one eye open."
Thru The Looking Glass is an upscale mirror shop just off Park Avenue in Midtown, primarily dealing to the "upscale" citizens of the neighborhood. Inside the large retail space are a variety of fancy, and extremely expensive, mirrors of all shapes and sizes everywhere there is space. The store's entire layout is designed so that when a potential customer comes in, every which way they could possibly turn is another item for them to consider buying. For Tammy Maneth, this practice has led to a great many more sales than she could have managed on salesmanship alone.
Tammy is a short, large-sized woman in a skirt suit, matching the classy styling of her store. She has average length curly brown hair and a cheerful disposition to lull repeat business for her overpriced goods. Tonight, her targets are a young couple reeking of their parents' money. The man is tall and muscular who obviously cares way too much about his appearance for it to be healthy. His styled hair boasts at least no less than 20 different kinds of product. His girlfriend is an attractive blonde bombshell who obviously spent a lot of time in a gym to get just the right tone to her body. And in a midriff shirt and extremely short skirt, she was not afraid to show it off.
"As you see, we have a full assortment of mirrors from all over the world," Tammy tells them, waving her hand over all the displays.
"They're all lovely, but we're looking for something…unique for our home," the woman tells her, looking around dissatisfied at the selection. Tammy smiles, her eyes glinting with something sinister.
"Unique you say? I have just the thing." She leads the couple over towards the back of the store where a solitary mirror stands apart from all the others by a distance of a few feet around. It's tall and ovular shaped with a thick ornamental frame decorated with a variety of symbols and images. At the very top center of the frame is an ornamental demon's head; while at the bottom is the demon's skull. Tammy stands over on its left side, placing her hand on the frame as the couple looks it over, intrigued by it.
"Wow," the woman says.
"'Wow' indeed," Tammy concurs. "This mirror has a mysterious history; it was passed down from collector to collector over many generations until it found its way into my store. A true conversation piece, if you ask me."
"Well, it's certainly different from anything I've seen," the man says as he inspects it.
"Yes, but you have yet to see what makes it so special," Tammy tells him with a wide smile, the pupils of her eyes beginning to glow a shade of pink unnoticed by the couple. "Take a look into the mirror. Closely…" The man leans into the mirror, eyeing it carefully to try and see what Tammy is talking about.
"Well, aside from the unusual frame, it just looks like an ordinary mirror to…" Suddenly, a pair of glowing hands shoots out from the glass and grabs the man's head. The woman screams as she watches her lover being dragged into the mirror by his own reflection. Tammy stands next to the mirror, laughing as her eyes glow brightly. The woman's terrified reflection in the mirror soon changes as it begins to glow and smile evilly, pushing itself out of the glass as the last of her boyfriend disappears into the mirror.
"YOU'RE NEXT, HONEY!" it says in a demonic version of her own voice. The woman shrieks and turns to scramble away from the mirror as fast as she can.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" she screams as she runs. In her fright, she fails to notice her reflection's hand shooting out of a mirror positioned on the floor near her path, grabbing her ankle and causing her to land hard on the floor. Tammy towers over her as she begins to get up, chuckling and eyes glowing brighter than ever.
"Now, now, dear…wouldn't want to make Miss Tammy angry…would you?"
"YAIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
THE FIREHOUSE
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" Ray looks up from tinkering with Ecto-1's engine as Peter storms down the stairs in his bathrobe. "You're dead! You are all DEAD MEN!"
"What's the matter, Pete?" Peter stops at the landing and points up at his hair angrily, which sticks out as spikes in every which way.
"THIS is what's the matter! The freakin' slime congealed when I tried to wash it out and now my hair is stuck like THIS!"
"That could be a good look for you, Dr. Venkman," Janine says as she passes by him with an empty coffee pot, trying to suppress a laugh as she walks to the back of the garage bay.
"Shut it, Janine! Look, I need to get this crap out of my hair before…"
"Oh my God!" a female's voice echoes through the garage bay, causing Peter's eyes to open wide and his skin to become deathly pale.
"Oh…no…" Peter slowly turns towards the front of the firehouse where a beautiful woman stands next to Ecto-1, staring at him in shock. She wears a tight red short dress that matches her long wavy hair and shoes perfectly. It's complimented with a short black jacket and purse. "Cherri!" Peter exclaims.
"Peter…what the hell happened to you!"
"Well, the guys played a little prank and my hair's stuck like this…but don't worry! Ol' Petey's got it under control. I can have it fixed up in a couple minutes, 15 tops!" Cherri shakes her head and turns around, waving him off.
"Forget it, I don't wait for anyone! Give me a call when you get your act together, doctor." Peter watches defeated as she storms out of the firehouse and slams the door behind her. Janine pulls herself away from the show long enough to answer the ringing phone as Ray walks over to Peter and pats his shoulder.
"Sorry, Pete. Why didn't you just use the special solvent Egon designed for this kind of situation?"
"Because we're out of that special solvent. Egon has to make a new batch yet." Peter takes a look around. "Where is Big Brain anyways?"
When not busting ghosts or helping out on the occasional prank, it's not uncommon to find Egon lost at work in his lab or in his current location: the basement. Here is where the Ghostbusters house their containment unit, a device that holds all the ghosts captured on busts, amongst a smaller lab, work station and other various devices.
Egon currently looks down at a console covered in buttons, dials and a couple screens. Coming out of the top is a rod with a spinning circle on it that stands next to a device that resembles a PDA in a cradle. He looks at the screens, analyzing the data coming up on them. He furrows his brow in concern and presses a button, activating the built in printer. He rips the sheet of paper out of its slot and looks at the line spiking up and down on a graph in the background. Across the top of the page reads "PKE SURGE".
"Fascinating," he says as he adjusts his glasses. Suddenly, the bell rings throughout the firehouse. He looks up at it before placing the paper down on a table and disengaging the PDA from the top of the console. He runs up the stairs into the garage bay where Ray and Peter are already at their respective lockers and Winston slides down the pole next to them. He heads to his locker as Peter struggles to get his t-shirt on over his spikes.
"There's NO WAY I'm going out like this!" He declares. Ray shuts the door to his locker, flipping his belt over his shoulder.
"Aw, c'mon, Pete," he says, "think of the children!" Peter gives one final tug and the shirt pulls past his hair, causing the spikes to wiggle a bit. He sighs as he looks up at his hair.
"I AM thinking about them!" he groans, just imagining the many laughs awaiting him. Minutes later, the Ghostbusters are suited and up inside Ecto-1. Ray turns the key and the engine roars to life as only a true V8 can. A remote control activates the firehouse doors and they begin to open. Janine blows them a kiss from her desk as Ecto-1 squeals out of the building.
ELSEWHERE, SOMETIME LATER Inside the mirror shop, Tammy talks to a middle-aged African-American man dressed in a fancy business suit next to her special mirror. She moves her hands over it as she describes its many features to the very interested man. She can't help but smile to herself as she knows she has yet another one in her grasp.
"…was passed down from collector to collector over many generations until it wound up in my store. A true conversation piece, if you ask me," she concludes he pitch.
"I'll say! This frame is gorgeous!" the man says as he steps forward, lightly brushing his fingers over the decorations on the frame.
"Oh, but the real majesty is in the mirror itself," Tammy says with a familiar smile. He looks at his and Tammy's reflection in the mirror curiously.
"How so?" he asks. Suddenly, his reflection lunges out and grabs his shoulders.
"HERE! LEMME SHOW YA!" it says in an inhuman voice.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEARGH!"
MEANWHILE Ecto-1 drives quietly down a street, putting some distance between the Ghostbusters and the orphanage where they had just completed their bust. It was fairly routine: standard class 2 free-roaming repeater causing a little mischief here and there, nothing too threatening. However, one Ghostbuster fails to revel in their easy victory.
"Aw, cheer up, Pete," Ray says from the driver's seat, looking at him through the rear view mirror to the jumper seat he occupies in back, "just think of all the happiness you brought to those poor, unfortunate kids." Peter sits with his arms crossed and he has a very pissed expression on his face.
"Yeah, I'm all tingly. Four bad toupees and a hairnet and my hair catches all the laughs." Across from Peter in the seat directly behind the front seat, Egon ignores their banter and instead focuses on the PDA device he grabbed before they left, studying the data on the screen. He looks down curiously as the PKE Meter clipped to his belt comes to life.
Inside the store, Tammy's latest victim struggles against his reflection, kicking at it and holding desperately onto the frame as he's pulled further and further through the glass. He knows it's a losing battle, but he refuses to give up.
Egon grabs the PKE and holds it up, studying the readings flaying across the LED screen. He picks up his PDA and makes a few key strokes, comparing the data. His eyes grow wide.
The man's foot, the last appendage still in our world, finally succumbs to the irresistible force of the reflection and disappears. Once again, the mirror is just a mirror and all is quiet in the store. All, save for Tammy's blood-chilling laughter as she stands over the mirror, her eyes and the eyes of the ornamental faces glowing brightly.
Egon reaches back quickly, grabbing Ray's shoulder. "RAY, STOP!" Ray slams on the brakes locking Ecto-1's wheels and causing the car to come to a screeching halt in the middle of the street, directly in front of the mirror shop. Egon quickly gets out of the car, his three companions looking after him curiously.
"Egon?" Winston asks.
"You know, young man, you should have thought of that before we left," Peter quips. Ray climbs out of the car and turns to Egon at the back door, already securing his proton pack to his back.
"Egon, what's up?" he asks as he joins Egon. The other two climb out as well and head over to them.
"I've been getting strange readings for the last couple of months, always brief and always on nights with a full moon. Tonight, I just received the strongest reading of all…" Egon points towards the mirror shop. "…from in there."
"Sigh, no rest for the wicked," Winston comments as he helps Peter with his pack.
"Is it me, or is he actually reaching new levels of strange?" Peter mockingly asks pointing towards Egon, who begins to walk towards the shop.
"Asks the guy with the Manga hair," Winston comments as he and Ray begin to follow. Peter shoots him dirty look and sticks out his tongue as he begins to follow.
Tammy comes to the door to greet her visitors, but Egon absentmindedly bypasses her, concentrating only on his PKE Meter.
"Um, sir, we're closed. Sir? Sir!" Tammy jumps as she hears Ray's voice behind her.
"Don't bother, he's in his own world right now," Ray says as he enters.
"Just a routine spook check, ma'am. We'll be out of your way shortly," Winston tells her as he enters behind Ray.
"Routine what? Huh!" Tammy asks, confused. She turns to the door as Peter enters, staring at his hair and looking even more perplexed than ever. "And what's your story?"
"Ever see There's Something About Mary? Similar situation, just much, much…grosser."
Egon stops dead in his tracks at the back of the store and looks up."It's here," he says.
"Where?" Ray asks, stopping behind him. Egon points towards the mirror.
"There. The mirror."
"That's just an old mirror I try to sell to the yuppies. There's nothing special about it," Tammy lies as she joins the group of Ghostbusters. Winston approaches the mirror and leans in close to examine it. Tammy watches him carefully, smiling deviously.
"I think she's right, Egon," Winston says. "Maybe your instruments are wro…"
"Winston! No!" Egon exclaims as his PKE goes crazy. Winston has no time to react as his reflection shoots out and grabs his face, its face coming within inches.
"COME ON IN, THE AFTERLIFE IS FINE!"
"Winston!" Ray shouts as he and Peter move towards the mirror to help Winston. Egon extends his arms out, stopping them.
"No! If your reflections are caught in the mirror they'll get you as well!"
"So then what do we do, genius?" Peter asks as Egon pulls his positron rifle off his pack.
"Blast it!"
"If we blast the mirror the beams'll refract off the glass…" Ray starts, but Egon cuts him off by pressing the trigger and firing his proton stream at a spot just above Winston; the beam hits with no problems. Winston's reflection screams out in pain and loosens up its grip on him. "…unless it's not really a mirror!" Ray and Peter quickly draw their rifles.
"Hit it!" Peter says as they begin blasting the mirror. Their streams join Egon's and cause the reflection tremendous pain; enough to free its grasp on Winston. He falls back but quickly scrambles to his feet, pulling his rifle in the process.
"Keep you damn hands off me!" he growls as he opens fire. None of them notice that the eyes on the mirror's frame glow, brighter by the second. Nor do they notice the surrounding mirrors in the shop beginning to glow as well. The glowing turns into beams of pure light energy ricocheting from one mirror to the other throughout the entire shop.
Tammy looks around with a huge smile on her face. If she had a heart it would be pounding excitedly at the moment her skin begins to melt off her face, revealing the green scaled flesh beneath. Her eyebrows become rigid as her teeth begin to grow longer and turn a shade of deep yellow. Finally, after all her years of waiting, her plans have come to fruition.
"This is it…the time has come!" she says happily to herself, just before all the illumination in the room causes a white out.
A light clicks on inside the bathroom as Janine enters the room. She hunches down over the sink to wash the make-up off her face. After several hours of wear it, it tends to feel more like a mask than a beautification product. Besides, it's not as if the person she wears it for would ever notice it. Keep her face down and eyes closed, she reaches for the towel hanging next to the sink and brings it to her face.
She stands up, patting it dry. When she brings the towel down, she expected to see her reflection in the mirror above the sink. However, what greets her instead is the boney, decaying, corpse-like version of herself before her. She gasps as her twisted reflection lunges out at her and grabs her by the arms.
"SAY GOODNIGHT, DEARIE!"
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Janine's scream echoes throughout the empty firehouse.
Tammy's transformation has been completed. Standing in the spot where a middle-aged woman once was is now a full-fledged demon. Her skin is now entirely green and scaly with stiff armor plating in various spots. Her face is long with thick ridges on her forehead with sharp teeth, pointed tattered ears and flaming red eyes. Leathery wings and a tail come out of her back, while her fingers and toes end in thick talons. Tammy has very much become a mirror image of the faces carved into the mirror's frame. She flaps her wings and hovers above the floor, her human clothing in tatters around her now massive body.
"RISE MY ARMY! RISE AND ENTER THE WORLD OF THE LIVING!" she commands in a demonic voice.
As their eyes finally clear up from the effects of the white out, Ray suddenly becomes aware of the environment around them. He stops blasting and taps Winston and Egon's arms.
"Ugh, guys…" The other three stop blasting to look at him, then as they hear inhuman sounds around them they begin to realize what caught his attention. From each and every mirror in the store with a clear view of the Ghostbusters, their reflections pull themselves free of their glassy confines. As they enter our world their forms take on a corpse-like appearance. The Ghostbusters all turn their backs to each other as they find themselves in the middle of a sea of undead reflections…and their space is getting smaller.
"I think we goofed…" Ray says with a twinge of fear in his voice.
"Brilliant deduction, Holmes," Peter comments.
To be continued.
GHOSTBUSTERS: PROFESSIONAL PARANORMAL ELIMINATORS VOL. 1 NO. 1 OCTOBER, 2005 Q-CREW COMICS. GHOSTBUSTERS AND ALL RELATED CHARACTERS TM & © COLUMBIA PICTURES, INC. GHOSTBUSTERS: PPE TM & © Q-CREW COMICS. THIS STORY IS ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. ANY SIMILARITIES TO ANY LIVING OR DEAD PERSONS, BUSINESSES OR ORGANIZATIONS IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL. RELEASED THROUGH ATOMIC MEDIA GROUP.