Chapter 3: Bottom Of The Well

North Shore, Staten Island

1:30 AM

The facility was still dark. The rainfall continued as two sentries paced the front of the garage doors that lead inside. In their hands were tactical shotguns, their outer casings as black as their cloaks were. They went over their own and each other's footsteps as they kept looking outward to the industrial park the facility sat. A radio chirp was heard as one of the sentries stopped pacing. As the figure went for his radio, he heard a voice speak out, "Main to Entry One."

The sentry finally pulled out the radio and responded, "Entry One, Unit One." "Envoy en route for pick-up, fifteen minutes." The sentry nodded, "Pick-up in fifteen. Copy." "För gudarna!"

The second sentry approached the first, breaking his pattern, "What is it?"

"They're coming to get the sacrifice."

"Wait," the sentry looked to his counterpart, uneasy, "I thought we were holding her to keep the Ghostbusters off us? Not use her as a… you know…"

"You didn't have an issue when that mafioso was kacked last week." the first sentry resumed his rounds as the other stopped him again, "That was different; Saculopholus was a scumbag. That woman didn't do anything wrong!"

The first sentry grabbed his fellow guard by his robes and slammed him against the outer steel wall of the building, "What the fuck do you think Madame Holly is doing, you dipshit? We're ending the world! Why do you think we're known as the 'Forgotten'?"

"Because…" the other sentry choked up a bit, but finally got it out, "Because the world forgot us."

The first man nodded, "Right! Goddamnit, Gerry, we've known each other since Angel Guardian. The fucks of this world passed us over. You because of your autism; Me," the sentry removed his hood revealing a horrible burn scar across 60% of his face, "because my old lady did this to me. We weren't perfect as children. It didn't mesh with our adoptive parents' image of perfection. So, we were ignored."

"I know, Mick, I know," the other man pleaded, "I know I'm still emotional because of my condition, but does she need to be the next one? She seems so…"

The scarred man slammed his shotgun-wielding fist into the wall next to his friend, "What have we been saying for years, Ger? No one…"

"No one is innocent," the sentry finished, a hint of guilt in his voice.

"That's right!" The burned sentry released his friend and raised his hood, "Now get back to your rounds. They'll be here soon."

CLICK! The two of them turned to the noise. It was hard to pick up due to the heavy rainfall, but they did hear it. They looked into the sheet of water falling from the sky. Lightning flashed revealing something approaching. Both men readied their shotguns.

Lightning flashed again to see the outline of a man. The sentry with the burn marks to his face reached into his cloak for the radio, "Entry One to Main! We…"

WHOOSH! A yellow bolt cut through the rain and hit the scarred sentry in the chest. He slammed into the garage door and collapsed, him releasing the radio and his shotgun. The second sentry opened fire into the darkness. He unloaded the whole barrel into the rain in a spread. The man heard something splash into a puddle on the ground. He ran back to the other sentry shortly after, the radio chattering away, "Entry One? Entry One, this is Main. What the hell is going on down there? We heard gunfire!"

The sentry retrieved the radio, "Main, Entry One, Unit Two, there's nothing to worry about, Main," the cloaked man turned to where he heard the splash, "We got it under…" Another flash told the man otherwise as he saw the man on the ground in the prone position pointing what looked like a large handgun-like device. He gasped as another energy pulse left the weapon and nailed him in the chest the same as his friend.

The man stood from his position and walked to the garage door. We watch his boots tread on the wet ground, the tops of his boots covered with dark blue pant legs trimmed in gray. The boots come to a stop at the radio still in the second sentry's hand. Chatter could still be heard on the device as the man bent down, "Entry One? Entry One, respond! We're sending people down. What do you see?"

The man's hand came down and grabbed the radio, his arm clad in the same blue and gray. As the man lifted the radio up, we see a red and white logo patch on his shoulder before reaching a bruised and cut face, reddish-blonde facial hair matted in blood. He pressed the talk button, "Entry One," the man spoke low and gruff, "There's a nutjob in a flight suit and a nuclear-powered backpack at the door. I think he wants to see the manager."

The radio crackled again, it's operator panicking, "Who the fuck is this?"

"You fuckers know everything about me, but you don't remember my goddamn name?" he growled back, "The name is Shannon - Learn it well." Dan Shannon's green eyes lit up bright from under the brim of his Blackhawks cap, lightning revealing the cuts and swelling in his face. Some of the gray trim on his collar was stained with his own blood.

The panicked voice rang out from the radio again, "We have a dozen well armed people in here!"

"Sounds like a slaughter," Dan responded.

"You're goddamned right, Shannon!"

"You misunderstand," the Ghostbuster responded, "It's your slaughter. Knock-knock, motherfucker." He smashed the radio on the ground before grabbing his Proton Pack's thrower. He fired up the device and cranked the power all the way up. The rain water dripped from the thrower tip as he took aim at the door. The water boiled off shortly before a beam of energy launched out and struck the door.

Inside, cloaked figures scrambled toward the door and waited. All of them moved very little after reaching the door, some not even getting ready with their weapons as they held their breath. After a moment some attempted to chatter when suddenly…

SSSSSSST! Sparks began running up the middle of the door as the figures stood back. Some looked at each other as suddenly the sparks stopped. The now cut panels banged loudly and folded in, falling off the door tracks and hitting the floor. The figures jumped back further as they saw into the maw of the door and saw Dan walk in after putting his foot down, lightning silhouetting him in the menacing way.

The cloaked people readied their weapons - shotguns, AR-15's, and even some melee weapons - as Dan approached and stopped, thrower in one hand. He walked in slowly then came to a short stop when he heard the firearms cock. Everyone took aim as he started… mocking them?

"Ooooh," he said, an almost manic smile crossing his face, "Guns, guns, guns! Come on, boys! The Blackhawks are playin' to-night!" Dan clipped the thrower to his belt and put his hands up as he spoke more softly, "And I never miss a game."

He suddenly snarled as he quickly threw his hands down. All ten of the figures in front of him had their weapons inexplicably thrown from their grip and to the ground. In the chaos Dan grabbed his thrower again and fired. Dan had adjusted the beam to latch onto the biometabolic frequency of humans. He picked up one of them into the air with his stream and threw him to the side knocking several others down in the process.

The figures still standing jumped away, but they didn't expect what happened next.

Dan lunged forward and started engaging in hand-to-hand. He punched one in the face and kicked another in the groin. As they fell away, another lunged at him. He saw it coming. He used his particle thrower like a club and hit them hard in the abdomen. Once on their knees, he wound up and hit them in the face with the thrower.

One dropped to their knees and threw up their hands, "Wait!" said a female voice. She pulled back her cloak hood revealing her to be a heavily-pierced pink-haired woman. She pleaded with him, "I'm a woman! You wouldn't… " As she spoke, Dan walked up to her and punched her in the head knocking her out. He responded, "I'm an egalitarian; you attempt to kill me, you get no quarter."

Dan attempted to move past the knocked out people at his feet when another pulled from the pile. He got up and started in a fighting stance, "I am a black belt in three different disciplines," that got Dan's attention enough to stop and turn as he continued, "I took out your girlfriend in two hits," the man then performed several martial arts moves before going back into an idle stance, "You think you can take me on?"

Dan raised his hand from the side and did a sweeping wave in front of him.

The martial artist was confused, "What…"

A 55 gallon drum hit him and threw him to the ground. When the man went to stand, Dan - who was beginning to walk towards the man - threw his hand again. A shotgun slid across the floor and tripped him hard. Before the man knew it, Dan was over top of him. He grabbed the martial artist by the front of his cloak, his hood falling off to reveal an Asian man. Dan punched him as hard as he could. As he was in a daze, Dan answered him, "No, not in a fair fight," With that, the angry Ghostbuster punched him again, this time knocking the man out, "but I doubt you were gonna be fair, anyway."

Right after Dan dropped him, another man spoke out, "You're right, Shannon!" Dan turned to the familiar voice. Just as he faced the cloak in the room, Dan heard the click and felt something stick into his chest. He felt the sensation of 150,000 volts pass through him like before. The same man that tasered him before spoke again, "I don't know how you found us, but you clearly didn't learn the first time."

He kept holding the trigger waiting for him to drop, but he didn't. Dan didn't even tense up like before. Worry started echoing in the man's voice as he spoke, "Wha… Why…?!"

Dan looked down at the probes in his chest shocking him. He grabbed them and pulled them out, the barbs ripping his skin and his suit, blood trickling out of the rips. He gripped the probes hard as he looked to the hooded man holding the head unit, "Here - try MY brand!" He gripped the probes harder as a bolt of electricity traveled up the probe electrodes and flew back into the head unit.

The shock blew back into the taser operator briefly before the head unit finally exploded, the lithium ion batteries and high-yield capacitors overcharging and bursting. The hooded man fell back to the ground and twitched. Dan walked to him and hung over him, "Never electrocute an Electromancer, dumbass." He proceeded to throw the probes on top of the hooded enemy.

Lita was so tired. Her hair, although still in her hair tie, was frazzled. Her suit had finally dried, but was wrinkled. Around her eyes became dark, exhaustion and stress making her look as bad as she felt. Every so often the lightning would flash and thunder would rumble waking her back up. So uncomfortable, it was just the sheer exhaustion that even allowed her to start passing out. She didn't even have enough energy to cry anymore.

That was when she felt it again. She felt it only a few hours ago, but now it was stronger than ever. She was confused as to why she felt it, but that was when she started hearing yelling outside her door. There were loud clashes, shuffling, and finally shotguns went off causing her to jump and sit wide-eyed looking toward the door.

After a whirring sound, the yellow etched windows of the office lit up with a bright orange-yellow hue illuminating the room. Screaming was heard, but it sounded like it was quickly fading away as though the person was being thrown. The light suddenly died down and after a moment the door knob began to shutter. It stopped, swearing heard on the other side of the door. Lita saw and heard this, but being as dazed as she was, all she could do was look at the door in confusion.

POP! The door knob burst apart, soon after a boot-clad foot kicked in the door. She jumped when the knob blew up and the door came in, but she looked up to see Dan in the doorway, his destabilizer pistol in his hand, "Lita!" She attempted to call out his name through the gag in response. He ran in and began undoing her bonds, "Hang on, honey, I'll get ya outta here! Lean forward!"

She did as he instructed. Dan put the pistol against the bulk of the ropes and shot them. He holstered the weapon and removed what was left of the rope scraps. He came around and began undoing the bonds on her legs. Lita pulled off her own gag as Dan finished and looked up to her, "Lita, are you okay?"

What little energy she had left she excitedly grabbed Dan's head and kissed him, him almost immediately grunting and pulling away, "Ow!" He quickly grabbed his face and grunted in pain. Lita tasted it on her lips. She put her hand to her lip and saw Dan's blood as she looked at her fingers. The lightning lit the room allowing her a good look at his sliced and swollen face, "Oh, no! Dan," she gently caressed his face, "what did they do to you?"

He spit the blood out of his mouth, "They explained it to me," he wiped his lips with his sleeve, "An explanation my old man gave me several times before. I have a tendency of not listening."

She felt very bad for what happened, "My God, I'm so sorry! This whole thing is my fault!"

Dan grabbed her hands as he spoke quickly, "We don't have time for that!" he stood, pulling her towards the door with him, "These assholes could get up at any minute. We gotta get outta here!" They ran out of the office and into the warehouse, hopping over the one guard unconscious by the door. They ran through the warehouse, running past all of the unconscious people. Lita slowed to look at the carnage, "You did all of this?" Dan quickly turned and grabbed her hand again as she stated, "Reminds me of Junior High!"

Finally reaching the main door, they ran into the rain, to their freedom…

There were several vehicles and nearly two dozen armed people in cloaks. In the center of them all was a man with silver slicked back hair in all black attire holding an umbrella. Several weapons cocked, causing them to stop and notice what was before them. As the figures took aim, Dan quickly pulled his thrower and flipped up the main control switch plate revealing a locking push button. He proceeded to press it causing the pack to start whirring, the pitch of the sound increasing past it's normal level. Dan started shouting over the rain, "I just activated the pack's cyclotronic overload. In less than 60 seconds, this place will be knocked down to a bead of glass unless you let us go."

"Don't be an idiot, Shannon," the man in black yelled back, calm and level as he spoke, "You went through all this to get her, why risk killing her?"

"The way I figure it," Dan stared the man dead in the eye, him ignoring the drops of rainwater dripping from the cap's brim, "you fuckers shoot us and you can't turn this thing off in time, we take all you scumbags with us. Can you run a mile in thirty seconds? Because that'll be the size of the blast. Your choice."

A voice in the crowd called out, "Bullshit! He's bluffing!"

The man in black smirked, "He's not bluffing." That smirk. It didn't sit right. The man knew Dan; Dan felt it. He knew enough that Dan was nuts enough to do it if pressured, yet, he smirked. What happened next…

"Let them go." The rumble of thunder sounded just after. Some of the cultists lowered their weapons and looked at him, "Mr. St. James, what about…" "You heard me." The man kept smirking looking at Dan and Lita.

Nevertheless, Dan made but one demand, "Where's my truck?" Using his head, the man nodded behind him; one of the vehicles behind them was his F-150. Without taking his eyes off the man, Dan instructed Lita, "Get in the truck and start it." Lita rushed to the truck, the cloaked men making a path to the vehicle. Dan followed behind slowly, gripping his thrower with a death grip. The overload alarm was starting to wail as he made his way past.

Dan finally made his way to the truck's driver door, the engine roaring to life as Lita slid over in the seat. He had his eye on the man with the slicked back hair, making sure he wouldn't do anything rash. In the nick of time he got to the truck door and powered the pack down. He started to rush inside when the man called back out, "She's something special, isn't she Shannon? You could say you're her knight in shining armor." Dan stopped. He slowly looked to him as he spoke again, "It looks as though they all found theirs, too." That smirk. It crossed the man's face again. Dan suddenly had a bad chill shoot up his spine, but what he said next made his heart skip…

"It's good to see you again, Shannon," lightning flashed, "We'll meet again soon."

The Ghostbuster's eyes went wide, a haunted tone in his voice, "Who in the hell are you?!"

Lita called out to him. Looking to her and back, Dan kept looking at the smirk. He climbed in and activated the lights. After the door closed, he spoke, "I think I figured out what to call the truck," Lita looked at him as he growled, "Black Vengeance." He slammed the shifter into reverse and spun the tires. The truck backed then pulled a Rockford turn.

Quickly shifting, the truck rocketed toward the street. All that was visible of the truck as it drove into the wall of rain were the taillights. As the truck pulled away, it's lights being enveloped in the darkness, the man spoke, "I know you better than you know yourself. I'll finish what she failed to do."