Anybody else would feel weird wearing a protective jumpsuit in a big, fancy government building where everyone else was dressed formally, but not Egon. If anything, he and the others had to stick out. Not only did they need the public to know that they were members of The Ghostbusters, but they also wanted the public to know that they meant business.

And in this emergency meeting with The Mayor, they sure meant business.

Egon felt incredibly lucky that he could get an audience with the mayor on the same day that Gabby requested it. But why wouldn't The Mayor give special attention to The Ghostbusters? They were truly one of a kind when it came to emergency services and they could always be counted on in a paranormal emergency. Egon held tight to his recording device. He made sure that the tape was securely held in there and ready to play. That was his weapon in the moment; not a proton pack but incriminating evidence. He looked at the others: Winston was reading a magazine. Ray was staring into space. Peter was scratching at his wrist for some reason. Gabby was nervously rocking back and forth.

"Ghostbusters?" said the secretary, "We're ready for you."

Mayor Lenny was sitting at his desk in his dimly-lit office. He sipped at a slushy green drink served in a fancy glass with salt on the rim and a decorative tiny umbrella. The presence of this beverage made light of any serious situation that would come to The Mayor's attention.

"We're more than happy that you can fit us in, Mayor," said Winston, "We have quite the predicament on our hands."

"We normally don't stay this late on a Friday but we decided to have Cocktail Hour," said Mayor Lenny.

Gabby wasn't using any of her magic at that moment, so it was anyone's guess how a margarita appeared in Peter's hand so quickly.

Egon glared at Peter.

"Hey, when in Rome," said Peter before he took a sip.

"So, what is this predicament you have, gentlemen and lady?" asked Mayor Lenny.

Egon held up his recording device.

"I'm sure you've noticed that-" he said.

He was interrupted by the sound of the blender making more margaritas. After several seconds, the blender went silent.

"Sorry," said the office worker operating the blender.

Egon turned back to the mayor and started again.

"I'm sure you've noticed that paranormal activity has seen an uptick in the past few months," said Egon.

"Yes, and you've been doing a fine job of getting rid of those paranormals," said The Mayor.

"The paranormal creatures that we've been fighting are called Alps, or sleep paralysis demons. A few months ago, they started attacking people in their sleep, pinning their bodies to their beds and eating their dreams. They would then transform into the scary subject matter of whichever dream they've eaten. We found this out when we trapped the dragon that was attacking China Town. So far, we have not had any more incidents from them but we now have evidence that they have ulterior motives for their antics."

The Mayor took a sip from his beverage and looked at the recording device that Egon placed on his desk.

"Okay…" said The Mayor, "What do these demons have in store?"

"They want to start what they call a 'ruckus,' an event where widespread vandalism and mayhem will occur in the city. And they've carefully planned this."

Egon pressed play on the recording device. This time, he did less listening and more gauging the reaction from the highest authority in the city. The mayor kept sipping his drink and kept a straight face the entire time. Then again, even during Cocktail Hour, he had to retain a certain amount of professionalism.

Egon pressed the pause button on the device when the recording was finished. The Mayor was not impressed, but then again, nobody expected him to be.

"So, what do you want me to do about this?" asked Mayor Lenny, "Call in police backup? Send in the military? You guys are the ghost experts around here. If anything, I should be listening to what YOU have to say."

"Unfortunately, the police or military would not be able to do much about this problem. Standard weapons are useless against demons, as far as we know. All I can suggest that you do is declare a city-wide emergency and ensure that everyone is safe and protected from this demonic threat."

"And how many demons are going to show up to this… Ruckus?"

Egon came to the roadblock of a question that he could not answer. He hated admitting that he didn't know but it took a strong individual to admit that they didn't know. "We're not entirely sure. The information that we've gained so far does not give us any idea of how many demons there will be."

"So there might just be ten demons coming by. Do you think I'd be concerned about THAT? You guys have battled ghosts and ghoulies that are even worse news than that. Hell, the justice system fights criminals and gangs of unruly kids on a daily basis. I think it would be silly to make a bunch of misbehaving demons into a city-wide emergency."

Egon planted the palms of his hands into the desk and moved his face a bit closer to The Mayor's. His tension soared.

"You don't understand, Mr. Mayor. The fact that there is extensive planning going into this night of mass calamity is proof enough that this isn't your standard mayhem that we're dealing with!"

"Well, how many of your other ghosts had extensive planning before you went and busted them like you normally do?" asked The Mayor.

"And what about that one time when Slimer kept dividing into tiny Slimers and covered the city in slime?" asked Peter. He nearly spilled his margarita on the carpet in his excitement.

"What about that?"

"If you had been told about that ahead of time, you wouldn't have taken THAT very seriously, either!"

Ho boy, thought Egon. Whenever Peter chimed in, he almost never made things better.

"And how, dare I ask, do you know that, Dr. Venkman?" asked The Mayor, "Does your inventor friend over here have a device that can peer into people's minds?"

Everyone went silent at this comeback. Peter looked toward Egon.

"Well, Egon?" said Peter, "Do you?"

"No, I don't, Mayor Lenny," said Egon. The frustration leaked from Egon like an overflowing tank but he was good at keeping his cool. "But, mark my words, this is something that should be taken seriously."

"Well, I have a message for those punk demons that you've recorded and it's that nobody in New York takes them seriously," said Mayor Lenny, "This city has seen a lot and I'm pretty sure a bunch of flying monkeys can't compete against a city of millions, especially when there are four guys with proton backpacks and quite a few more with guns!"

Egon was drained by this powerful man's stubbornness. Arguing with him wasn't going to go anywhere. He mind as well ride a merry-go-round of aggravation. Better yet, he mind as well end this meeting now.

"Well, thank you for your time, Mayor Lenny," said Egon. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."

It was when The Ghostbusters stepped outside that Peter faced the window of The Mayor's office to get in some final super-necessary words.

"You'll be sorry you never listened to us!" said Peter, "By the way, your margaritas suck! And what kind of cocktail hour doesn't have hors d'oeuvres? Do cheese and crackers mean nothing to you philistines?! You know what, just for all that, you guys get the Double Janine Melnitz Seal of Disapproval!"

The secretary, who sounded very much like she had enough, walked to the window to see what this was about.

"What in the hell is a Janine Melnitz Seal of - Oh, he's just giving me the double middle finger," she said. She then shut the window and walked away.

"Well, at least Peter didn't throw rocks like he has during other times," said Ray.

"I guess we have to take this matter into our own hands," said Egon. "We will have to think of something and fast."

The gang were silent on the way back to The Firehouse. Egon didn't know what was more unsettling: Knowing something was about to happen or not knowing that something was about to happen. He was familiar with the saying "ignorance is bliss" but darn it, he just couldn't accept ignorance. There was simply no excuse for it. And yet the mysteries of the universe meant that it still persisted and all that we had were theories and hypotheses to keep us content.

However, in a group of people who were freshly enlightened about a problem, one or more of them could potentially solve it with intelligence or a big imagination. That was how it has always been. And that was how it was when Gabby piped up in the middle of the long walk home.

"Why don't we get college kids to do it?" she asked. "I'm sure there are those in the science fields that would love to have hands-on experience in stuff like this."

"I don't know…" said Winston, "Can we trust college kids around proton packs?"

"Winston, they're college kids, not toddlers," said Ray, "And besides, we had our doubts about Gabby at first and she made a great addition to the team!"

"Erm… you had your doubts about me?" asked Gabby.

"Ray," said Peter, "Ix-nay on the 'Ast-times-we-talked-about-Gabby-pay."

"All I'm saying is, if you could go through the grueling process of training me, then you can do that for an entire army of college students," said Gabby.

Egon stopped walking and placed his thumb and index finger on his chin. This wasn't the worst idea. If they needed to hire temporary ghostbusters, he would rather have it be students in the appropriate field rather than regular civilians.

"Hmm…" he said, "That is a promising idea but we will have to see how much we have in the budget to pay these young adults. Surely, they would want to be compensated."

"We could have it be a field study!" said Peter, "A field study in the subject of paranormal capture with the use of portable proton-based machinery. Or better yet, a field study in kicking ass! Taught by Dr. Peter Venkman."

Egon sat at the table and looked at his drawing and equations. So many pictures and numbers and notes jumbled up with no order except for the order in which he thought them up. It was as if his head had exploded all over the table, except with much less gore. He exuded pride in the face of this mess. If these papers weren't so important, he would have glued them together in a collage. However, Egon was not the artistic type. He had no profound message to invoke from this work other than "I worked myself to the bone." Or, more like, "I worked myself to the bone while caring for an infant," since at least one of the papers had a spit-up stain on it.

But that wasn't even the main reason that he was proud of this mess.

"How's that work coming, Egon?" asked Ray.

"I'm just about ready to upgrade the proton packs and test them out," said Egon.

"Wait… what's that? Do you hear that?"

Egon and Ray listened closely and heard a quick scratching at the back door.

"Hey!" said a female voice, "HEEEEEEEY!"

Why wasn't this person knocking like people usually did? Why was she intent on getting her attention this way?

"I'll go get the door," said Gabby.

As Egon gathered his papers, he listened closely to hear the exchange between Gabby and this mystery person. Gabby opened the heavy door and it made its signature creaking noise.

"I'm down here!" said the voice.

There was stunned silence from Gabby.

"Uh… guys?" she said.

"Yeah, Gabs?" asked Ray.

"There's a talking cat at the door."