The Damocles Solution 21
The three men and the spud had landed or parked, and ran or floated their way up to the front door of Dolores Aracelli's residence.
Peter and Winston fired up their packs in the cool night air, and took aim. Slimer, alternating between frowning defiantly and babbling angrily at the demons inside the mansion, tried to stay afloat in the air due to the weight of the extra traps he carried.
Although Peter and Winston were ready to blast the door, Ray called out to them, frantically waving his arms to still their trigger-happy moment. "Wait! Wait guys!" he said, after bending down and closely inspecting the intercom box at the side of the door. He thumbed the white plastic square. "I have an idea to at least make sure they'll have a tough time getting together when they do know we're here."
"What? Tell 'em we're tax collectors? Nobody likes tax collectors. They'll be happy to avoid us then," snarked Peter, pulling back his gun.
Ray flashed a frown. "No. This model intercom is linked to the entire building's phone line. There's probably lots of similar intercom boxes inside the building, so this is how they're gonna team up once we're in there. We gotta sever the phone line first so at least they can't communicate across the entire mansion!"
Peter put a hand on a hip. "Well, that sounds like a deal, because you made it pretty anti-climactic by stopping us from zapping the door in."
Winston nodded. "You can lead the way to the wire, man, and we can blast it." Slimer nodded, and parroted the words "blast it".
Ray sprinted off, the rest of them following as he traced the wiring on the poles. They quietly made it around the side of the mansion undetected, using the shrubbery and small trees around the perimeter of the building for whatever cover could be spared. Stopping behind a low, wide shrub, the occultist pointed up, and the men saw the line coming from the heavily-wired pole, down to a corner of the roof.
Unfortunately, there also seemed to be a demonic guardian, pacing ominously, in the lamp-lighted darkness.
"Maybe she's got 'em all concentrated where Janine and Egon are held," noted Winston. "I'd honestly expect more to be out here than just one."
Peter hummed thoughtfully. "Or there really isn't that many, 'cuz she just wasn't counting on having a bunch of good-lookin' guys with proton accelerators over for a midnight snack."
"Good for us…either way," whispered Ray darkly. "That means we won't be seeing many in the mansion when we get in there, and they'll be easy to hit by the time we knock those braziers out."
Peter fired up, and with one very quick, short blast, the yellow beam cut through the wire with a flash of gold sparks. It fell far down, and trailed along the ground, buzzing and zapping.
Sure enough, the demon heard and saw everything, and turned to follow where the glowing blast originated.
The other two men activated their guns too, and as the demon rushed forward, they fired.
Their beams passed through thin air, and they ground their teeth at the target's sudden disappearance.
"They're really, really…fast," said Winston, annoyed. "Can't wait to blast those braziers."
A scream by Peter alerted them to the fact that the demon had reappeared, a scarce foot behind the psychologist. He ducked in just enough time to avoid a swipe by what looked to be four-inch claws. He readied a fist, and by the time he turned and swung, the entity had vanished again.
While Peter was turned, the demon popped in again from behind, ready to claw at him. Ray and Winston let loose another blast, and the demon vanished again, leaving Peter to hit the dirt fast so he didn't get blasted by the thrower streams.
It was Ray's turn to yelp, as the humanoid entity appeared directly in front of him. Ray nerved himself, and took the opportunity to shove the tip of the gun right at the demon's chest, now that it was close enough; they glared at each other, Ray irritated by the demon's cool grin. Before he could fire, the demon batted the tip away, swiped him across the arm, and grabbed him by the jumpsuit, all in a few fluid motions. It hurled him twenty feet away, causing him to grunt and land hard.
Peter yelped his name, and Slimer almost meowed it. Winston already had taken the split-second opportunity to single-shoot when Ray was thrown away, ironically to safety , and scored. The demon bucked and roared, engulfed in the searing white light of Winston's fire. Though it recovered all too quickly, and ran toward them after absorbing the blast, still aglow, Peter looked hopeful…the shot had indeed slowed down the demon enough so at least it couldn't teleport. His own blast joined Winston's, making the demon twice as uncomfortable. Ray added in his own beam after getting up as quickly as possible, and after switching back to stream, Winston topped it off. It was all too much, and the demon was finally immobilized
Slimer threw one of the many traps he carried under the demon, and promptly hid behind Peter to protect himself from the trap. They had to pull for a long, long time before the demon disappeared into the white vortex.
Winston scowled at the smoking trap as he replaced his gun. "You OK, man?" he asked, turning to Ray.
Ray nodded, massaging his left arm, his tan uniform turning dark red in four neat razor-thin slices. "Yeah. I'm alright. It's not that deep at all, but wow, do those things sting!" He looked at the full trap, now swung lackadasically by Peter. "We gotta keep these traps straight somehow, guys…I think we should change out the traps on our backs for full ones so Slimer has all the empties."
"Good idea," Winston noted, still looking concerned for Ray. "Man, took the equivalent of six and a half packs to catch that thing…and that's only one. There's a mansion there that we don't know how many we're dealin' with."
Ray turned toward him. "The good thing is that seems to be their game…speed and strength. They don't seem to have very many abilities beside that. I think once we destroy those Jormunger braziers, that'll slow them down so much we'll be able to trap 'em with no problems."
"Soooooooo…we gotta knock 'em out out ASAP, pardners," commented Peter, replacing the trap holder on his pack with one of the empties Slimer held . "Now that they don't have their little CB system, let's blast in that front door, and make a run for those things."
Ray smoothly flipped out the PKE meter, and they made their way around the side of the building to the front door, Slimer last. The little ghost was starting to sink lower and lower due to the weight of the traps.
Peter took too much pleasure in finally blasting through the door, and immediately they all set sight on the first brazier. Ray belted the meter to help Peter keep guard, as Winston shot the brazier. It glowed a bright white, and the stone within it shattered before the bronze-colored material melted in a superheated puddle on the floor.
"Let's move it, move it!" ordered Peter.
Ray pointed. "The next one was to the right! I'm sure down this hallway!" They ran down the elegant, white walled, scarlet-floored hallway. Ray smoothly flipped out the meter again. "Total PKE energy reduced by fifteen percent!" he triumphantly pronounced.
Ray guided them to a room on the left side of the hallway, and sure enough, right aside of the beautiful roll-top desk within it, there was another brazier. They ran into the room, and Peter and Ray stood just inside the doorway, guns heated and at the ready, pointing toward the hall.
The brazier was blasted in a matter of seconds, and the stone within shattered. The melted metal bubbled and sizzled like the first brazier, and as Winston shifted his pack back to stream, Ray announced that now, energy in the entire area was reduced by another twenty five percent.
Slimer babbled in fright, pointing toward the door, and Peter's eyes went wide. "Ah…gentlemen?" Peter's gun was the only one that was heated up when three more demons, attracted by the sound of Winston's single shot, poked their heads in the room.
Peter let a curse fly out, and the other two men were readied in an instant.
"Hey! This isn't so bad, Peter! This gives us a good opportunity to study how losing the braziers have affected the demons!" he said, as they lunged inside.
Peter spoke over his shoulder, furious. "We're in the middle of this viper pit, and YOU'RE happy to do some research?" he admonished. "That's it, you're not playing with Spengs any more!", he said, firing at the incoming demons, missing, and dodging a swipe to the gut.
Ray narrowed his eyes. "But look! They can't teleport already!" he said, avoiding a swipe to the cheek, and returning fire.
Slimer, at first paralyzed with fear, steeled himself, threw down he traps he carried, and made little ectoplasmic fists. Babbling angrily, he ran toward one of the demons, splatted himself right across the demon's face, and made the floor slick with slime under another one. Knocking them both off guard for those few precious seconds was all the guys needed to shoot and trap one demon.
When one demon was trapped, Slimer threw himself in the face of the already horribly off-balance demon rising from the ground, and the boys' combined effort trapped the other one.
The last remaining demon looked up, drenched in gross green ectoplasm, frightened in realization that it lost almost half of its powers now, and two of its helpers. It got up, dodging and avoiding proton shots from the three of them. It ran out the doorway, and into the hall, the three men and Slimer hot on its trail.
"Hey! We agreed to NO INFORMANTS on the way! You're breaking our rule!" yelled Peter at the escaping, scaly humanoid, leading the three 'busters and their green ghost to closely follow.
The demon snarled and grinned, and made it to the first intercom device it saw. It slammed on the button with a fist, and hissed into it that there were intruders on the first floor.
It started back. It was not hearing itself on the intercom all through the mansion, and began uselessly hammering away at the white box to get it to work.
It heard footsteps behind it, and peered over its shoulder, terrified. Three glowing proton guns were right in its face.
There was Peter at the front, grinning ear-to-ear. "Hey, bucko, we're the only ones that're gonna be calling the cavalry in this fanfic."
Slimer threw out a third trap, and, after much screaming and struggling, the next demon was taken into one of the temporary spook boxes, too.
The green ghost was going to exchange his trap for Ray's, when the occultist stopped him after massaging his arm again. He signaled for the other two guys to hand their traps over, and presented them to Slimer. "I'm not taking any chances getting these confused, so take these full traps out to Ecto-1 and grab a few more empties, buddy, we'll meetcha on the second floor."
Slimer handed Peter the empties, and took the full traps. He look much relieved carrying only four, and saluted Ray militarily. He squeaked out what sounded like "aye aye Ray!" and flew down the hall, and out the front door.
Ray brought out the meter again as they headed up the staircase. "Number three's signal is getting stronger the closer we get to that floor. That's definitely where it is!"
They had been discussing their plans with her for at least an hour and a half. However, Janine bit back at every statement she could with an iron will. She knew the rest of the guys were on their way. They're the Ghostbusters…and they always get what they're after.
"No, I'm not becoming your damn princess!" she yelled at the demon. "How stupid do you think I am? I've got everything I've ever wanted in a little drafty firehouse down in TriBeCa! And…" Stroking Egon's chest, she added softly, "and…right here…"
Morgan sat in front of her, making a grand effort at looking rather sad, and a little envious, if not anything else. He continued to dangle the supposed potential rewards of working alongside them in front of her, attempting to make it into a matter similar to that of choosing what sort of edible item she threw in Slimer's mouth to reward him for good behavior.
"I have told you before that we can heal this man completely if you'd only say yes…it's such a simple decision," hissed Morgan, curling a lip back in disgust every time she touched Egon. "It would be like nothing had ever happened to him."
Janine's first reaction was to snap back with a defiant answer, but something made her bite her tongue. She recoiled back for a moment. No…it's not, you monster! she thought. It was simple to decide not to work for evil. It was not simple making a decision that would keep Egon in pain.
She looked down at him, and shuddered. She was praying that the guys would get down there any moment She continued to stroke his hair, which by now was soaked in sweat, along with his clothes. His complexion was now desperately ashen, his face flushed, and most frightning was that when she whispered his name, he did not answer. More often than not now, all the intellectual concentration in his face was disappearing; it was more often than not now, replaced only by what could be called a desperation for relief.
The little snakes continued to laugh every time he reflexedly pulled on his restraints.
Janine turned her attention to Aracelli, who had the honor of sitting on a chair, brought down for her by her staff. "What about you?" she said loudly to her, pointing. "What about your kids? And your grandkids? That's all you talked about at dinner!"
Aracelli laughed delicately. "My dear, I never said I'd harm any of them! Why, I'm sure they'd love to have their matriarch and grandmother in such a position. They have never expressed much interest in what I study, however I will make sure they will reap the benefits. I am not selfish with my studies." Looking down the bridge of her nose at Egon, she added, "—unlike this one."
"You've murdered two people already!," she yelled, enraged at her insult of Egon. "What benefit is there in that? You're totaling up to be one gigantic embarassment for them!" she shot back.
"Ma'am, can't we do something with her…?" The demon looked clearly annoyed.
"No, Morgan, remember…she's lady."
Janine shot up to her feet. "LADY! I'll show you how much of a lady I am when I stuff a trap where the sun doesn't shine!"
"My, my, my. Ladies are not what they used to be," mumbled Aracelli to her assisstant, and he nodded in agreement. She cleared her throat, and straightened. "Present effort results in reapable rewards," she said, with a twinge of annoyance. "I worked all my retired life to be able to learn the language of the Ragnarock glyphs, and years to gain my Master's favor." Running a hand over the serpent-shaped cane, she grinned. "What better reward is there than to know your family will inherit the world?"
Janine tched with her tongue, and crossed her arms. "I can't believe I have ta listen to this."
Aracelli raised an eyebrow, and nervously adjusted her green serpentine cameo, perched perfectly between the upper folds of her white blouse. "Single-mindedness," she mused. "I guess my student and I had a lot more in common than I care to admit," she said with a cool grin. "Like attracts like in the scholarly world."
"You are truly disgusting," growled Janine. "You taught Jeremy what he wanted to know for the sole purpose of using him! And to think that Cindy didn't know what you really were! Not one person who has anything to do with you asked for what you gave them! Your family! Tennent! Even Jeremy!" She paused for a moment, beating down the burning need to tear up, "And…Egon too…," she said softly.
Arecelli sighed. "My dear, as I said before, Jeremy was a single-minded man. He wanted revenge, and though I did not place all the tools in his hands, I placed—enough—there, though I hinted many, many times that he would need a wizened advisor. It was his choice to make the wrong decision for his Hearer."
She continued. "As for your young admirer here, this is precisely the sort of situation knowledge of this type will place him in," she said. "Most likely he knew there was some relative danger regarding this information when he first pressed the late Dr. Tennent to educate him on it. Getting hunted down for it just seemed to go unchecked for so long considering the constant drama your workplace of choice presents."
"Knowledge doesn't put you at fault for gettin' followed by a bunch of crazies!" retorted Janine.
"When it is your own decision to do the learning, certainly it does." She turned her head slightly. "You right now are suffering because of this man's own decision to learn, aren't you?"
Janine bared her teeth. "Don't you dare try to pull that on me,'lady'! It's always my decision to stick around! There's always a good reason for everything he does and learns! I may not get it at first, his friends may not get it at all, and even he may not even know which screw in his head goes where sometimes, but there's always a good reason!" She inhaled proudly. "Unlike you."
She looked positively perturbed. "Reasons are rather a moot point! When you decide to play with dangerous information, you take upon yourself the consequences attached to it." She leaned forward. "I did not do just that, my dear. I embraced the opportunity."
Janine glared at her…there seemed to be no end to her own justification of her plans.
Egon stirred uncomfortably at her feet again, seemingly on the verge of releasing a scream. Distracted, she got back down on the ground, and returned to stroking his hair. He sighed deeply, calming again when she continued, seemingly unconsciously dependent on her touch now.
Aracelli leaned back in her chair. "I grant you a choice, now. Maybe you will be a little more cautious than the scientist here. You may either encourage him to proceed in assissting me, or you may watch him die before you."
When she phrased it that way, Janine froze, wide-eyed. She was now beginning to understand what Egon was telling her when he mentioned the Damocles story. And she also understood now why she had always felt a particular fear for him when he stepped out the door to bust a ghost with the other guys. She knew someone that, quite truly, was rather unique in the world...and she seemed to know this, before even being told.
And she was attached to him, solely by her own decisions. Though she wouldn't have done anything differently, ever, when it came to working for the Ghostbusters.
She realized that, in a way, she didn't even have to learn what Egon knew. By proxy, she'd be responsible for him, and, therefore, everything he had studied in his life. And, in a way, everything he knew, right now, was solely dependent on how she would handle dealing with their captors.
The epiphany of what he was trying to tell her finally hit her. She took responsibility, right now, for not only his life, but his entire vault of very unique knowledge, which many different channels, human and non-human, would voraciously resort to using any means possible to attain. It was a terrifying brief glimpse into his mind, and the weight of responsibility he shouldered daily.
"I've been…such a child…" she whispered, thinking back on her behavior of the past few days, trying to impress him once again by her increased studies. "Such a child…"
Morgan knelt down and smiled wickedly at Janine. "Just think about it, Miss Melnitz…we demons in this household have been humble enough to accept Mrs. Aracelli's protection, though we cannot serve as Hearers…humans must do that. We have been treated with the utmost respect here…and so will you, should you accept. And if you do not urge him to cooperate soon, I believe he," he said, pointing at Egon, "will not be living much longer…so when I unlock the altar's position, which will be indeed very, very soon, imagine how empty of a world you'll live in…if you refuse."
She could feel the oppressive heaviness of her own decision…refusing their offer would keep him in tortured suffering until it, potentially, would kill him; saying that she would assisst them would throw away her entire code of justice, and would be, in her mind, the ultimate betrayal of the rest of the Ghostbusters, and, in fact, considering Ragnarock's power, the world. There was also no guarantee that he would be helped in she would give in.
In essence, she felt herself given the power of being forced to choose between death-and death.
She could visualize Damocles' cursed sword hanging above her head.
She closed her eyes, while Egon struggled to spite the fire in his veins.
They were here…were they here in time?
Shaking her head slowly, she wiped a tear away with the sleeve of her housecoat. "No…" she breathed, running her hand over his cheek, and the tears continued to slide out of her eyes. She finally reached her tolearance of feeling his struggle while keeping her own head. She knew if she did not remove her hands from him, she would have acquiesced to their every wish, solely to relieve his misery, and she leaned away from him, her face falling into her hands.
Placing her hands on the ground, she leaned forward, tired, drained, and inwardly, feeling more and more helpless by the minute.
"I don't care what you say," she said, wiping her eyes. "I'm not helpin' you."
A pause filled the air, and Morgan turned to Aracelli to gauge her reaction.
Aracelli laughed. "Because of his own knowledge, his lover has condemned him to death!" She leaned forward again. "These are sorts of the decisions you will make for the rest of your life if you do not aid us."
Ready to lose all sense of composure, Janine shook her head no again…
…and broke down in tears, trying deperately not to look at Egon.
A weakened, scaly humanoid stumbled into the chamber, and clung to the wall for support. "Ma'am, we will need assisstance! No one could communicate as the phone lines had been cut, and all the staff in the house is now missing!"
"Ma'am, if there is trouble back in the mansion, I will go address it immediately," said Morgan, who had been wearing a rather curious expression the last few moments, as if he was sniffing something in the air.
"Do so. I see the situation has turned to a standstill. I will begin consulting my Master, and therefore get this corrected."
Morgan hurried out, complaining that it was strange that he did not sense something earlier, and hissed angrily in realization when the tired demon told him of the destroyed brazier in the front entrance. Beckoning the weakened humanoid to accompany him, he vanished a step away from where he arose, and the tired demon sighed and followed.
Aracelli rose up from her chair, and, supporting herself with her cane, started chanting words which Janine thought seemed older than anything she'd ever heard before.
Now that they were preoccupied, she looked down at Egon. Not quite sure she had recovered from her decision, she reached toward him, and dared to trace his lips with a thumb, and another choked, answering gasp escaped from between them, a hairsbreadth away from becoming a screaming cry. He reached his head back, gritting his teeth, and slightly arched his back. Finally resting back down again, he laid still…more than he had in hours, though his breath still ground away in the repellantly quiet earthy chamber.
It almost made her lose the fight against the indominable-seeming urge to call them to her and tell them to do whever they wanted.
"I know that's what you would have wanted me to say, Egon," she breathed. She leaned forward, and rested her head on his wet, lacerated torso. She sighed deeply and held onto his arm near her. "I know you wouldn't feel the need to forgive me at all. But…I don't know if I could ever forgive myself."