I don't own Ghostbusters.
I own Kitty and Angie Reed, and Remy Safar.
The Ghostbusters siren awoke even the heaviest sleeper as it frantically rushed through the morning traffic of Manhattan. By now the other drivers on the road had learn to get out of the way once they heard the whine of the siren, exhibiting the same power over the masses as a police siren would. Kitty sat in the back seat with the rest of the Ghostbusters team as Ray drove through traffic, weaving in and out and around traffic to get to the museum on time. Kitty held on for her life in the backseat of the converted hearse, latching her thin fingers around the door handle to keep herself from sliding into Winston next to her or Egon and Remy across from her. She held on tightly to the door handle and her stomach as she felt the contents of breakfast creeping up the back of her throat.
Finally, with a smooth and easy stop, Ray pulled up in front of the massive building of the Manhattan Museum of Art. With creatures and cherubs around the building, it looked more like a piece of art itself, besides a place that held art.
Ray sighed heavily from the front seat, prepping himself for the investigation inside before addressing the crew in the back. "We're here!" He exclaimed before opening the door and climbing out of the Ecto-one. The rest of the team followed suit, climbing out one by one, before it was just Remy and Kitty in the back.
With no offense to Remy, Kitty just didn't feel good as her stomach felt jittery, like butterflies in the stomach but with a more devious meaning. She had began to clam up, her rosy complexion pale as she tried to prep herself much like how Ray had before exiting the car. Remy smiled sweetly, putting her hand on Kitty's knee to calm the girl. "It'll be okay." She said, pulling Kitty from her self deprecating thoughts. "I was nervous the first time I went out too."
"This isn't my first time out." She confessed, distracting herself.
"Oh?"
"I've been out twice before."
"Then you know how it goes, then." Remy reasoned, earning a scoff from Kitty's lips as she laughed.
"Only this time there's no chance for me to be possessed or end up in jail." Kitty laughed, feeling the ache in her stomach shrink. Remy looked confused as she exited the Ecto-One, hoping more than anything to hear the rest of those at a later date.
Kitty had to man up now and face the music. How hard could it be?
With a reluctant sigh, Kitty pulled herself up and out of the back seat of the Ecto-One and on to the crowded landing of the museum. Venkman had shown up, his eyes bloodshot from a cranky Oscar that would not go to sleep last night. Luckily, Dana and the baby get to sleep in while Venkman has to run down to the museum to check out this creepy painting. While Ray began to fill Venkman in on the Vigo character that had weirded out Dana, Peter's attention was drawn to more important things.
"Hello Kitty." Venkman said, carefully navigating himself around that pun. Kitty's eyes narrowed at him "What are you doing here? Didn't you get enough 'field work' last time?"
"No." Kitty said. "It was cut short last time seeing as I was arrested."
Peter smirked, it seemed her sisters quick wit was rubbing off of on her.
"I'll try not to do that again."
"My bail bondsman and my wallet would thank you." Kitty resorted, getting the final word before going to help Winston and Remy gather equipment for the investigation inside. From the corner of her eye, she saw Remy giving a thumbs up to her little spat with Venkman and winning.
Venkman redirected his attention back to Ray and more importantly Vigo. "Did you get anything on the painting?"
Ray reached into the pocket on his jumpsuit and pulled out several lined notepaper scribbles on Vigo the Carpathian.
"We did get something on that Vigo character to mention. Found it in Leon Zundiger's 'Magicians, Martyrs and Madmen. Dig that." Ray exclaimed before turning to the back of the Ecto-One. Winston helped Egon slide the proton pack over his shoulders before helping ray fill Peter in on all that the three of them had figured out the night before in an old-fashion all-nighter, something Ray nor Egon had done since college.
"Vigo the Carpathian. Born 1505, died 1610."
"A hundred and five years old. He hung in there, didn't he?"
"And he didn't die of old age, either." Ray piped in while Egon helped Remy with her own proton pack. "He was poisoned, stabbed, shot, hung, stretched, disemboweled, drawn and quartered."
"Ouch."
"I guess he wasn't too popular at the end." Winston said, grabbing an extra Giga meter and attaching it to his belt.
"No, not exactly a man of the people." Egon said, handing Peter a piece of equipment he could handle, a camera. "Also known as Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Torture, Vigo the Despised and Vigo the Unholy."
"Wasn't he also Vigo the Butch?" Peter asked, looping the camera strap around the back of his head.
"And dig this! There was a prophecy, just before his head died."
With a hefty thud, Winston closed the back of the Ecto-One, the car itself drawing in more gawkers than the boys (and girl) in grey. The small army of investigators walked towards the couple hundred year old building, ignoring the extra attention from the straights while Ray recited the last words of the vicious ruler.
"His last words were: 'Death is but a door, time is but a window. I'll be back!'"
While largely unfazed by the crowd outside of the building, the group inside were much more impressionable. Heads turned, people stopped what they were doing and gawked at the six of them with their strange machines strapped around their bodies, while largely ignoring the fact that they stood in formation. Kitty didn't notice either until she looked down the line of Ghostbusters, their chests puffed up, hands on their hips – they looked like the paranormal Justice League! She could have sworn she heard trumpets going off in the background.
Peter's neck craned down the line, noticing the superhero feel they were giving off. "All right, suck in the guts, guys. We're the Ghostbusters." Though meant for the boys, Kitty also breathed in quickly, tucking her tummy in to hide the extra couple pounds she'd accumulated over the holiday. From the other side of the restoration room, they all heard a high-pitched squeak of a male's voice.
"Go! Go, please, go, you, Dr. Venkman!" The man immerged, waving his hands away and towards the exit, hoping for nothing more than to be left alone by Venkman and his crew. After what happened last time Dr. Venkman showed, up, Janosz wanted nothing to do with the Ghostbusters. The boys stood in shock at the 'warm' welcome as Ray leaned over to Peter. "Who's this wiggler?"
"He's your, Ray. Sic 'em!" Peter growled. Ray looked concerned, but did his best at his new job: distraction.
"Hi, Ray Stantz from the Ghostbusters. How are you?" Ray said quickly, shaking the confused man's hand. "We're just doing a routine spook check." Quickly, Ray grabbed a small handheld meter from his belt and began waving it around the walls, the paintings, the people - anything to gain a baseline. Kitty followed behind Ray, keeping close at she didn't want to mess up her, count them, third time out with the boys. She really didn't want to get arrested again.
"Dr. Venkman! Dana is not here!" The little man said, throwing his arms in the air.
"Yeah, we know that, Johnny." Peter was unimpressed, throwing his coat over the strange man's arm.
"So why are you came?" 'Johnny's broken English was humorous to say the least. Kitty had to turn away to keep from laughing right at him. Poor guy.
Ray swung back around, following the energy pulses that the meter was recording back around to Peter, Janosz and Kitty. "Try and keep busy." Ray said quickly before following the pulses towards the opposite side of the room.
Moving quickly, Kitty grabbed a small EMF recorder and began waving it in the sky, following the motions of both Ray and Egon as they combed the room for valances. It was hitting a solid 14.5 – whatever that meant.
"We got a report there was a major creep in the area, we checked out list and you were right on the top." Peter teased, throwing his arm around Janosz's shoulders like an old pal. "Say, Johnny, where in the hell are you from, anyway?"
"The Upper Vest Side…"
Egon wondered back to Venkman and Janosz. "The whole room's extremely hot, Peter." Egon said before wondering off again, following closely to Ray and Kitty's trail as they all seemed to be pulled to one side of the restoration room. Winston groaned at the sight of the monstrous painting, cringing at the canvas.
"Whoa. That's one ugly dude."
"Oh, that's Vigo! Mr. Vigo! Vigs! Would you look this way, please?" Peter asked the painting before he began snapping pictures of the tyrant.
Vigo the Carpathian stood up proud, his ruthless fists on his hips as he stared down the painter in the scene. His features distorted and twisted in a cruel fashion as he would be shown for hundreds of years to come, his wickedness upon his European features. Ray and Egon were both drawn to the painting by the Giga Meter, Kitty by her simple EMF meter, Winston by his own sight and Peter by the shrieking man at his side.
"No! No, please no! No! No, Dr. Venkman!" He shouted, making his way in between the Ghostbusters and the painting, using his body as a human shield. "No photographs, please! Slides are available in the gift shop." Tired of the little twerp, Winston grabbed on to his sweater and pulled him out of the way, earning a yelp from the poor guy as Peter could finally take an uninterrupted picture.
"Yeah, thanks. Thank you Winston." Peter said, before diving down the rabbit hole of his own mind.
"All right, you know what, give me angry, will you, will you give me angry. You've had a bad day, you're cranky." Peter teased, snapping picture after picture of the painting.
Vigo didn't move.
"Good, ooh, angrier. Angrier! Ooh, I'm scared, you're scaring me, stop it." Peter snapped again.
Again, Vigo didn't move.
"Good… Good. Okay, walk for me, talk for me. Yeah!" Peter exclaimed, slowly slipping from reality into his own realm. Unbeknownst to him, so was Ray.
Ray waved the Giga Meter over the Moldovian tyrant, curious as to why someone would get the creeps from this crude painting. Sure his facial features weren't pleasant, and his eyes seemed to follow you when you moved about, but it was an artistic technique - Leonardo DaVinci did the same thing with the Mona Lisa. As creepy as it was on a psychological level, it couldn't account for the strange reading on the Giga Meters that both Ray and Egon were experiencing. Ray's curiosity got to the best of him, taking a quick look back as he could have sworn the paintings eyes flashed red for a moment. While Peter's taunts faded into the background, the sounds of sorrow, pain and tragedy filled his ears.
Once more, Ray had gone bye-bye.
"Okay, give me hot and sexy. Can you do it? You can. Oh, boy. Show me some teeth. Come on." Peter teased, moving around and taking more and more pictures.
"Do the girls like you? Huh? The girls? Do the guys? I bet they both do. How about the animals? They like you?" Peter asked as he continued to snap away.
Ray's arm went limp, falling to his waist as Vigo's eyes turned crimson red for a moment, filling him with pure dread and hatred. He knew he should look away, but her couldn't. He was to stand there for the rest of his life, feeling the pain that this monster had so enjoyed dealing out in his life time.
"All right. More. That's right, you're big. You're big. Yeah! All right, destroy me!" Peter began shouting at the painting, getting more intense with each photo. "Destroy me! Destroy me!" Peter shouted until he was silenced by Egon putting his hand on Peter's shoulder. He snapped back to reality, turning to Egon in all seriousness. "Venkman. We need to talk."
Turning back to the painting, Peter smirked as he addressed the Moldavian hunk one last time. "I've worked with better, but not many. Thank you."
He spun on his heel, turning completely around as he followed Egon out of the restoration room, but not before grabbing his coat from Janosz's arms as he stood in disbelief. Venkman had come to his place of work and in a matter of seconds turned his work upside down, only to leave again. If Venkman showed up anymore, the poor man would have a heart attack.
Winston and Kitty hung back, in their own state of disbelief on Venkman's part. What in the hell did Dana see in that man? While Kitty and Winston pondered the question, they both noticed one less Ghostbuster on his way out. Ray still hung in front of the painting, his arm limp as his jaw hung wide open. Winston's brows creased as he approached Ray, who hadn't stopped looking at the painting since they got here. "Hey, hey?" Winston said, smacking Ray's droopy arm a couple times, waking the scientist from the trance. "You finished?"
Ray sniffed loudly, nodding mostly to himself. "Yeah, I'm finished." He seemed out of it, Kitty noted as he climbed down the ladder.
"Are you all right?" Winston asked, watching carefully as Ray put his Giga Meter in his jumpsuit pocket.
"What?"
"I mean, you're not coming down with something?"
Ray smacked his chest with his open palm before asking "Me?" As if to show how healthy he was. It was preposterous that he'd get sick. Ray had never been sick in his entire life, but Kitty could tell something was off. His demeanor, his actions, even the way he walked was different. Winston seemed to notice too, sharing the same look of concern as they exited the building.
Wrapping himself tighter in his coat, Peter shivered as he and Egon made their way back to the Ecto-One. Following close behind was Remy as she looked over a few confiscated brochures, then Ray, Winston and Kitty picking up the rear. Ray had been acting strange, and was strange still as they approached the Ecto-One, stopping just shy of the side walk.
"There's definitely something going on in that studio. The PKE levels were max-plus and the Giga-meter was showing all red." Egon said, resting his over his chest.
"I'd put my money on that Vigo character." Winston said as Peter took the retro camera and tossed it Winston's way.
"Yeah, that's a safe bet." Peter said as Winston fumbled with the camera on top of all of the other equipment the poor man had to carry. Peter turned to Ray, whose pupils hadn't quiet dilated yet. "You and Spengman see what else you can dig up on Vigo and this little weasel Poha. Those two were made for each other."
"That's what I'm afraid of." Kitty said, crossing her arms over her chest to keep herself from shivering. Peter nodded, fearing the same thought.
Ray climbed into the driver's seat; his fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly as he waited impatiently for the rest of the team to climb in. Cautiously the rest of them climbed into the Ecto-One, fearing the wrath of the tightly wound scientist. Of course, Winston thought as he sat in the hot-seat, up front with Stantz while the rest had the safety of the back seat.
Ray became twitchy, tense about everything and very angry at the drop of a hat. Serving in and around traffic more than normal, he laid down on the horn, blaring it at a slower driver. "Idiot!" He shouted, exhibiting the worst sudden road-rage Kitty had ever seen. Ray groaned loudly as another car got in his way. The new engine roared as he pushed hard on the gas, passing the other driver quickly, causing him to over correct to stop from careening into another car in afternoon New York traffic.
Peter's eyes widened, silently questioning Ray's sanity at roughly the same time as the rest of them. Kitty stomach ache came back with a vengeance as Remy began to feel the same uneasiness that she was experiencing, though this time they knew why. Egon held on tightly to the seat, his knuckles white from the extreme grip as Ray served quickly around a corner. Kitty noted Egon's uneasiness and grabbed his hand, squeezing it to let him know that they were all pretty nervous over Ray's antics.
Winston grabbed onto the dashboard, bracing himself for the wreck he knew was coming as he looked to Ray. "Going a little fast, aren't we Ray?"
Ray's eyes narrowed at Winston, taking his focus away from the ever changing traffic. "Are you telling me how to drive?" Ray snapped.
"No, I just thought—"
"Well don't think!" Ray shouted over the sound of the engine roaring once more as he pushed hard against the accelerator. Blowing through a red light, people jumped out of the way to avoid being hit by the converted white hearse-ambulance combo, the neon sign on the side stating they were "READY TO BELIEVE YOU!"
The Ecto-one bounced around the pot-hole ridden street, slinging the occupants around in the cab from once side to another. Kitty closed her eyes; praying that this ride from hell would be over with and that they'd all make it out in one piece.
Winston wrapped his wrist through to safety straps in the cab, thanking his lucky stars that they had been installed in the first place before looking over to the wide-eyed and drooling Stantz as he leaned forward, hunched over the steering wheel with a blank expression on his face.
"Are you crazy, man?" Winston shouted over the revving engine, the bouncing equipment and the shrieks of the innocent people outside on the street. "You're going to kill somebody!"
Ray's neck craned over, his wide eyes blank as his chapped lips split into an ear-to-ear smile. Without a hint of emotion or remorse or recognition of what he was saying, Ray simply stated, "No, I'm going to kill everybody."
The Ecto-One served once more, this time heading straight for a large tree on the side of the road. Not once did Ray's expression change as he turned back to face the windshield, staring head on to what would certainly be their doom. Kitty shielded her eyes in Egon's shoulder, waiting for the inevitable impact.
Without some much time to even blink, Winston threw a wicked punch to the side of Ray's face, knocking him away from the wheel before Winston took control. He tried to steer away from the tree, his size 12 foot mashing on the brake peddle as the Ecto-One skidded sideways into the tree. The six of them shook from the impact, but not nearly as much as they were all bracing for.
The traffic moved around the wreck, horns honking at the idiot for not missing the tree, but compared to what almost happened, they'd take a little verbal abuse.
Kitty checked quickly to make sure everyone was okay. Checking for blood, bumps or any limbs that were bending in a ways it shouldn't. They were all relatively okay, given the circumstances.
They began to make their way out of the car, moaning and groaning at pains that would definitely hurt in the morning. "You okay?"
"Yeah, are you?"
"I'm okay, how about you guys?"
"I'm good. You?"
"Pretty good."
"I'm okay."
"Good."
Ray finally emerged from the wreck, his wide eyed expression drastically different then just a few moments ago when he admitted to attempted vehicular homicide. He stumbled out of the driver's side, looking around at the world behind him as if he had no memory of what had just happened. Ray grabbed the right side of his face; the area that Winston had hit him was beginning to swell up quickly as he looked around.
"What happened?" Ray asked his voice light and dreamy as if he'd just woken up from a nap.
"You just picked up three penalty points on your driver's license." Peter remarked, rubbing the sore spot on his neck from where he'd experienced whiplash. Winston patted Ray on the back, hoping to snap Ray back to reality. "Are you alright?"
Ray nodded, slowly rotating his shoulder cuff in a circle. "Yeah, I guess so. It was the strangest thing. I knew what I was doing but I couldn't stop. This really terrible feeling came over me and – I don't know – I just felt like driving into that tree and ending it all. Whew! Sorry, boys." Winston nodded, patting Ray on the back once more before the two of them went to inspect the damage to the car.
Peter grabbed onto Kitty's sleeve, pulling her away from the wreck causing Egon to follow out sheer curiosity. "Watch him. Don't even let him shave." Peter warned, earning a nod from the two of them before rejoining the group.
If Ray didn't look suicidal before, he sure did now as he looked crumbled body of the Ecto-One, after he'd just spent the last few weeks trying to fix it up. It was gone, the hard work, the time, the effort, the money – gone! His jaw dropped as he tried to tally up how much money it was gonna be to fix this.
Peter spun on his heel, facing back to the heavy traffic as his arm reached for the sky. "Taxi!"
Kitty slowly made her way around the wreck, doing her best to not trip over the crumbled steel body before she stood beside Ray, who was still in shock. Ray simply shook his head as he covered his open mouth with his hand. She couldn't even begin to start with what she was thinking. Ray could have killed all of them, and she was powerless to stop him. What if something like that happens again? Would she stop him?
At the time present, she only thing she could think of was putting her arm around Ray's shoulders. She knew the feeling when you realize you didn't have control of your body, that something more powerful than you could taken over when ever it feels like. It's scary and it was something she would never wish on her worst enemy. Ray seemed to come back, slowly but surely beginning about to form words from his jumbled thoughts.
"Don't tell Angie." He said from behind his hand, muffling the sound of his words but not the power behind them.
"What?"
"Don't tell Angie." He repeated. "I don't want her to get worried and if she finds out that this happened and that I almost -… Just, don't tell her, okay? I will tell her, but just not right now."
Kitty nodded her head, understanding Ray's cause for concern. Though she didn't show it, Angie was a worry wart. Constantly worried about everyone but herself, Angie would just not let things go – this would be no exception. Kitty nodded, agreeing to his request. But soon Angie would find out. If not by Ray then through some other way, she was sure of it. Kitty only prayed that she wasn't the one who spilled the beans.
~pure.