Chapter Six

It was quiet. Deadly quiet. The four of us looked at the trap as the little red light came on, making a quiet beeping sound. Peter approached it, his gun at the ready while Egon knelt down by it. Peter nudged it with his foot and little blue streams of electricity flew around it for half a second. Egon gaped.

"It's in there." He said. Peter nudged it a few more times.

"Hey." He snapped at it.

"Holy shit." I breathed.

"Huh. Well that wasn't such a chore, now was it?" Ray smiled to himself. Egon and I looked at each other and then just looked at him. Ray picked the trap up and we walked over to the doors.

"...I want that door open now!" we heard. Peter swung the doors open.

"We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass!"

The man backed up, wide eyed.

"Did you see it? What is it?"

"We got it!" Ray walked out, holding the trap and grinning. The trap was smoking and people turned away from it. It smelled horrible.

"What is it? Will there be any more of them?" the man asked. I shook my head.

"I doubt it."

"Good."

"Sir, what you had there—" Ray coughed "—was what we refer to as a focused, non-terminal repeating phantasm, or a class-five full-roaming vapor." The man held his handkerchief over his nose and mouth. "Real nasty one, too!" Ray grinned. Peter took out a pencil and a notepad.

"And now..." he said and cleared his throat. "Let's talk seriously. Now, for the entrapment, we're gonna have to ask you for four big ones, $4000." Egon nodded slowly, agreeing with Peter. "But we are having a special this week on proton charging and storage of the beast. That's only gonna come to $1000 fortunately."

"Five thousand dollars?" the man looked furious. "I had no idea it's be so much. I won't pay it."

"Okay." I looked at Ray and we smirked at each other.

"That's alright. We can just put it right back in there. Can't we, Ray?" Peter asked.

"We certainly can, Dr. Venkman." Ray started for the ballroom.

"No, no, no, no, no!" the man stopped him. "Alright! Anything!"

"Thanks, so much." Peter handed the man his receipt.

"Thank you. Hope we can help you again." Ray said as we started to walk out. "Coming through! One class-five free-roaming vapor!" we left.

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A few weeks later, after we've done a good amount of busts, we were all over the news. The bell would ring almost automatically with so many calls we had pouring in. We were on the cover of USA Today with the headline "Ghost Fever Grips New York". Not too long after, we were given a page in the New York Post with "Ghost Cops Bust Chinatown Spook" and we were actually paid by a nice Chinese man who gave us ducks. I'd turn on the radio and I'd hear Larry King's voice saying: "Hi this is Larry King, The phone-in topic today, ghosts and ghost busting. The controversy builds, more sightings are reported. Some maintain that these professional paranormal eliminators in New York are the cause of it all." We were soon on the cover of TIME magazine with "Ghostbusters: Supernatural Success Story". In October, Omni magazine had a picture of a proton pack with the captain "Quantum Leaps: Ghostbusters' tools of the trade." And then, of course, the Atlantic had to get involved. It pictured an animated photo of the four of us busting a ghost with this underneath the title "THE POLITICS OF THE NEXT DIMENSION. Do ghosts have civil rights?". I never cared much for politics, so I never read that one. We even got to go to a dance club once! I was hit on by this really cute guy and Peter made him back off, his big brother instinct kicking in. We were leaving one bust when reporters surrounded us. Peter took this one this time.

"Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No job is too big, no fee is too big!"

The phone was going insane and Ray was on a talk show at one point. We were on the Globe with the headline "Ghostbusters Super Diet!" I have no idea why they would say we were on a diet. I ate pretty good most of the time. We also learned that Princess Di was expecting once again. Ray told us about a ghost that actually...well...performed some sexual things on him. And he told us this while I was eating breakfast. It made me throw away my oatmeal. And then, finally, I was recognized. I was on the cover of Playboy magazine-wearing an extremely revealing Ghostbusters uniform-with the headline "The Sexy Nancy Venkman-Her Life In Sex." I remember when Peter first saw the issue. He was fuming. But it was worth it.

But with all this publicity and all of these calls, we decided we needed some more help. So, we sent out a help wanted ad in the paper. Soon enough, an African American man by the name of Winston Zeddmore came in for an interview. He was sitting in front of Janine's desk and Janine was asking all the questions while Winston looked extremely confused.

"Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full-trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?"

Winston sputtered for half a second. "Um...if there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say."

Right then, Ray and Peter came in from a recent bust.

"I gotta get some sleep, I'm dying." Ray said.

"You don't look good." Peter looked at him.

"I don't?"

"Well, you've looked better. You didn't used to look like this."

The phones were going off again. Janine had her hands full. "Can you hold, please?" she asked and pressed a button. She looked at Ray and Peter.

"Here's the paper on the Brooklyn. She paid with Visa." Peter said, handing Janine the receipt. Janine handed Ray a paper.

"Here's tonight's worksheet."

Ray groaned. "Oh, great. Two more free repeaters."

Janine motioned to Winston. "This is Winston Zeddmore, he's here about the job."

Winston stood.

"Beautiful, you're hired." Ray said he motioned to himself. "Ray Stantz, Pete Venkman, and if you don't already know, that's Nancy Venkman, his little sister." Ray motioned to where I was leaning on Janine's file cabinets.

"Oh yeah. The one in Playboy." Winston grinned and nodded. "I thought I knew you from somewhere."

Peter shot him a glare and then shook his hand as Winston made his way over to Ray. "Congratulations." Peter said quietly. Ray had a trap extended from himself.

"Can you help me, please?" he asked Winston. Winston looked eager until Ray handed him the traps. "Welcome aboard."