Chapter 8: Wrong Note

The man of Asian descent who wore robes like the others was brought before the woman he called his Gydje. He was again thrown to his knees, splashing into a puddle before her. He heard the sound of cocking shotguns around him. He growled, "Why?" he looked up to her, "It wasn't his fault!"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Madame Holly spoke, "One of you needed to be punished, but I still need you. You were spared because you are going to bring him in."

"He was my best friend," the man growled again, "We grew up in that foster home together; he's the only family I ever had!"

"You better listen," she growled back, "or you're going to go out alongside him!" The man knew she meant it. She was beginning to slur her words as she spoke, but everyone else around her was stone-cold sober and had no issue following her orders. She calmed a bit as she spoke again, "I know you two had been through a lot together, but the Order needs your help. Shannon is too close to us. Him and Rivera's family. This only happened because Shannon found the facility. I did what I had to to protect the Order and allow us to finish what we started. Had Shannon not broken Kino out, she would be laying there," Holly pointed to the body of his friend who was being hauled away on a tarp, "instead of him."

The man looked back to his friend. He watched as his friend's blistered face was covered with the blue utility tarp. He was angry. He glared back at Holly as he began to scowl. She knew what the look was about, "As I said, this wouldn't have happened had Shannon not found the facility. You want to be pissed at someone? Be pissed at Shannon and Kino. I don't care how you take care of them, just do it!" She grabbed the man by the back of his cloak and threw him off the podium where they stood. He landed into another puddle filled with watery gravel dust and mud. He quickly stood, the other members of the Order backing away from him. She spoke one last time to him, "And Brother?" he looked back as she spoke, "Try not to be conspicuous; we can't lose any more members of the NYPD within the Order. Don't make us regret giving you another chance."

The man grimaced. Despite the circumstances, he looked at his priestess, "För gudarna!"

Ghostbusters HQ

3:25 AM

Dan had his head down on the bunk beside Lita. He still had her hand in his. Serena had entered the room and saw the scene before her. In her hand was a glass of water; she had brought it in feeling Lita was going to need it when she saw the Ghostbuster beside her taking hold of her hand. She stopped short as she saw her friend unconscious in the bunk, the man beside her exhausted.

For all the years she's known Lita, she's always worried about her. As physically strong as she was, it always seemed like her weakness was her own lonely heart. She had lost so much in her life, Serena couldn't help but feel like she failed her. All Lita ever wanted was the love of another; but she also couldn't stand the idea of losing another person she loved.

Then there was Dan. Serena saw a lot of the same qualities in him as she saw in Lita. From the sound of things as of recent, Dan has had an upward battle with the people he cares about near him. Hearing what had happened between his parents and his brother made him feel like he couldn't be accepted, even in his own family. He was weird; a fact he could never shake. Angry; passionate; hurt. After tonight and what had happened between him and Garrett, his fear of losing the only person he believed was important in his life had started to make him lash out.

It hurt Serena. She had two friends that loved each other, but were so terrified of being the one to hurt the other…

She approached Dan and put her hand on his shoulder. He jumped to his feet and knocked his chair to the floor. He grabbed his Ectoplasmic Destabilizer pistol, arming it, swinging around and pointing the weapon at Serena. Serena yelped in horror, dropping the glass on the floor. When he realized what just happened, Dan quickly pointed the weapon's barrel toward the ceiling, "Jesus Christ, Serena!" he said quietly, "You scared the everloving fuck outta me!" He put his hand to his chest while dropping the pistol to his side, taking deep breaths.

"I-I'm, sorry!" the blonde started to tear up from the whole ordeal, "I-I-I didn't…"

"It's okay," he started holstering the weapon on his side as he looked her in the eyes, "It's been a high-stress day and I'm still in need of a Valium." After quickly looking over to Lita, he turned back to Serena, starting to pick the chair back up, "What are you doing awake? You should be in the lounge getting some sleep."

Serena had bent down to pick up the pieces of glass as she spoke, "I was having nightmares when Garrett woke me up. After what you just did, I don't think I'll be able to sleep again for the rest of the month. Ouch!" She dropped the glass pieces when a piece of the glass cut her finger. Dan set the chair back just as she cried in mild pain. He turned and saw the cut, "Aw, geez. Come on; there's a first aid kit in the bathroom.

Dan opened the medicine cabinet and retrieved the first aid kit. Serena sat atop the closed toilet as Dan bent down and examined the cut. He looked at the cut intently when he noticed something, "You still gotta piece of glass in there. Let me get the tweezers." After grabbing the tool from the kit, he started his attempt to extract the glass shard. Serena flinched as the tweezers came close to her finger, but then she noticed something. Dan's hand was shaking. It was shaking pretty bad causing Dan to stop what he was doing and take a deep breath to start again. As he tried to pull the glass out again, he again lost control of his hand. Serena was watching this and noticed something was very wrong. His jittering was so bad, he dropped his hand and sighed in frustration, "Goddamnit!"

Serena's concern grew, "Are you okay?"

"I'm a goddamned electronic engineer," he said in irritation, "I normally have a steady hand for this kinda shit. I just…" he grunted in annoyance, then started to become flustered, his breathing coming out of rhythm. Serena saw this and immediately knew what was happening; Dan was having an adrenaline crash and was becoming emotional, "I can't take this anymore! I just want this shit to stop!" Ignoring the glass in her finger, she grabbed Dan and pulled him in, "It's okay!" she started shushing him as he began to cry. This whole ordeal had just about sent the man over the edge as she cradled his head, him whimpering, "Why won't these people stop torturing me? Can I have one motherfucking day where I'm not fucking challenged?!"

Now even she was becoming distressed, "Who's torturing you? What happened out there tonight?"

"That creepy fuck with the gray hair! He knows something!"

Serena pulled him away from her to see his face. The bags under his eyes were dark. His eyes themselves were bloodshot. He was beyond exhausted, "Dan," she said gently, "you just need rest." She was right. Dan couldn't even stand at that moment. He was so drained, he put his head on Serena's lap, "I don't know who the hell that son-of-a-bitch was, but I think... he…" With that he passed out.

"Dan?" She shook him, "Dan?" Just at that moment Eduardo and Mina walked into the bathroom, Mina stating, "There you are, Serena!" she looked to Dan and saw what was going on, "What happened?"

Serena had a very worried look on her face, her looking to her friends, "Help me get him to his bed!"

Rivera Residence

3:30 AM

It had been hours. Carl had been sitting in the living room staring at the door into the apartment, him sitting on the couch in his robe. Hours ago, he was angry; an hour into anger, he started to feel remorse; now he was worried. He had thought about the Ghostbuster's words earlier that day. Carl didn't take too much stock in the paranormal to an extent. He was religious, after all, but it was becoming harder and harder to discount what he had seen today. Eduardo being one of them annoyed him almost infinitely, but he had to admit his little brother had become more serious about his work, especially since Shannon came into the picture.

Even before this, Eduardo seemed to have found his calling. Carl thought about this extensively over the few hours he had waited. In his remorse phase he thought about how hard he was on his brother; always pushing him to be a cop. When he felt he was a disappointment, he started on Kevin. He thought that maybe if he was more persistent with Kevin, Kevin would jump at the chance. When he felt Kevin was also going to fail him, "Maybe he was right. I mean…" he was talking to no one but himself in the room. He closed his eyes and breathed through his nose, "All I would be doing is putting him in danger if I did. It's gotten more dangerous." He opened his eyes and looked to the coffee table in front of him. There was an assortment of pictures scattered throughout. One of the oldest pictures was of his side of the family; His mother, father, and of course him and Eduardo as children.

He picked up the old blown out picture. Taken in the mid 80's, the color was a bit faded. He looked at his father's picture and saw a pre-teen version of himself with no moustache in front of him. He saw his dad's hand on his shoulder, "It was my fault…"

The phone rang. He nervously grabbed the cordless that was on the table while dropping the photo, "Sargent Rivera! Did you…" he stopped talking, most likely due to being interrupted. He nodded, "Yeah, I'm familiar with the place. What were you doing there?" By this time Beth ran into the room, also in her robe. She stopped short of the end of the hallway when she saw her husband still on the phone. "Do you have a warrant?" Carl looked visibly distressed; he just heard something he didn't like, "Alright. We'll do it at the end of the day. Hey, before you go, have you heard anything?" Beth watched as he held his breath. After a moment he exhaled in a hard stressed sigh, "Okay. If anyone hears anything… Yeah. Later." He took the phone away from his ear and turned it off. He tossed the phone onto the coffee table in an aggravated manner, putting his head into his hands.

Beth crept in slowly as he asked, "Did they hear anything?"

Carl saw the picture on the floor where he dropped it. He picked it up as he answered his wife, "No. Everyone is still looking."

"Then… what was that about?"

"They want a pickup done tomorrow. Because it's in my patrol block, I have to do it." Beth looked at the side of her husband's face and saw he was not too happy. She asked, "What's wrong?"

"I have to arrest someone. Someone in Tribeca."

Stoneface Masonry Storage Facility Office

3:45 AM

The office door opened allowing Madame Holly to walk in. More like stumbling. The alcohol she had consumed was now beginning to affect her to the point she couldn't keep standing straight. Behind her was Matthew, him folding his umbrella while holding the tome of Tales of Ragnar Lodbrok under his arm in the doorway. She stumbled to the desk and managed to fall into the edge of it, grabbing hold before sliding off the side. Matthew watched as he approached her, "We have but a few minutes to extract the second Stanza and you go and drink the whole bottle? Is there no end to your idiocy?"

She attempted to straighten up while pulling off her wet hood exposing her soaking wet hair. She started to fall over when she grabbed the edge of the desk, "Don't presume to think I can't do what needs the… doing." Her slurred speech was now being accompanied by extremely off-kilter word syntax. Matthew rolled his eyes in absolute astonishing annoyance, "How do you intend to play the Stanza in the condition you're in?"

Holly had made her way around the desk and sat down, almost sliding off the chair edge and falling to the floor. In her luck, she managed to avoid such a blunder, "Just read the thing, Matt. You know the words." Matthew couldn't believe what he was watching. Irritated, he hooked his umbrella on his arm, opened the tome, and found the center of the binding. There was a blank page in between stories written in Icelandic text. He started speaking in a language that wasn't the text seen inside the book. A light started to emit from the binding of the book as he continued to speak.

A bright flash pulsed out and once the light died down the blank page was now filled with musical notes. As soon as Matthew finished the incantation, the light died off completely. He reached up and carefully tore the sheet from the book, "And here we have it; the second Stanza of the Symphony of Destruction. Once you sober, we'll be able to complete the second step…"

Holly reached over the desk and grabbed the paper out of the man's hand, "Fuck that! We do it now!" Right after the paper was in her hand, she crashed into the desk under her unable to keep her balance. Somewhat surprised by her sudden action, Matthew watched her pull herself back from the top of the desk into the chair. As she put the sheet down and started to remove her cloak, Matthew protested, "My Gydje, I wouldn't do that now. Who knows what you'd do if you played the wrong note!"

She finally got the cloak off after getting caught in it for a moment, "The faster we do this, the less shit we have to deal with." She dug through the wet cloak and found what she sought; she found the recorder in the fabric of her robes. She threw the cloak to the floor and started getting the recorder ready, her perking her lips on the mouthpiece. Before she started Matthew protested again, "Madame Holly, I must insist…"

She started playing. She blinked harshly as she attempted to play the notes on the sheet before her. She was playing slowly enough to get the notes correct. She kept playing, managing to make her way all the way to the end of the music sheet.

Almost.

The ending note of the music was played incorrectly. As soon as she heard she was playing the wrong note, she quickly switched notes to the correct ending sting. There was a rumble. The ground began to shake below the trailer being used as an office.

Eduardo, Serena, and Mina were busy moving Dan from the bathroom to his bunk when there was a sudden shaking. Eduardo held Dan by his arms as the girls took each of his legs. The girls dropped Dan's legs as the shaking increased. Serena looked around the bunk room and saw everything starting to topple over, "What's happening?"

While still holding Dan, Eduardo was starting to lose his balance and he fell back onto Dan's bed with Dan falling atop of him.

Mina watched as objects fell off tables and fell off walls around them, "I thought New York didn't have earthquakes!"

Egon ran into the room and saw the three still awake in the room, him holding his PKE meter up, "It's happening again! The Second Stanza's been played!"

Out in the streets and back in Manhattan Ecto-1 was making its way through the area when Roland started losing control of the car. He slammed on the brakes causing everyone inside the care to brace themselves. Once the car came to a stop, it continued to move back and forth in its newfound stationary position. Kylie and Amy were bouncing around the backseat of the car. Darien grabbed the dashboard as Roland held tight to the wheel. In the chaos Kylie looked at her meter and saw what was happening, "The PKE just spiked big time! It's actively coming from the ground and overpowering the cement structure!"

Amy's computer beeped as well. She took it out and opened it up. She didn't like what she saw, "There's something worse than that.'

Several blocks away, the rain continued to fall, but the winds suddenly picked up. In the middle of the quiet street a flicker of light formed, albeit only briefly. After a moment, it happened again. After several flickers of the indigo-colored light forming in the middle of the street, a sizzle started to be heard as the light began to sustain itself in the space of the street. After the light intensified, there was an explosion. The light disappeared and in its place was a midsize SUV screeching to a halt, yawing sideways as it tried to stop. It finally came to a stop, it lightly running into the gutter of the road.

The SUV was dark blue in color with a light blue stripe down the side, but the stripe on the side was covered heavily in mud obscuring the text and logos on doors. On the roof were several pieces of equipment contained in a metal rack bookended by blue police lightbars. On the front grill was a brush guard with mounted spotlights, the lights on and illuminating the neighborhood.

Inside the vehicle was a white heavyset man wearing a baseball cap with a fluorescent green gaiter mask over his face. All you could see of his face was his eyes. He groaned as he lifted his head after being whipped around, "Okay, what the fuck was that?" He looked around to get his bearings, "Great. Now where the hell am I?" He turned to his side to look at a laptop computer attached onto a stand and began accessing programs. After inputting his query the computer displayed an error message, "'No Service'? Whaddaya mean, 'No Service'? I paid my goddamn bill! Fucking AT&T, I swear to God!' he accessed an option screen and found under the heading, "Cellular Service" there was no available internet. He tried running troubleshooting, but the result came back negative, "Oh, that's bullshit! Did one of those little shits knock out the local tower? I should be getting some kind of service!"

He went into his front pocket and pulled out a small, flat, rectangular device and activated it's screen. He attempted to operate something that looked like a number pad. He touched the numbers on the display as dial tones played from the device's speaker. After hitting what looked like a send button, he was met with an error message, same as the laptop, "No Service." "Okay, something's not right here." he went back to the laptop and pulled up a set of logs that looked to have recorded data. After a moment of looking at the peaks in the visual data, he cocked his head to the side, "There was a huge spike, that thing formed ahead of me…" he grunted, "Oh, fuck me! I must have over-exposed the truck and myself to a massive energy spike. I hope the radios still work; Steve and Andy might not be able to get a hold of me. I should at least head back to Zero and figure out what happened. Fucking New York."

The SUV straightened out and started heading down the street. The man driving her was quickly realizing the road he was on was unfamiliar, and what little he did know, things looked out of place to him. He picked up the microphone to his vehicle's radio and began calling out, "Blue Leader to Blue Team, what is your current status?" He got static. After a moment he tried again, "This is Delta-Sierra-Two-Seven-Two-Foxtrot on primary channel, come back?" As he continued down the street, he listened to the static that came over his set as he started to have a bad feeling crawl up his spine. Nevertheless, he continued to broadcast in hope someone - anyone he knew - was listening, "This is Delta-Sierra-Two-Seven-Two-Foxtrot on main channel to Blue Team. Someone, please talk to me…"