Chapter 17: Hard Movements
Darien had opened and held the roof access door of the firehouse as Dan and Roland struggled with the device that was placed in front of the building hours before. They managed to turn the device off and got it up the elevator, but now they were wrestling with the canister-like device onto the roof. Neither one of them wanted to touch the thing, "Remind me when my other self gets back, I'm to perform self-abuse." Roland grunted, "Are you going to make jokes like that all day?" "I'm annoyed!" Dan let go of his side of the device to drop on the middle of the helipad on the roof. Roland also released his side and huffed a bit, "Look, I get seeing yourself makes you upset, but…" "Upset?" Dan cut him off, "It's outright pissing me off."
Darien had released the door and watched as the two Ghostbusters griped about the situation. He couldn't help but put his hands in his pockets and shake his head at the two, "Guys, could you handle that thing in a way that doesn't make me flinch every time you move?" The two of them looked to Darien then back at each other. Dan tried to suppress his instinct to fly off the handle as Roland knelt down and attempted to restart the device. Dan turned to the other man on the roof with the two, "I'm sorry, guys. This has been the most agonizing weekend of my life and I feel like I'm gonna go full on nuclear," he put his hands on his hips and started to pace the roof, "Between the attacks, what happened between me and Lita, Garrett trying to kneecap me, now I'm having nightmares about the Silver Millennium again…"
That piqued Darien's attention as well as Roland's. Darien tilted his head to the side and immediately cut him off to ask, "What kind of nightmares?" Dan stopped pacing as he approached the edge of the roof, "I donno. It feels like something from my past is missing and I can't remember it. I donno if I'm repressing it or if I'm missing something," he leaned on the edge of the building, "but it feels like it's been missing since you unlocked my head back in the tower."
"Wait a minute," Dan and Darien turned to Roland who had detached the foot-pedal piece from the side of the dissipater as he started to fire up the shield. He stood as he looked at the two of them, "So, both you and Eduardo had memories unlocked. Darien here has the ability to unlock them," he addressed Darien specifically, "Why haven't you unlocked mine and Garrett's yet?" It was a fair question, but a hard answer to perform. He tried to start, "It was in part because… Well, I think a part of Dan's memory was not unlocked because there's a complex truth to why you're the Knights." "Eduardo kept saying we were recruited against our wills," Roland put his foot on the contact pedal as he asked, "is that the complex reason?"
The Japanese man looked uneasy. Darien knew there was more to it than that. He took a breath, "Dan, the reason I even remembered the Solar Knights at all was because of the feelings you had for Lita. You had a love for her that - even when possessed - you sparked a firestorm of memories I had locked away for a very long time. It gave me just enough strength to pull away from the demon in me and tell Lita who you were. When I felt the same thing with the others, I realized it wasn't just positive feelings that would affect me. When we were all together at the pizza parlor that was when I started feeling those headaches. Through Mina's link with Eduardo, that was when I realized what was happening."
"Woah, wait, stop," Dan was waving his hands around in a halting fashion, "Why does it seem like Eduardo has more memories than I do? I don't even remember becoming a Knight. All I remember was part of the battle on Jupiter, preparing bodies for burial on Europa, and hopping planets and moons to get to the Moon Kingdom to be stopped on Mars by Jedite. Why are mine so spotty?" Darien blanched at that question. Now Dan knew something wasn't right about the whole situation.
The roof access door flew open as both Kylie and Amy ran onto the room and headed toward the west side of the building. Kylie had a PKE meter in her hand as Amy began booting her computer up again. Kylie pointed outward, "The best I can figure it's just on the other side of the Hudson!" Finally getting her system online Amy also scanned toward the west, "Unbelievable!" the blue haired woman exclaimed as she scrolled through the dataset, "This is the most amount of creatures I've scanned since the whole event started!" "Same here," Kylie adjusted the meter, "I'm getting a total PKE white out."
Dan and Roland looked at each other then back to the two women, Roland calling them out, "What's going on?" "We just picked up a massive spike," Kylie looked back from the edge of the roof, "We heard there was a huge attack on the highway." Darien started having that feeling again…
Chi-Ecto sped its way on I-278 and began hitting the interchange onto I-95 heading north. The demons kept their distance from the Explorer as its driver dodged around cars after merging in. It seemed like the Man-Bats were biding their time. Inside the cab of the Ectomobile Serena finally attached the laptop to the stand that was attached to the dashboard so Old Man Dan could have near-direct control of the systems on the vehicle. She locked the last bar, "There, I think I got it this time." "You're lucky they build Toughbooks to take a beating," Old Dan said with sarcasm, "I was starting to have a panic attack after the 6th time you dropped it." "I can't help it!" she whined, "I'm really jittery!"
"And what did we learn because of this?" he asked her. She looked at the man in the driver seat and shrugged. He answered, "How about, 'Don't stow away in a tired old man's car and drink 600 milligrams of caffeine while in the middle of a monster invasion'? That caffeine crash is gonna knock you out after all of this. That's nothing to say of all the adrenaline you're burning on top of it."
"You had to deal with a lot of these things back in your world to know all this, right?" Serena asked. Old Man Dan was not thrilled at the question, but he had to remember he was in a different place at a different time. There was something about this whole thing that was not sitting right with him, so he proceeded to answer with a question following, "Yeah, but what's your deal in all of this? From what I can see, you and the other Japanese folks in this bizzare circumstance don't seem to… well, fit in the situation. Does it have to do with your aura?"
Serena had been looking at Old Dan as he started asking and working out the explanation for his question. This version of Dan was just as inquizitive and logical as her world's, but at the same time she was confused by what he meant, "Aura?"
"You said at the hot dog shack you've seen what we've - I'm assuming you mean the Ghostbusters in general - have seen. I know all of you have powers that are linked to the team here. It's no coincidence." Serena locked up. Once it was out Serena immediately cowered down to make herself small. She had no idea about his ability to see auras, "You mean…?" "Yeah," he confirmed, "I can see yours, too. You put off more power than a Stargate."
"You don't think…"
"No, you're not a threat to me," he stated flatly, "If you were, Dr. Speng… I mean, Egon wouldn't be a friend of yours. I have more trust in his judgment than anyone, even if it is a different world." Serena let out a sigh of relief. She was already still tense from the energy drinks she consumed coupled with the monsters following the vehicle. What little tension she can lose was a benefit. He was taking this in a rather decent stride, but she has yet to show him her transformation. With any hope she wouldn't do it now of all times; giving herself away yesterday in front of Eduardo was already hard enough for her. That, and she wasn't sure if she could protect him in a moving vehicle the way he drived. Whatever equipment on the roof of the vehicle… the radioactive equipment - was protecting them, she wasn't sure if there'd be a horrible interaction with her powers.
Even though he could tell she relaxed a bit he figured the young woman with the strange hairstyle was still tightly wound and in need of reassurance, "Look, I dated a woman that had a demon co-inhabiting her body for several years; I've seen stranger shit than you. You don't even rate three out of ten on my meter." Serena raised an eyebrow at that, "How am I even a two?" Old Dan looked like he was to say something but stopped to think about how to put it. After a moment, "It's the hair. The only thing I can tell you is never operate a wood chipper; if you've seen the movie Fargo you know how that'd go down."
She didn't get the reference, "I don't watch western movies that much."
Old Dan briefly looked at her in the passenger seat and came to the realization it was gonna be a lost cause, "Yeah, Coen Brothers movies would be a bad place to start with you, wouldn't it? Granted," he looked back to the road, "at least it wouldn't be as bad as a Tarantino movie."
There was a hard slam on the side of the truck. Serena yelped as the truck veered to the side slightly causing other vehicles around the truck to stop and swerve out of the way. After Old Dan got the truck under control and back in the proper lane he grunted in annoyance, "These things are pissing me off now!" From time to time the Man-Bats would dive at the truck hoping their mass and speed would cause damage to the truck. All it has done so far is scare Serena and anger Old Man Dan. Serena - jumpy as she was - had to settle down again after the thump on the truck's exterior.
The energy field around the vehicle was protecting them, but it didn't seem like enough, "How much damage do you think they're doing?"
"Can't be much," the grizzled man beside her answered, "A couple of years ago one of the Oklahoma boys discovered a ghost whose ectoplasm - after it dried and hardened - turned into a kinetic energy absorbing polymer. Slow, minor impacts reflect some of the energy back at the object that hit it and convert the rest into heat. We mix it with an application base and use it to prevent some damage to our Ectomobiles."
She stared at him blankly, "…What?"
He sighed, "Slime mixed with car wax makes stuff bounce off the car."
"Oh!" Now that she understood, she expressed her enthusiasm, "That's neat!"
"With the EM field active and the coating on the truck, nothing short of a bullet or a giant-ass boulder is gonna stop this thing." Just as they were crossing into Hoboken the monsters started doing something rather odd. They accelerated away from the truck and far ahead. Old Dan leaned forward in his seat to look up out of the windshield, "Okay, what the hell are they up to now?" Serena stuttered as she hoped, "M-maybe they lost interest?" "Not likely," he spotted the sign for the interchange that connected them to the Lincoln Tunnel. They were disappearing over the treeline on the interstate. He hoped he was outsmarting the beasts, "Last thing I want is to be stuck in Hoboken with these pricks hanging over us. I wouldn't wish this place on my worst enemy."
As the truck was approaching the interchange there was a backup of cars. Old Dan didn't think a thing of it as he cut onto the shoulder and drove past the traffic. After roughly a mile him and Serena started noticing a lot of activity amongst the cars on the highway.
People were fleeing their vehicles.
"Uh, Dan?" Serena had a quiver in her voice as she nervously asked, "Is this a bad sign?"
Old Dan watched in confusion as he saw people scrambling over the hastily abandoned vehicles, answering bluntly, "I sure as hell wouldn't call it a good one!" Chi-Ecto came around the bend in NJ-495 as it started splitting up the lanes for the toll booths for the tunnel.
There was a wall made of 3 giant monsters standing in front of the booths.
"Holy shit!" Old Man Dan stood on the brakes making the truck skid to a violent and hard stop. It was such a hard stop at such a high speed both of the Ectomobile's occupants were afraid they weren't going to stop before hitting the gray, hulking men. Finally coming to a stop Old Dan's eyes were as wide as saucers as the truck narrowly hit one of the monsters. He leaned forward to look back up out the windshield again, the monster lifting a spiked mace into the air and speaking in a Norse accent, "Give me your life!"
Old Dan's voice cracked like Pat Buttram's as he threw the vehicle into reverse, "Fuck me; it's a whole new ballgame!" He managed to get the vehicle moving as the monster threw the mace toward the truck. The monster missed and augered the spine of the mace into the concrete of the plaza. Reversing course Old Dan saw the other giants heading toward the truck prompting him to throw the truck into drive and cut the wheel toward the oncoming side of the toll plaza. This was an ill-conceived maneuver for the old man almost plowed the truck into an unsuspecting car exiting the tunnel.
The Explorer spun out causing the front of the truck to face the oncoming side of the tunnel, the road cones separating the two sides being pulled under the vehicle and removing them from their proper place. After being thrown Serena shook her head and looked back forward to see the other giants heading toward the vehicle. She started screaming for Old Man Dan to start moving the truck. Old Dan was still trying to take proper stock of the situation when he noticed the interior of the truck starting to darken again.
The Man-Bats were coming.
Old Man Dan saw one hope. He quickly saw the proper side of the tunnel was clear with the exception of the giant in his way. The one that tried to hit the truck was still pulling his mace from the plaza's pavement. The other two were lumbering their way toward the SUV. Serena was just at wits-end over the whole thing, "Dan, go! I don't wanna be crushed like a bug!"
"I got one shot at this," he said as he put the truck into gear 1; the lowest the truck's transmission can go, "I'm gonna have to confuse them," he groaned, "This poor truck is gonna need new tires after this." Standing on the brakes he performed an extended burnout causing the tires to smoke. The two large human-like forms stopped as the vehicle's tires began to squeal loudly and smoke billowed from the wheels. The modified Ford V8 engine screamed as the RPMs maxed out at 7000.
Old Dan released the brakes and caused the vehicle to launch, the tires still spinning. He forced the truck to fishtail and started making it drive right between the two monsters. The one in front tried to raise it's weapon - a warhammer - and swing for the truck only to miss and hit it's counterpart behind it. He started to perform doughnuts in the plaza around the standing monster, the truck's tires enveloping the beast in tire haze.
Inside the truck, between the rancid smell of rotting flesh, burnt rubber, and already sick from over-caffeination Serena was feeling extremely nauseous from the spinning of the truck, "Dan, stop! I'm gonna blow chunks!" "Just hang tight, kid; we're almost through this!" On another orbit around the beast he took notice of the first monster that tried to strike the truck. It just pulled it's weapon from the pavement, stumbling back as it tried to regain it's balance.
The door opened.
"And there it is!" the older Ghostbuster screamed, "Hang onto your lunch; we're go for launch!" After another loop around the monster he straightened the truck out and headed for the leg holding the beast's weight. Hitting the first monster with the bumper guard the creature was thrown off it's feet and into the plaza signal scaffold. Chi-Ecto blew through the toll gate and into the tunnel leaving the creatures without their prize. The monster that was trying to follow the truck fell off it's feet, dizzy from the constant spin. All three of them were down.
From the sky above the Man-Bats followed past the monsters and into the tunnel after the Ectomobile. Their horrible shrieks echoed throughout the tunnel as they approached the back of the vehicle. Only some of the Man-Bats followed under the Hudson River as the rest flew over the plaza and the river toward Manhattan.
In the tunnel Old Man Dan was keeping his foot to the floor as he looked into the rear-view mirror and saw the lights of the tunnel start to black out from the mass of creatures behind them. Even with the field active, "It's too cramped in here!" Old Dan said with stress in his voice, "What the hell were those things back there?" Serena was trying to settle her stomach after the rollercoaster-like twisting she had inflicted upon her. She managed to get herself stable before answering him, "I think Kylie called them 'Draggers', 'Druggers'... uh…" she wasn't sure.
Old Man Dan knew, "You mean 'Draugrs'?" Despite being behind a wheel and in control of a fast-moving vehicle, he slammed his head into his seat's headrest, "Aw, come on!"
A Man-Bat got ahead of the vehicle on the oncoming side of the tunnel and quickly latched itself to the tunnel wall before leaping off toward the driver-side of the truck. The creature wrapped its arms around itself, lowering its profile. It managed to smash through the driver window, utterly frightening both the driver and the passenger. The demon body surfed while reaching for the woman in the passenger seat, managing to grab one of the woman's long strands of hair. Old Dan pulled the large pistol from his side with difficulty, the weight of the monster's body restricting his movement. Serena screamed as the monster dug it's other claw into the passenger seat to fight the repulsive force of the energy field of the truck.
Finally freeing the pistol Old Dan stuck the gun under the chin of the creature and blew a hole in its head. The blast also managed to scorch the headliner of the vehicle. Old Dan dropped the gun and forced the beast out of the window, the energy field assisting in throwing the monster out and into the cement barrier of the tunnel. He took hold of the wheel and pulled the truck away from the tunnel walls to avoid an accident. He immediately started asking in a fit of panic, "Hey, did it scratch you? Are you hurt?"
Serena checked herself over trying to calm herself again, "No. I-I'm okay." She looked to the man beside her and saw he was rattled. He was actually starting to break out into a sweat, "Are you okay?" He was struggling to get his breathing under control. She saw it. Back in the tower - 7 years ago with the Original Ghostbusters - when Peter and Ray found Dan and Sailor Jupiter after being broken up by Jedite Dan nearly lost Sailor Jupiter to a hole in the floor filled with the sub-demons Jedite had at his command. After Ray helped get the demon's hands off Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus helped Dan pull her up, he held onto Sailor Jupiter and apologized profusely. These two versions of Dan may have different experiences, but they had the same tendencies. He truly didn't want to see innocent people hurt.
Now she understood the risk he was taking.
"I'll be fine," Old Dan panted as he removed his hat and wiped the sweat away from his forehead, placing his hat back on shortly after, "You missed the demo this morning."
"Don't worry," she stated, her taking out her locket, "I'll look after you!" She opened her locket revealing the heart-shaped crystal inside. She wasn't sure what would happen with the equipment inside, but she knew she couldn't let Old Man Dan take the burden alone anymore.
Old Man Dan raised an eyebrow, "You can barely keep from getting in trouble, how are you…?"
"Moon Cosmic Power!"
"What are you yelling abo… Ah!" A blinding light suddenly emanated from the passenger seat. The cab of the Explorer lit up as Old Dan tried to block the light from the side of him with his hand. He saw through the light enough to see he was about to veer into the center barrier again making him take control of the vehicle and swerve to avoid it. The Ectomobile nearly lost control, but the older Ghostbuster managed to get the vehicle to straighten out.
Old Man Dan looked to his side to see Serena enveloped in light, ribbons of energy wrapping around her body and transforming her. The light faded allowing him to see what had become of his passenger. What he saw was… was… "What in the hell?!"
Serena had transformed into Sailor Moon.
Before another exchange of words could take place a Man-Bat crashed through the rear window and started crawling from the cargo area to the back seat. Sailor Moon had to think quickly, knowing her transformation still spooked the aging Ghostbuster at the wheel. She grabbed her tiara and unbuckled her seatbelt to turn in her seat. She called out her attack as she readied herself, "Moon… Tiara… Magic!" The tiara started to glow like a discus as she wound up and threw it like a frisbee. The glowing object left her hand and hit the creature in the chest, instantly making the beast glow a bright pulse of light and just as quickly burst into dust. A large swath of the dust blew out the back window behind the tiara.
Old Dan watched it all happen through the rear-view mirror absolutely surprised. After the majority of the dust from the creature was blown out of the truck he turned slowly to Sailor Moon with both his eyes wide in bewilderment. He had to blink a few times before he found his voice, "Wha… Wha…?" He found his voice, but not his words, clearly. Sailor Moon tried to quell the man's fears, "I'm Sailor Moon. My Moon Tiara destroyed that thing. It's a monster from a place called the Negaverse." She raised her hand like she was waiting to catch something. That something in the form of her tiara came… through the truck's passenger window, shattering it.
The shattered window made Old Dan flinch. Still holding the tense posture he looked to have begun becoming increasingly upset. He tried to breathe through his nose and exhale through his mouth attempting to calm down. Sailor Moon had caught her tiara, but had slowly turned to the broken window as she saw the crumbing tempered glass fall more into the truck. She looked back to the angered old man grimacing in painful embarrassment, "Sorry, forgot to roll down the window."
"Great!" Old Dan growled, "You do know I can't claim Negaverse monsters and super-powered women on my insurance, right?!" He sighed at his own statement, "What am I saying? I don't even have a policy number in this dimension!" Looking back ahead he saw the light at the end of the Lincoln Tunnel approaching fast. The truck started going up the incline toward the toll gates, "Hey, Moondust, get your seatbelt back on! We're about to hit Manhattan!"
Sailor Moon looked ahead and saw that Chi-Ecto was nearly at the exit of the tunnel. She scrambled to get into her seat properly and was locking her seatbelt as Old Dan blew through the toll gate arm and sent the truck flying off the top of the incline. The truck crashed back into the road and drifted around the curve and into the Garment District. The sky was filled with the creatures. It wouldn't be long before another challenge was going to rear its ugly head. Beside the toll plaza office was a NYPD police car. The officer saw the vehicle exit the plaza and speed into the city. The cop got onto his radio and began to speak, "It's that vehicle. It just crashed through the Lincoln Tunnel Plaza. He's heading toward the Garment District." "Copy. We'll be ready. För gudarna!"