Chapter 19: Stupid Ideas

Chi-Ecto came off the ramp from the Lincoln Tunnel onto Dyer Avenue and skidded onto West 42nd Street with the Man-Bats just about on the heels of the truck. Sailor Moon had finally gotten her tiara back on as Old Man Dan tried to use the remaining exterior mirror to gauge how many of these "Negaverse" creatures were riding on their six, "They're diligent, I'll give 'em that."

"No kidding," Sailor Moon said in a huff, "they don't give up, either." Old Dan briefly turned to look at her before turning back to the road, talking under his breath, "Dufus." Taking another quick assessment the Sailor Scout beside the older man asked the glaringly obvious question, "So what do we do about these things? You can't take them out and drive at the same time." "I know," the man confirmed, "These things want us bad. They even figured out the weak spot in the energy field on the truck."

"Yeah," Sailor Moon had it dawn on her, "how did they get through the field? I thought it was supposed to make them bounce off?" Old Dan rolled his eyes, "What are we driving in right now?"

Sailor Moon was a bit confused by the question, but went and answered, "A truck?"

"And a truck is made of what?"

"Uh… steel?"

"Correct. It being steel, it conducts electricity and generates a magnetic field. You know what glass does?" Sailor Moon shook her head in confusion. Old Dan answered, "Not generate magnetic fields! What I wanna know is why do they want you so bad?"

Sailor Moon started counting off the points on her long white-gloved fingers, "Well, I wield the Silver Imperial Crystal, I'm the Princess of the Moon Kingdom, and if these things are from the Negaverse, they might be a bit upset at me for killing their queen and destroying their universe."

A look of dread etched onto the grizzled Ghostbusters face as he drove around vehicles, "...Is that all?" He sighed in frustration. He looked like a man that learned that he'd better buy the situation as it was told to him rather than be cynical about it. In approaching all situations like that he found himself becoming more annoyed at how absurd his life had become through this goofy occupation he had.

Still there was something that was odd with these things he still didn't understand, "The thing that still gets me is - from what others were telling me - these things are organized; back home, they were spaztic and unpredictable."

"What does that mean?" the Princess warrior asked.

"That means this is where these things are coming from, and the source of control is here. One way or the other, we gotta get these things off our asses and I think I got an idea. We gotta head back to the shop."

The PKE disrupter Old Dan had placed in front of the building was now on the roof of the firehouse and running. Dan, Egon, Roland, Kylie, Darien, and Amy were in the lab as Janine came in with a pad of notes to hand to Egon, "All of the reports are following a path from Staten, through Newark and Hoboken, through the Lincoln Tunnel, and now through the Garment District. They said they saw three more of those Draugr things at the toll plaza for the Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel. People keep saying the creatures are chasing one of our vehicles."

Egon adjusted his glasses to look at the reports people were calling in. A man that closely described Dan was in the reports as the man at the truck's wheel. The description of the truck itself matched the extradimensional Explorer the other Dan Shannon arrived in, "If I'm to assume anything, I believe our otherworldly guest went to Staten Island to confront our alleged advissary," he began to flip the pages to see the other reports when he ran across something that didn't settle his nerves. Before he could say anything Dan started grunting, "Fantastic. What is that lunatic up to?"

"What is he thinking?" Kylie added, equally annoyed, "Does he make it a habit of kicking hornets' nests?" Dan sighed, "Unfortunately, that sounds about right. He probably went over to talk to that daffy bitch. There goes our element of surprise."

Amy commented as well, pointing out something that seemed inconsistent, "He may not have triggered this. If this happened in that woman's presence he wouldn't even be driving around right now. Maybe what the other Dan was trying to say this morning might be true."

"What?" Dan asked with scating sarcasm as he used a mocking patronizing voice, "That she just needs a road to redemption?" He scoffed as he spoke in his normal voice, "Yeah, I ain't buyin' that bullshit. She killed her father, took over the business, and had two other people killed as far as we know. I'd also like to remind all of you that the second person that was gonna be sacrificed? Yeah, she's lying unconscious because this woman's goons nearly beat me into a grave; she decided to heal me after I got her outta that shithole and that almost got us killed. Forgive me if I don't buy the bleeding heart redemption arc crap."

"Serena believed him." Everyone turned to the voice that entered the conversation; it was Darien, "I could tell she saw that the Other Dan found the truth. Maybe there's more to it than your encounter with this Holly woman. What about the other man that was assisting her?" He had a point. The last thing that Matthew character said to him as he and Lita climbed into the truck. Of course, he wasn't sure if he had hallucinated that due to his severe blood loss, but it seemed too clear. He muttered it under his breath, "'It's good to see you again, Shannon.'" He took a breath and exhaled. He hated that Darien may have been right in that he jumped judgment. There was still a caveat, "Still, even if my counterpart was right, it's a stupid idea to go over there and confront anyone. Last thing we need is to advertise that we know everything we do about them."

"It may have created a bigger problem as well," Egon stepped up and handed one of the reports to Darien and Dan for them to look at, "The reports make mention that your other self isn't the only person occupying the vehicle."

Darien locked up as Dan gave a nervous laugh before the overwhelming sense of panic started to set in, "No. No! Nononono, you're not gonna say it, are you?" Egon approached Dan and handed him the reports Janine had written down. He started reading the one Egon saw, "'There's a woman in the passenger seat; early 20's; blonde hair in a distinctive style with…'" he groaned as he closed his eyes finished the report, "'...long strands protruding from buns at the top of her head'! Fuck!" He threw the reports to the floor like he had done on the Friday before the weekend. Darien picked up the reports and looked for himself as Dan started to pace.

Darien looked through the pages and saw the page that described his fiance, "'She appears to be wearing a white bodysuit with blue and red accessories resembling a sailor suit.'" He put his hand to his forehead and let out a groan of his own, "Oh no! She transformed!"

Kylie was stricken by that, "Wait a second, I thought you could sense when she transformed?" He looked back to the goth and responded, "I can sense when she's in danger; when the danger's extreme, that's when I can sense her transformation. It's not exact."

Beeping started to be heard from both Amy's computer and Roland and Kylie's PKE meters causing all of them to retrieve their detection devices. Roland looked at his meter and finally spoke amongst the people in the lab, "Good gravy! The PKE just jumped six points!" Amy confirmed, "There's a horde of creatures heading toward the building!"

Dan stopped pacing as he noticed a sound that wasn't the Man-Bats, "Wait… That's an Ectomobile siren!" He looked toward the front window, "They're still chasing the truck!" Everyone saw him rush toward the window and followed him shortly after. They looked out and saw flashing blue lights on the street with the sky starting to darken behind it. Janine pushed her way to the window beside Dan and saw what he saw, not sure what the extradimensional man was doing, "Why is he driving here with all those things behind him?"

Dan immediately tried to theorize what was happening, "Those things can't get through that shield generator he put outside. He might be trying to lead them…" he stopped when he figured out what his plan was, but with a problem. He winced, "Uh, Roland?" He then turned to his fellow engineer, "I think we just made a mistake."

Chi-Ecto was screaming down North Moore and was about to fly past the firehouse when Old Man Dan noticed something was missing, "Where's the disrupter?" After taking a quick visual scan he noticed the energy shimmer had moved from the front of the building to the top of the firehouse. Sailor Moon saw the old man's face as it was starting to turn red. He was Dan alright; right down to the temper. He started screaming at the top of his lungs, "You stupid, motherfucking…!"

The Explorer sailed through what little of the shield was in the street causing a large swath of the Man-Bats to crash into the near-invisible shield at high speed, killing the ones that did on impact. At least two thirds of the creatures parished slamming head-first into the shimmering energy bubble that protected the firehouse. Unfortunately with the PKE Disrupter moved to the roof and away from the street, not all of the creatures hit the shield. Old Dan hammered on the pedal of the truck and took the vehicle away from the building, once again trying to outrun the gander of flying terrors chasing them.

Cars abruptly stopped as the truck skidded around the corner onto another street, people at first hanging out of their vehicles and screaming at the passing SUV before noticing the gaggle of winged monsters chasing the vehicle they were cursing at. Back inside the Explorer Old Man Dan was screaming obscenities as he blew the horn and dodged more cars, "Dumb fucking, brain damaged, dick sucking…!"

Sailor Moon tried to interrupt his curse-laden diatribe by stating an obvious fact, "Well, you did put the thing in the middle of the street. Some cabbage-for-brains could have run it over." The driver of the truck grunted, "Thanks. Did anyone ever tell you you're not very much help?"

She huffed at that, "Not much help? You want those monsters gone?" she spoke harshly as she began unbuckling her seatbelt, "You got it!" Before Old Man Dan knew it Sailor Moon climbed out of the broken passenger window toward the roof of the vehicle. Old Man Dan was confused at what she said and turned to look at her, "What the hell does that… Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" He attempted to grab her by one of her red knee-high boots but his seatbelt prevented him from reaching over enough to do so. He yelled after missing her leg, "Are you fucking daffed? This kid's outta her mind!"

Sailor Moon climbed out of the Explorer and took hold of the equipment rack. She stood on the window well of the door and pulled herself on the top of the truck placing herself between the equipment HVAC coolant system and the PKE air sampling "Sniffer" unit. The low-moan siren was far louder outside the car and served as a distraction to her task. Old Dan was weaving back and forth in the streets of New York avoiding the other drivers forcing Sailor Moon to take a hard grasp of some of the equipment on the roof to stabilize herself.

Crawling over to the driver side window she started yelling down, "Try to drive straight." She heard him yell back out, "What are you gonna do?" She started to stand on the top of the moving vehicle as she repeated herself, "Just drive straight! And turn off the energy field!" Standing and carefully counterbalancing herself to move closer to the back of the truck's roof she used the Sniffer assembly as a brace to hold herself upright facing the flying Man-Bats in the sky.

Back in the cab of the vehicle Old Dan quickly accessed the laptop and using one hand deactivated the Ectomobile's defensive field. He grabbed the mic to the truck's radio and switched to PA mode allowing Sailor Moon to hear him through the truck's siren, "Okay, field's down!"

She saw the still significant mass of monsters alot in the sky trying to keep up in the cramped streets of Manhattan. Creatures were getting lost hitting buildings at high speeds, but there were still a great deal of them. The screeching they were making was absolutely dread-inducing, Sailor Moon feeling the sheer terror pressing against her chest as she looked to the sky.

She swallowed her fear and took a breath. Her blue eyes looked back skyward and she sized her enemy up. She spoke loud enough for her to hear herself talking over the rustling wind, "I can't let the Ghostbusters down; I owe them." She stood tall and planted her feet as she yelled out, "I'm Sailor Moon! I Right Wrongs and Triumph over evil," she pointed to the monsters following the Ectomobile she stood atop of as she yelled out in defiance, "That means you! All of you!"

Throwing out a hand, a staff or scepter-like object appeared in her hand. Due to the movement of the vehicle she simplified her wind up of the device as a crown-like topper on the scepter began to blink. She pointed the device skyward at the Man-Bats…

Inside the cab Old Man Dan was trying to keep the vehicle on a straight path wondering out loud, "What is she doing up there?"

"Moon… Scepter…"

Suddenly every type of detection equipment in the truck went haywire; from Old Dan's PKE meter to the laptop popping up several windows of data, "Jesus Christ!"

Sailor Moon finished her phrase as a light began to intensify at the top of the scepter, "Elimination!" A spiral of light shot from the top of the scepter and enveloped the Man-Bats before a crescent moon-shaped projectile launched from the device and sailed toward the monsters. Like with the tiara the Man-Bats suddenly vaporized and blew into dust, all of them disappearing in a cloud.

The sky was cleared of the menace.

The bright light temporarily blinded Old Man Dan enough to make him cover his eyes again. Between his Ecto-Activation, the natural emmanation of light from the scepter, and the audio deluge of the laptop beeping, the ectomobile siren, and his PKE meter going off, he was experiencing sensory overload. It was only natural that once he could see again, he would panic once he saw the street he was driving on was about to come to an end with an apartment building entrance in his path.

He couldn't help it; he slammed on the brakes as hard as he could. Sailor Moon was thrown from her standing position onto the deck of the roof rack and slid shoulder first into the front rail of the rack missing the HVAC coil. Old Man Dan shut down the siren and quickly stepped out of the truck.

Running to the passenger side and climbing the ladder attached to the rack he checked on his unusual passenger, "Hey, Moondust? You okay up here? Kid, talk to me!" He got over the top rail of the rack and saw Sailor Moon curled up against the front crossmember of the rack frame. His heart jumped into his throat when he didn't see her moving, "Oh shit!" He got onto the roof with her and knelt down beside her, "Come on, don't be dead!" He started shaking her to wake her up when he noticed she was extremely tense, her whimpering while still covering her head. She was alive and conscious. Old Man Dan relaxed a bit, sighing in relief. He spoke again softly, "Hey, you okay?"

"Did I get 'em?" she asked in a frightened voice, her uncovering her head and looking up. He nodded, "Yeah. You went and opened a Sam's Club bulk-purchase case of Whoop Ass on those things. You pegged just about every gauge in the truck, too." Sailor Moon started to push herself up, her nerves a little shot from the sudden stop when Old Dan noticed the Moon Scepter in her hand, "Wait a second, where'd you get that thing?"

After turning over Sailor Moon realized what he was referring to. She lifted the scepter up to show him, "This is one of my weapons. That was how I took those things out." Soon after explaining, the scepter disappeared in a glitter of light. Old Dan smirked as he stood up and offered his hand, commenting, "I bet that thing's lighter than a Proton Pack, too."

After helping Sailor Moon up and climbing off the top of the truck he spoke to her, "I'm sorry about the hard stop; we were about to reenact a scene from a Three Stooges short if I didn't slam on the brakes." He watched as Sailor Moon climbed down off the ladder. He realized it a touch late, but as soon as he did he turned his head away from the woman in the short skirt climbing down. He wasn't sure what cosmic power thought it was a good idea to dress this woman in a shirt this short to fight evil, but it sure didn't leave much to the imagination.

"That's okay," Sailor Moon finally reached the pavement as she dismounted the ladder on the side of the vehicle, "I just wish you could have warned me first." "There was no time. We're just lucky I got my eyesight back before it was too late. Oh, Jesus!" he noticed a medium-sized gash on Sailor Moon's right arm, "You must have caught something on the roof." Sailor Moon looked at her arm and saw the injury. She must not have felt it in the chaos, "Ah! I'm bleeding!"

Old Man Dan tried to keep her calm, "Take it easy, it's not that bad," he quickly examined the cut and saw it wasn't deep, "Just a scratch. I got a First Aid kit in the back."

Sailor Moon sat sideways in the front passenger seat with the door open and her legs outside as she waited for Old Dan to fetch the medical kit from the back seat. Old Dan got a set of gloves on and started cleaning the wound with alcohol. Sailor Moon flinched as the sting of the alcohol passed. She couldn't help but comment, "Now I know how Peter felt." Old Dan discarded the alcohol and blood soaked cleaning pad as he grabbed a large bandage when he stopped at her comment, "Peter? As in Dr. Venkman?" She nodded. Old Dan continued tending to her as asked, "How did you meet the founders, anyway?"

"They were in Tokyo on a job. It turned out to be one of our enemies back from the dead. Jedite - a Negaverse General - tried to kill us at the airport. If it weren't for Peter, Egon, our version of Dan, and the others, all of the Sailor Scouts would be dead."

"I keep hearing about a tower," he applied the bandage, soon after he started pulling the gloves off, "This Jedite guy, I'm assuming he tried to kill you and the original Ghostbusters there next?"

Sailor Moon nodded, keeping her eyes on his as he stood, "Peter… Dr. Venkman… took a plasma blast in the arm for me. He jumped into it to protect me," she stopped and looked away to wipe the tear from her eye with her long white gloved hand, "He was bleeding badly. Amy told me it almost hit a major artery which would have killed him," she looked back up to Old Dan as she spoke humbly, "Me and the other Sailor Scouts owe our lives to the Ghostbusters. Peter told me it was a stupid idea to do that. If he didn't have that stupid idea, it would have been my heart that would have been hit."

Old Dan watched as again Sailor Moon brushed tears from her eyes. He began to understand something, "You really have respect for the Ghostbusters, don't you?" After a sniffle she looked back to the older man before her and nodded. She began looking down as she tried to get herself under better control. "What's your name?"

Sailor Moon looked back at the man surprised. She began telling him, "I told you; I'm Sailor Moo…" "Not that name," he said quietly. He spoke softly explaining why he asked, "This whole time I've been calling you 'Kid' or 'Moondust'. What's your actual name?" It took Sailor Moon a moment to realize that yes, this version of Dan didn't actually know her that much. He saw the look of hesitation on her face and tried to soften the concept, "Hey, you know me without having me say a single thing," he smirked, "You got me at a disadvantage. I think it's only fair."

He was a grumpy man, sure, but she knew he wasn't a bad man, either. She had done a very dumb thing climbing into his truck without his knowledge and ultimately put herself in danger to learn more about him, making him protect her through all of this insanity to boot. He was right; it was only fair, "Serena. Serena Tsukino."

She saw him give a mild sigh of relief as he leaned over her against the door jamb of the passenger side of the truck. She could almost feel a weight be lifted off him as he looked down toward the street, "Thank you for trusting me. I thought after I lost Jen all the good will people could give vaporized," He went to look back to her as he slightly shook his head and spoke, "It's nice to know that people can…" he stopped as he looked past her toward another section of the street through the broken driver side window.

Old Man Dan's expression changed again, and it wasn't inviting.

Using the mirror on the door he looked to the other end of the street and saw something he didn't like. His voice sounded haunted as he talked, "Please tell me I'm the only one seeing black SUVs at either end of the street."

Sailor Moon turned in her seat and looked back where they came. Sure enough, there was a black American made SUV parked right on the corner of the joining street. Looking back where Old Dan was looking she saw the exact same model SUV at the other end of the road. The tinted window on one of the trucks rolled down revealing men wearing dark clothes and sunglasses, and they were looking directly at them.

The Order sent assassins.