Lunar Impact Three: Blood Moon Rising

by Ectodude

New York is in chaos. Winged creatures and Norse beasts have destroyed countless buildings in Manhattan, and the Ghostbusters are powerless to stop it fast enough. The secret Order of Asatro now have the means to destroy the world, and there's no telling how quickly the end will come. The Sailor Scouts are the Ghostbusters' only chance... Or are they?

20. Marked

Chapter 20: Marked

"Ooooh, this ain't over!" Old Man Dan's voice dripped with dread as the men in the black SUVs eyed the Explorer and its occupants up. Sailor Moon felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to stand as she heard the truck's engines rev. She heard him speak softly as he tried to remain calm, "Serena, buckle your belt…"

In the truck with the window that rolled down, the passenger of the truck pulled an AR-15 from the center console and could be seen visibly cocking the weapon.

Old Man Dan lost his calm, "Oh shit! Buckle up now!" Sailor Moon pulled her legs inside the truck and closed the door as the Ectomobile's driver ran to the driver door. The trucks started moving toward them with their engines roaring and their tires squealing. The veteran Ghostbuster got back in and started the truck back up, throwing back into reverse and backing away from the apartment front. The second truck started rounding the corner with its wheels smoking and also approaching them.

Without even giving the transmission time to slow down Old Dan threw the vehicle into low gear and stood on the gas, Chi-Ecto's tires smoking like their enemy's vehicles. The trucks joined behind the vehicle and were quick to discover the Explorer was no slouch; the SUV bearing the Ghostbusters trademark immediately opening distance.

Sailor Moon looked behind them and saw the Explorer was losing the bad guys behind them. She cheered, "Yay! You're smoking them!" Old Dan knew the truth, "That's only two of them! You honestly think that's all we have to deal with?"

Sailor Moon felt a pit in her stomach, "How many do they have?"

At that moment several more trucks joined the chase behind the Explorer from other streets. There were at current count six trucks following the Ectomobile. She looked behind them and saw the vehicle count jump, making her yelp in panic. Old Dan looked in the middle rear-view mirror and spoke bluntly, "Enough that mafia money can buy?"

"Mafia?!" Sailor Moon turned back in her seat and looked at him, "Like, Yakuza mafia?" He nodded as he swerved around cars, "More specifically, the Bishop family. I learned this Holly woman managed to take control of the family after a massive lawsuit she won a couple of years back. I don't even think she knows the extent of her control, but someone does. She may not have actual control."

"That Matthew guy?"

"Bingo."

Sailor Moon was not understanding Old Dan's thought process, "Why do you keep defending her? What makes you think she's not involved in this?" "I didn't say she wasn't involved, I said she wasn't in control. I'm thinking she's being used as some kind of figurehead. Hold on!" Old Dan reached behind the passenger seat in the storage pouch again and produced the smaller pistol. He then slammed on the brakes and drifted the truck around a corner as he fired one end of the ooze at the door of the truck then fired the other end at a building. The strand contracted and started pulling the vehicle harder into the turn. The ooze weakened and snapped, throwing the Explorer perfectly around the corner.

The following black SUVs attempted the same sharp turn only for two of them to flip over, their center of gravity being too high for such a maneuver. The other four slowed significantly to make the same turn and continued pursuit.

Back in Chi-Ecto Sailor Moon watched as Old Man Dan tucked the pistol away between the seat and the center console, "What is that thing?" Slightly irritated, Old Dan took the pistol out again, "This is called a Tether Pistol. It uses the same slime that's used in my main PDS on my Proton Pack. This produces elastic strands of slime that are very strong but decay and weaken quickly. Think Spider-Man's web shooters. It can even launch what we call Ecto-Wads." "Ecto-Wads?" she asked.

One of the SUVs chasing them pulled beside the driver side of the Ectomobile as the passenger aimed an AR-15 rifle at them. Sailor Moon saw this and screamed as Old Dan looked out his window and quickly flipped a switch near the back of the pistol. As fast as he could he aimed at the barrel of the rifle and shot a ball of slime out of the end of the pistol. The rifle operator pulled the trigger before realizing the gun barrel was now clogged with the slime and caused his barrel to backfire and explode. The cartridge discharge port shot out a ball of flames, startling the man into dropping the gun outside the SUV. It bounced into the street and flew into the radiator of another pursuing vehicle. The fireball made the driver slam on the brakes and jerk the wheel in surprise causing the vehicle to crash into a parked minivan.

The event played out rapidly. Sailor Moon looked behind them at the vehicle that crashed and the vehicle that was shooting steam out of the front grill behind them. She slowly turned back to the Ghostbuster at the wheel as even he was looking in the rear-view mirror at the damage he just produced with a look of concern on his face. She raised both her eyebrows in surprise as she nodded her head to the direction of the wrecked truck, "Ecto-Wad?"

Old Dan sheepishly smirked and slowly tucked the pistol back between his seat and the center console, answering her, "Ecto-Wad."

The terrain became far more rough as they entered a new section of the city: Greenwich Village. The ride was so bad it felt like a backroad in the middle of nowhere, "What hell's the deal here?" the Ghostbuster yelled, "I feel like my teeth are gonna rattle out of my head!" "This must be where that first monster destroyed stuff!" Sailor Moon explained, "Lita said something about one of those big stinky monsters coming through a part of town. Really messed up the place!" Old Dan juked and jolted the vehicle around potholes in the road as he added, "You ain't just whistlin' Dixie. This place looks like the set of Escape From New York."

Back in the rear-view Old Dan saw the other SUVs having trouble keeping control. He couldn't help but chuckle, "Ya having trouble back there, ya scumbags?" One of the trucks hit a deep pothole and bottomed out the front end of the truck, stopping in the middle of the pursuit. They were now down to three trucks following.

Exiting the excessively damaged area they knocked down the various road construction signs leading into Greenwich Village. Sitting in an alleyway hidden was a NYPD squad car guarding the area to keep people out. The Explorer came whaling by with its lights and siren on soon after seeing the black SUVs on the truck's tail. The cop picked up the mic to his radio and radioed his dispatch.

Now speeding through East Village one more truck dropped from the pursuit, the engine overheating to the point it could no longer keep running. An AR-15 in your radiator has the tendency of ruining your day. Foot traffic in the area was high, Old Dan laying on the horn trying to warn people out of the way. The PA system was still activated on the radio prompting Sailor Moon to grab the mic and start yelling at people to get out of the way. People were stubborn to listen to her, making her ask, "Why are they ignoring us?!"

Old Man Dan slammed the brakes again and managed to dodge the people standing like deer in headlights in the middle of the road, the black SUV's also managing to do so in kind before answering the Sailor Scout, "Because this is a major American city. These people couldn't sense danger unless it was right in front of their face. New York is the worst for that."

They began hearing a new noise as they sped through the area: Police sirens. Police cars quickly rounded various streets and started following behind the SUVs. Another car skidded onto the street beside the Ectomobile on the passenger side and began pacing the vehicle. Sailor Moon saw them and exclaimed, "The police! Thank God!" She undid her seatbelt and started hanging out of the window to wave them down, yelling, "Police! Help us! These maniacs are trying to kill us!"

Almost as soon as she made their presence beside the truck known, Old Man Dan's heart rate suddenly skyrocketed. Looking beside him briefly he saw her trying to get their attention. He quickly reached over to grab her, "Serena, no!"

She watched as the driver side window of the police car rolled down and the passenger of the vehicle aimed a shotgun at her. Sailor Moon realized almost too late that the cops in the vehicle were not on their side. Before she could react Old Dan grabbed and pulled on her Sailor collar hard pulling her inside the truck. The cop managed to fire the shotgun, but missed the Sailor Scout and instead hit the Whelen 9000 lightbar on the top of the Ectomobile. It sent out a brilliant ball of sparks and blue plastic fragments on impact.

Before the cop could cock the shotgun again Old Dan slammed Chi-Ecto into the cop car forcing it to veer head on into a telephone pole on the side of the street. The car's airbags deployed as the back end of the vehicle lifted up and the car completely flipped over on its roof.

Sailor Moon was in total shock. Never had she been shot at with real firearms. She had fought monsters, disfigured people, and people under spells, but never did she become more terrified than when a regular human tried to kill her with a shotgun. Her breathing was rapid and shallow, hand to her chest as she tried to slow her heart and it was not working. She was crying in terror as she sat up in the seat, her hand moving to her collar bone. She was having difficulty breathing. Old Man Dan heard her basically choking on her own fear. The young woman was beyond terrified. While still maintaining his defensive driving capabilities one handed, he took his other hand and grabbed her open hand, "Serena. Serena, it's okay; you're okay. Breathe."

"They were shooting at me," she managed to get out, "Why were the police shooting at me?" She looked at Old Dan with terror in her eyes, "Why were they shooting…?" "This cult has members of the police department on their side. They used to be on the mob's payroll. We can't trust the police." She finally came back to some form of sense as she realized what Old Dan did to the police car. She pulled her hand away, "You hurt them. You hurt those people!"

Old Dan didn't look comfortable, "I know. I didn't want to, but they're trying to kill us. We need to stay alive. If they get hurt…" Sailor Moon hated that answer. She loathed it. Loathed. She looked at him and wanted to lay into him, wanting so badly to scream at him and talk down to him…

One look. That was all it took to figure out how he felt. It ate at him. He wasn't enjoying a minute of this. He was scared, too. Of the most fearless of men in a profession that tackled literal nightmares here was a man that was absolutely terrified. It was her fault. If she hadn't gotten into the truck while nosing around it she would have been safe and he wouldn't have to do what he was doing right now. Those cans of disgusting tasting stuff she drank didn't help her nerves, either.

"I'm sorry, Dan," Sailor Moon apologized, "I didn't mean for any of this to happen!"

He put both his hands back on the wheel as he sighed, "It's not your fault. I went and taunted a dog at the end of a chain until the chain broke. If anything, I'm fortunate you're here."

Sailor Moon wiped the tears from her eyes, "You are?"

"Without you, I wouldn't have gotten my laptop hooked up to repel those bat things. I wouldn't even be here if you didn't get on the roof and stop what was left of them. No matter what it takes, I'm gonna keep you safe." That last thing he said. His face became stern as he said it. It wasn't common people trusted him from what he told her. When someone did trust him he held onto that trust with an iron grip. He wanted to keep her trust. It made her respect him far more than before. It was calming her back down again.

After turning onto another road in a wide turn, he commented further, "I wanna at least let you make it to your next birthday." That made her wince a bit, "Uh, speaking of birthdays…" Old Dan had an "Oh no" look on his face as his shoulders slumped, "Don't tell me…." "Yeah," she lamented, "that was why me and Darien were coming to New York last on our vacation; the whole trip was a birthday present." "And you're sticking your head out the window of a moving vehicle in a car chase? Way to respect your boyfriend. And here I thought the education system in Japan actually made you kids smarter!" Sailor Moon scoffed at that, making Old Dan respond in kind, "Hey, I may have to protect you, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna ridicule you."

The police cars in the pack were starting to catch up with the Ectomobile as another black SUV joined the chase. One vehicle again pulled to the passenger side of the truck as another officer in the back seat of the car fired their service pistol at the truck. The vehicle's special ectoplasm coating caused the smaller arms fire to ricochet off the truck, but not without denting the sheet metal. Once again Old Dan threw the Explorer into the police car but this time the cop driving pushed back against the truck's attempt to throw them off the road.

The rubbing of the vehicles slowed them down allowing for the closing of gaps between the Ectomobile and the larger black SUVs behind them. On top of that the Explorer was being forced to line up with a stopped delivery truck in an intersection ahead. Old Dan saw the situation and was trying to think fast before it was too late.

Sailor Moon was backing away from her door as the police car beside them kept trying to push the vehicle, the sounds of the passenger door's sheet metal making concerning crinkling sounds. Looking back she saw the trucks also catching up with another cultist hanging out of the back window and aiming their AR-15 at the truck. She was not taking to the situation well, "Dan! Dan, do something! They're gonna shoot us!"

"I'm a little busy at the moment!" Old Man Dan grunted as he fought with the steering wheel, "One Goddamn crisis at a time!"

BAM! A 5.56mm round flew in through the broken back window and hit the window pillar right next to Old Dan's head. The shredded plastic thrown from the pillar made from the bullet impact blew into the old Ghostbuster's face, making him let go of the steering wheel and sending the truck out of alignment with the delivery truck…

And aligned the police car in its place.

Chi-Ecto narrowly missed the back of the truck and spun out in the intersection as the front driver side fender of the police car hit the delivery truck. The back end of the car skidded around the side of the truck then flipped on its side, grinding to a stop. The second to last of the black SUVs couldn't stop in time and also hit the back of the delivery truck into a dead stop.

The final truck in the pack of black SUVs and the small contingent of police cars stopped due to the carnage that littered the road before them. The cops were screaming for the truck to move with the bewildered driver stepping out to see what happened.

Sailor Moon was thrown into her door again causing her to grip her injured arm and groan after the engine of the extradimensional Explorer stalled and died. She then put her hand on her chest as she felt her poor heart pounding hard. She looked over and saw Old Dan putting his hand onto the left side of his face. She started crawling over to him going over the center console to check on him, "Are you okay?"

He was making a face that denoted pain as he also groaned, "I got plastic in my face. It really burns." She grabbed his chin with one hand, removed his Blackhawks hat with the other, and pulled his head around for her to see when she saw multiple small incisions in his face with blood trickling out of the wounds. She gasped at the sight, "Oh no!" He managed to open his eyes and looked around a bit, "I still have my eyes. At least I didn't lose my eyesight," he went to start rubbing his face again, "Goddamn this shit burns!"

Sailor Moon stopped him from reaching up at it so she could look at him. She reached and grabbed one of the objects from his face pulling it out. She could feel the heat the object put off through her gloves, "Dan, this isn't plastic; it's metal!"

Old Man Dan stopped and took the object from her. It looked like it was made of copper with a darker metal on one side of it. He knew what it was, "Ho, shit. It's spalding from that bullet! It fractured and blew into my face. No wonder it was burning." He dropped the bullet fragment, "These assholes are using full metal jackets. They're playing for keeps." The Sailor Scout beside him grabbed his head again and looked at his injuries, "We have to take care of those. If you don't, it might get infected!"

From the corner of his eye he saw the police cars and the final SUV start to drive on the sidewalk to get around the disabled vehicles blocking the road. "That has to wait; they're getting their second wind." Old Dan went to restart the truck as the one SUV left in the chase pack pushed over a news stand to clear a path. The engine wasn't turning over, "Son of a…" "What is it?" the Sailor Scout asked, watching him turn the key to no effect, "Why isn't the truck starting?!" Old Dan looked at the steering column for a moment trying to figure out what was wrong. It was in gear, "Stupid safety crap!" He tried to throw it into park and start the engine when another police car got into the clear enough for another cop in the back seat to aim a shotgun.

Old Dan just got the truck started and had just put it back into gear when the cop shot at the back of the truck. Sparks flew as the projectile went through one side of the truck's cargo area to the other barely missing the lone Proton Pack on the equipment rack. Sailor Moon and Old Man Dan both heard the shotgun slug flying through the inside of the vehicle prompting Old Man Dan to outright go full throttle, the both of them screaming.

The tires wailed as Chi-Ecto began moving toward a new section of town that was known as Little Italy. It was becoming clear what was needed to be done as Old Dan started cussing again, "Stupid fucking assholes, turning my truck into a Goddamn cheese grater!"

Sailor Moon was confused by what just happened, "I thought you said they couldn't go through the coating?" "I said nothing short of bullets can penetrate the truck. A handgun won't do it; high powered rounds and sabot slugs will! We gotta get these fuck-knuckles off us before this truck becomes a wiffle ball on wheels!" He was looking around the area and realized where they were. After three months of being in his version of New York he became very familiar with the layout of the city. He also knew history, "What's the exact date?"

"Huh?" The question threw Sailor Moon through a loop. First he was talking about wiffle balls. Now he wanted to know what her birthday was. She had to figure there was a reason, "June 30th, 2002. Why?"

Old Dan was silent. His eyebrows were knitted tight together in thought as he looked to have been recalling something, "With the amount of material they'd have to move…" Sailor Moon saw the moment that not only did he remember what he needed to, he also came to a decision, "They just finished cleaning it up a month beforehand. With the amount of work equipment in the pit and the amount of monsters in Manhattan, we'd be able to lose them there and no one would be in our way," he looked toward the side of the road, taking note of the street signs, "Avenues run north and south. If my brains are still working, we're heading toward the Financial District."

The Sailor Scout was lost, "What are you talking about? Lose them where?"

Old Man Dan reached for the stereo in the dashboard and reached for the NO2 controls again. He opened the switch cover and turned on the heater, the red LED started blinking again. Now that she understood what was being activated she blanched before looking at the Ghostbuster driving the vehicle. He spoke with determination, "We're going to have to go through the World Trade Tower site."

Sitting outside the exit ramp to the World Trade Center disaster site was a lone security guard in front of a perimeter fence. He was a lanky man with coke-bottle glasses smoking a cigarette and reading Hot Rod Magazine. Beside him was an old beat up K-Car that could have used a wash… a decade ago. With holy water.

Due to the monster attacks the men that normally worked on the site getting it ready for the new Freedom Tower were pulled off the job because of safety concerns. The security guard was brave - or stupid - or greedy - or, let's face it, all three - enough to stay at his post and make sure none of the equipment was stolen as well as the diesel fuel on site. There he sat, flicking through the pages of his magazine as he basically did nothing but accumulate wealth and a pile of cigarette butts next to his lawn chair.

Extinguishing the cigarette in his ever growing pile beside him he reached into his front pocket to grab his pack for a new smoke. Getting the cigarette in his mouth and igniting his lighter he stopped as he heard a cluster of sounds. He recognized the police sirens, but there was another loud and steady repeating noise along with tires squealing.

The guard stood up, quickly lit his cancer source, and started leering toward the street where the sound was coming from. It was steadily getting louder as he started to see red and blue flashing from the sides of the buildings around the area. Taking a draw and stepping forward he took the cigarette out of his mouth and used the same hand that held the lit cigarette to adjust his thick lensed glasses. He let out the smoke as he finally adjusted his focus…

A blue Ford Explorer was heading toward him, horn blowing.

"Shit!" The guard dove to the side and covered his head with his hands once on the ground. Chi-Ecto ran over the guard's meticulously curated cigarette butt pile and his luxurious rustic aluminum lawn chair before smashing the fence. Once through the truck flew onto the ramp down into the former buildings' foundations. The last black SUV and the remaining cop cars followed the Ectomobile down into the pit, the guard getting up and running to the head of the ramp down to watch the commotion.

Once on the foundation floor the Explorer kicked up dust and gravel making a huge cloud. There were still wet spots and puddles on the floor of the old buildings' basements so the amount of dust being thrown up was diminished. Gravel dust started to accumulate in the wheel wells of the truck as it splashed and kicked up more and more of the material. Nevertheless it did manage to dry enough to blind the vehicles behind the Ghostbusters-branded vehicle. Spinning donuts and juking around at hard angles made for a tough firing line for the vehicles pursuing. Poor Sailor Moon was becoming sick again as the hard jarring was basically turning her stomach upside down.

Old Man Dan on the other hand was bleeding heavily enough that it actually coated one side of his head in his own blood. The sounds of the sirens and roaring of engines echoing off the foundation walls made for a tense experience. The Explorer started crossing through the very clouds it was kicking up and it was by far the most claustrophobic sensation the occupants felt, the other vehicles in the chase briefly flying in front of the vehicle. Sailor Moon screamed as one of the police cars was nearly t-boned by the Ectomobile, covering her eyes with her gloved hands. After a moment she looked to see the vehicle narrowly missed the car. She was not enjoying this, "Why are you driving like a maniac?"

"I'm trying to confuse them," the old man beside her stated, "I remember seeing pictures of this place years ago when they were removing the last load. I have a better idea of what this place looked like than these dopes."

"You lost me. What does that mean?"

"This place may not be exactly like my Earth, but some things are set in time. I also have my ability to see auras; I can see through the dust and see the driver's outlines. If I confuse them enough, they won't get out until the dust is cleared." The police cars around them were in fact starting to get caught up in a game of Marco Polo as the dust in the foundations was now thick enough to where no one aside of the old Ghostbuster could see anything in front of them.

Two of the police cars slammed into each other in the thick cloud, their sirens winding down as their forward momentum came to a halt. To add insult to injury, the remaining black SUV in the chase slammed into the trunk of one of the cars throwing it out of the way. The front of the truck lost its bumper, but it continued after the blue Explorer with the three remaining vehicles behind it.

Sailor Moon grabbed the handle on the ceiling of the truck as she tried to keep herself upright in her seat. The truck thrashed around and Old Man Dan cut the wheel back and forth in erratic fashion. The way he was controlling the vehicle made her develop goosebumps with each hard high speed jerk of the wheel. She was never a particularly attentive student, but she knew the very vehicle they were in had a history with a certain scientific principle, "Aren't you worried about flipping over?"

"This was an old police truck built for high speed off-road pursuit," the man answered, "The town of Radium Hills, Illinois had this vehicle made to chase after drug runners using the town's old radium mines as a weigh station and hideout before moving product to Chicago. The ghosts of a bunch of moonshine runners that were trapped in the mines during the prohibition era became pissed off at the local cops after busting the drug runners and haunted the town. The ghosts cleaved our old Chi-Ecto in half. The local mayor paid us back by giving us this truck. She's got a heavily modified Ford 302 Boss engine and two local high school auto shop prodigies custom-made the suspension system for high speed and rough terrain. She handles hard turns like a champ."

A cut of the wheel led another police car into the side of a set of treads of a bulldozer, another car taken out of the chase. In the dust blind one of the police in the cars crawled out of the side of the squad with a shotgun coming out with them. The cop started shooting into the dust ahead of the car in hopes to hit the Ectomobile. Old Dan and Sailor Moon ducked in their seats as they heard the gunfire reports. Old Dan was very worried about it, "Jesus, they're shooting blind!" "But," she said in a confused tone, "they can't see us."

The mirror on the passenger door shattered, the sound of the shotgun slug whizzing by heard along with the crack of glass startling both of them. Old Dan spoke in a now clearly stressed voice, "That doesn't mean they won't hit us. On top of that, I'm running out of mirrors!"

The cop hanging out of the squad stopped to reload his gun inside the car allowing a reprieve, but not for long. Looking back Sailor Moon could vaguely see through the dust billows to see the other cop car in the pack start to overtake the other to change out shooters. Another cop was starting to hang out the window to do the same thing. Thinking fast, she knew her powers weren't meant to be used on people so she needed another thing to use to get these goons off of them.

She got an idea.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and reached toward Old Dan's side to grab the Tether Pistol. Before he knew it she took the weapon and started crawling into the back seat. Old Dan was at first confused then alarmed, "Hey! What are you doing, you lunatic?" He watched through the remaining rear view mirror as her blonde buns disappeared behind the back seat's back into the cargo area of the vehicle. He heard a thud and her whimper in mild pain, "Ow! Stupid trap charger thingy!"

"What're ya gonna do?"

The woman got upright and attempted to figure out how the gun worked. She found the power switch and started to take aim as she said out loud, "I don't know; I'm making it up as I go along, I guess!"

Remember, it was an idea, not a plan.

The second cop car steadied allowing the cop to take aim. She fired the device and shot an Ecto-Wad onto the pump handle of the shotgun. The impact threw off the cop's aim and made the fired projectile sail off target. Striking the side of the buildings' foundation with a hard shower of concrete blown out of the resulting hole, the cop cussed and attempted to cock the shotgun again with difficulty. The Ecto-Wad disabled the shotgun itself, buying more time.

Sailor Moon looked at the gun as she clearly didn't intend to fire that type of slime at the cop, "How do I make it do the rubber band thing?"

"Mode selector on the left side," Old Dan explained as he started for a wide turn, "Flip it up!" Sure enough on the left side of the gun by her thumb was a small paddle switch that was in the down position.

The first cop finally got his shotgun reloaded and was about to hang out the window again when Sailor Moon changed the pistol's modes. When she saw the barrel of the shotgun aimed at her she panicked and fired at the hood of the cop car. Old Dan was taken off guard when that dust cloud ahead of him cleared. He saw a work truck parked at the edge of the perimeter of the foundations directly in their way. Just as Sailor Moon fired the other end of the tether he cut the wheel of the truck hard causing her to miss her intended target and hit the hood of the other cop car. The sudden jerk sent her tumbling to her side inside the cargo area.

The tether contracted and pulled the front ends of the two squad cars together fender-to-fender. The same work truck Old Dan avoided hitting was then hit by both conjoined police cars taking them out of the chase. Old Dan looked into the final mirror he had and saw the last cop cars wipe out. He called back to his astrocially-named passenger, "Nice job, Moondust! They're gonna have a hard time tryin' to explain that accident to their captain."

Sailor Moon pushed herself up and shook her head. After looking out of the broken back window it was clear she was rather annoyed, "I wasn't trying to crash them! I was trying to pull the shotgun from the policeman's grip." She looked back toward the front to tell him more, it was at that moment she noticed something with Old Dan's Proton Pack and it looked like it was in line with the shotgun slug that went through the cargo area. Old Dan was happy nevertheless, "As long as you stopped them, I don't give a shit!"

All that was left now was the final black SUV. Out of the dust cloud and back into the more muddy part of the foundation it was time to make their exit, "We dropped a bunch of these clowns," the veteran Ghostbuster stated, "Let's get the hell outta Dodge and lose this last truck." Sailor Moon heard that and nodded her head. She started making her way back to the front seat.

Unbeknownst to the Ectomobile's occupants, the coke-bottle bi-speckled security guard moved his K-Car in the way of the top of the work ramp. He stepped out of the rustbucket of a vehicle and looked at the chaos at the bottom of the ramp in the Tower 1 basement. The blue SUV and the black SUV were pulling some hardcore driving maneuvers. He also barely made out the wrecked cop cars in the pit with the other two vehicles. He whistled in amazement as he again took his lit cigarette out of his mouth and adjusted his glasses, "Holy shit! It looks like a demolition derby down there!"

One last shooter crawled out of the black truck and aimed another AR-15. He started firing at the Explorer in three-bullet burst mode. The rounds flew all over the place, striking every around the Ghostbusters-branded vehicle as Old Dan started performing evasive steering. Sailor Moon was trying to climb out of the cargo area when a 5.56 round hit the tailgate and went through one of the Ghost Traps in the charger in the back. Another round went through the tailgate and hit the back of the back seat, then into the front passenger seat.

Sailor Moon saw the stuffing of the seats blow out causing her to yelp in panic and slide face first into the back seat bottom, the rest of her body falling onto the seat shortly after. Old Dan called back in panic after seeing the dashboard shatter from the bullet impact, "Serena? Serena, talk to me! Are you hit?" He looked in the rear view mirror and saw smoke wafting up from the broken trap. Quickly turning his head and looking he saw her red knee-high boots on the bench seat in the back. She quickly turned over and saw her right leg was peppered with metal shards, possibly from the struck trap. It was like Old Dan's face, but it was also minimal, "I got a little hurt, but I think I'm okay."

Gunshots kept ringing all around them until the man finally ran out of ammo. While in the lull Sailor Moon was now very angry. She realized she still had the Tether Pistol in her hand. She had enough, "That does it! I played more than enough Wild Gunman with Sammy to totally do this!" She sat up and changed modes on the pistol again back to Ecto-Wad mode. She braced herself and steadied the shot on the back of the back seat. Once she got an idea of where her shot was going to land, she fired.

The shooter in the final truck got the magazine loaded and cocked the rifle when he looked to the back of the Ectomobile. Before he knew it a ball of sticky green ectoplasmic residue nailed him in the face, specifically the eyes. He dropped the gun and reached for the slime on his face as he tried to crawl back into the truck. Sailor Moon fired another Ecto-Wad hitting the windshield of the SUV. The shooter and the driver were now effectively blind.

Old Dan skidded the truck onto the exit ramp for the worksite when he saw something he didn't like up ahead, "Uh, we got a problem!" Old Dan had just noticed the blockage at the top of the ramp. Sailor Moon turned and saw the very problem he was looking at. She then looked back and saw the truck was still following, the driver of the black SUV behind them sticking his head out of the window to see where he was going, "Make that two problems!"

The driver could barely see where he was going with the wind in his eyes, but it didn't stop him from pulling a glock out and starting to fire on the vehicle again. Old Dan ducked down again, but when he stopped flinching and opened his eyes he was looking at the NO2 controls again. He forgot he was warming the tanks. The LED was solid. He looked at the top of the ramp. He had little choice, "Serena, get that seat belt back on!" When Sailor Moon looked forward to look at him, she watched him uncover the arm switch for the second nitrous bottle and turn it on.

At this point, it was desperation and she knew it.

She sat in the back seat properly and fumbled with the seat belt buckle as Old Dan armed the system. The number counter lit up with "250" again. There was little time.

It was nearly a half a mile up the ramp. The SUV behind them was a much larger full-sized vehicle class than the Explorer and although it had a more powerful engine, it was also heavier. Old Dan first activated the four wheel drive then uncovered the trigger switch for the nitrous. He was looking into the mirror to address the other truck's driver, "Let's see if you can hit 150 miles an hour up a ramp, fucktard!" He flicked the switch.

All four tires on the Explorer smoked as the truck picked up an insane amount of speed. The counter on the NO2 controls was counting down quickly. Back in the rear wheel wells the clumped gravel and dust fell off the sheet metal and fell onto the ramp at high speed. The dust blew upward after spattering causing it to fly into the eyes of the black SUV's driver's eyes, once again making him go blind.

Sailor Moon felt her body sink into the seat again. The force exerted onto her body felt much stronger than before. Between gravity felt on the incline and the four wheels making the truck pick up speed faster due to power distribution now being even, the sheer speed was making her very alarmed, "Dan? Dan, this is too fast for me! I don't like this!"

"I know!" Old Dan said, his anxiety clearly coming through his voice, "The pitch of the ramp changes toward the top. If I pick up enough speed, we'll clear the barricade."

"And if we don't?"

He heard it in her voice; she was on the verge of tears as she asked, those tears being ones of fright. He looked in the mirror at her. She also saw it in his eyes, the same fear she was feeling. It was clear he wasn't sure if what he was planning was going to work. He only said one thing, solemn and just loud enough for her to hear it over the engine, "Then all I can say is that I'm sorry."

At the top of the ramp the guard was seeing that the truck in front was approaching even faster than it was before and it was becoming apparent what was happening. He started backing away, "Uh, I don't think he's gonna stop."

"Here we go," Old Dan cried out, "Hang tight, kid, this is gonna be rough!"

"Yep," the guard exclaimed as he backpedaled away from his car, "he's definitely not stopping!" The guard screamed as he dove out of the way right as Chi-Ecto hit the top of the incline and flew off the ramp. The tires of the vehicle were still free spinning as it took to the air and approached the K-Car. Sailor Moon felt her whole body suddenly lift off the back seat in a state of weightlessness, her body only making light contact with the fabric of the seat. Her seat belt was the only thing preventing her from flying into the roof of the vehicle, but nothing restricted her long blonde hair from doing so.

The front tires of the truck narrowly missed the roof of the K-Car, but the back tires made contact and skidded a tire track across it. The roof caved in slightly and broke both the back windows on the car, the glass exploding outward from the tension. All four tires of the Explorer touched the ground and smoked momentarily before the full weight of the truck came down afterward. The suspension bottomed out making the truck hop causing the vehicle to get loose. Old Man Dan countered the thrashes of the vehicle before straightening out the truck. The look on his face was that of total surprise as though he was shocked at the feat he just performed.

The shooter in the black SUV finally got the slime out of his eyes as the driver got the dust out of his and the slime on the window decayed and melted off. Both of them looked and saw the K-Car in the way and that the SUV was right on top of it. They looked at each other as they realized what was inevitable.

CRASH! The SUV t-boned the K-Car causing both vehicles to flip and roll into the street before coming to rest in front of a bodega.

The coke-bottled security guard stood up and walked over to the damaged vehicles as he saw the two men in the SUV crawling out of the shattered front windshield slowly. He looked at the carnage before him in awe as he saw his own car destroyed. After a moment he lost his dumbstruck look as he began to grow a cheerful face in its place, "I can finally convince the ol' ball-n-chain to get a new car! Finally!"

"Do you see anything?" Dan and Roland were standing outside the firehouse as Dan asked. Both of them were looking to either side of the street to see if they could see the blue SUV. Roland was on the adjacent side of the building looking up Varick Street. He backtracked around the corner and called back to his manager, "Nothing. All the PKE disappeared almost instantly." "After that huge spike, right?" Roland nodded. Dan had a feeling, "If Serena was transformed she had to have helped my other self by finishing them off. It's the only thing that makes sense."

Darien came out of the firehouse doors quickly. He spoke in a very unnerved voice, "There was a huge chase involving the police and the other truck. Janine said there were reports of gunfire on the police radio. Several cars got destroyed at the World Trade Center." "Was one of them my other self's truck?" "I don't know," the Japanese man started as he ran his fingers through his black hair trying to suppress his anxiety, "There were several SUVs involved and they also got destroyed."

Dan and Roland could see it on the man's face. He was stressed out and afraid for his fiance's life. The bad part was Dan knew a detail more than the others did, being he was the one there to learn it, "Black SUVs?" Darien answered back, unsure, "I guess?"

"Goddamnit," the blonde haired engineer spat in annoyance, "When I got Lita out last night we were surrounded by black SUV's. These Order guys are organized and armed. To what extent…" He shrugged. That look of anxiety worsened on Darien's face as he said that. It was clear he sensed Serena's predicament and all it did was make him on edge.

"Wait," Roland turned back toward Varick, "I hear an Ecto siren! It's coming closer." Sure enough, from around a corner the Explorer skidded around and started speeding toward the firehouse. Dan, Darien, and Roland got out of the way of the open firehouse doors as the truck rounded the corner past the pile of dead Man-Bats on the side of the building and drifted around the doors into the garage, screeching to halt behind Ecto-1 before completely powering down. The three men that were outside ran back in to see the truck in shambles.

Dan stopped short of the vehicle and took in the damage, "Holy…" The back glass was destroyed; the tailgate had two bullet holes in it; front windows broken; front lightbar destroyed; holes in the front passenger seat; black marks on the headliner; dashboard shot; front driver window pillar shot; covered in gravel mud; trap charger destroyed, various dents and crumples in the sheet metal from bullet impacts and vehicle collisions; roof equipment with claw marks left in it.

Sailor Moon stepped out of the back passenger seat and saw Dairen by the door. She called out his name in fright and ran into his arms. Darien grabbed hold of in in embrace, "Sailor Moon, are you alright?" She whimpered as she buried her head into his chest, "I'm okay, I'm okay. It was so horrible!"

Old Man Dan stepped out of the driver seat. The blood out of the wounds in his face gave him half of a crimson mask down the left side of it. Roland and Dan looked in horror as he stepped out and leaned against the vehicle, "That fucking sucked!" Dan walked to his older self while again looking at the damage inflicted onto the vehicle, "Dude, what the fuck happened? We were hearing reports all over the goddamn place!" Old Man Dan wiped some of the blood from his face as he explained, "Those cultists happened. They have to be in control of those creatures, and those psychos are armed to the teeth," he pointed to his face, "This was the result of a full metal jacket missing me but hitting something near my face. They ain't playing games."

Darien turned Sailor Moon loose and marched his way toward the older Ghostbuster and raised his voice, "What is the matter with you? You dragged my fiance into this dangerous situation and nearly got her killed! Are you that irresponsible?!" Sailor Moon was taken aback by that but before she could interject Old Dan retorted, "Well, I wasn't expecting a fun-filled day of bullets whizzing past my face! Maybe you need to tell her to stay out of situations like this." Darien lost his temper and attempted to perform a karate move in his rage.

Attempted.

Old Dan caught his arm and twisted it behind his back. He subsequently grabbed Darien by his hair and turned him to lead him to the other side of the truck. Darien demanded Old Dan release him but the grizzled man was unrelenting as he dragged him to the passenger side of the vehicle. Using his hold of the Japanese man's head he directed his attention to the shattered lightbar on the roof, "Look at my roof equipment, asshole. Look at it! That lightbar would have been your girlfriend's head had I not pulled her back inside the truck! A cop did that! Come here!" He started pulling him again and went to the back cargo area of the vehicle. Letting go of his head and using his now free hand to open the back hatch, Old Dan then pointed to the holes left by that sabot slug that went through the cargo area.

Old Man Dan pointed to the holes again, "You see those? Those were left by a solid core shotgun slug! It could have hit the source canister of my Proton Pack!" He pulled Darien's head closer to him and screamed into his ear, "We would have been irradiated if it was breached! You know what that would have meant? Dead Man Walking!" With that he threw Darien into Dan and Roland, catching him before he fell. The old man kept ranting as the two of them picked him up, "Had I not moved my ass fast enough this would have turned out very differently! If anything, you owe me an apology and a thanks for what I did!" He took a huffed breath as he tried to calm down. He again wiped some of the blood from his wounds from his face before speaking in a softer - yet still loud - tone of voice, "I'm going to sleep. If anyone wakes me, you're dead."

By this time the Sailor Scouts and the rest of the Ghostbusters came down from upstairs to find out what all the yelling was about to see the damaged Ectomobile in the garage with a pissed off and bleeding Ghostbuster heading toward the stairs. They parted away from the staircase as they watched Old Man Dan ascend the stairs to the sleeping quarters.

Dan turned to Sailor Moon after letting Darien go. He was confused, "Serena, why did you go with him?" Sailor Moon blushed in embarrassment before putting her hand on her injured arm and looking to the floor. She continued to have a whimper in her voice as she spoke to him, "I was hiding in the back of his truck. He didn't know I was back there until later." Dan and Roland's eyes widened at that, Roland speaking in disbelief, "You what?" Darien walked up to her and spoke to her, "Why did you do that?"

She began to choke up as she spoke. It was clear the whole experience was overwhelming, "I saw the other Dan was so upset after our Dan insulted him," she looked back into her fiance's eyes with tears rolling down her cheeks, "It was my fault he had to protect me. Darien, he's a good man. Please don't be mad at him," she then looked at Dan and asked gently, "Please?" Dan knew what she was asking. He did feel a twinge of guilt for being as rude as he was to his counterpart. Like he felt in the lab that morning, he knew she was right. He nodded his head, "Okay, but only because it's you asking."

There was a stomach rumble. Sailor Moon put her gloved hands to her stomach. She looked like she was turning green. Roland knew the look that was now on the Sailor Scout's face, "Are you okay?" She raised one of her hands toward her mouth but spoke one last time before placing it over it, "Too much caffeine!" She started running up the stairs toward the bathroom. Darien followed after her calling her name.

Dan and Roland stood there bewildered. The head engineer looked to his second in command with a raised eyebrow, "We are gonna get an explanation, right?"

Roland looked back, "In this place?"

Dan sighed as he looked back to the stairs, "Good point. That is asking for too much, isn't it?"