The Other Rookie

by Ectodude

In June of 1995, the Ghostbusters were once again in need of help on the job. These are the stories of a new member that joined them; stories of a man known as the Other Rookie.

1. Welcome Aboard

The Other Rookie

Dan "Ectodude" Shannon

Chapter 1: Welcome Aboard

June 7th, 1995

Ghostbusters HQ

New York City, NY USA

12:57 AM

It was a very late night. Ecto-1 - the 1959 Cadillac that served as the main transport for the Ghostbusters - pulled into the garage area of the old firehouse they called home. Vehicle turned off, the front driver side door opens allowing hired employee Winston Zeddemore to exit with a loaded Ghost Trap in his hand. He winced in pain as he dragged his body out of the car. "Man," he groaned, "this is the thirty-first ghost we caught today. This job is starting to get strenuous again."

Dr. Ray Stantz - Ghostbusters Co-Founder, team engineer, and resident occult expert - exited the passenger side of the sprawling white ambulance with several traps in his hand. He lamented as he stood slowly out of the vehicle, "I can see where you're coming from. We haven't had a lot of sleep in the last week, the calls are coming in faster than we can keep up…" he stood upright as he heard several pops in his back. After standing stiff for a moment he relaxed and finished his statement, "but look at it this way: you could never feel as bad as Peter."

"I heard that!" Dr. Peter Venkman - team psychologist - stepped out of the back seat of the car drenched in ectoplasmic residue. Otherwise known as slime, Peter seemed to be a magnet for all entities that produce excessive amounts of the material. He was none too thrilled at once again being the ethereal scum rag, "Maybe I wouldn't feel as bad if you took some of the burden of getting soaked in this crap."

"Perhaps it's time we place a classified ad," Dr. Egon Spengler - physicist and overall genius of the Ghostbusters - stepped out of the back last with several loaded traps, "It's clear we're starting to experience another uptick in activity." Peter sighed in frustration as he flung the slime from his arms, "Really? We're gonna do the rookie thing again?" "I donno, Peter," Ray stated with optimism, "the last trainee we had was pretty good. We might get lucky with another resourceful hire!"

Janine Melnitz - the secretary and office manager - was still at her desk working late as the four men walked their way toward the basement. She caught them as they approached closer to her desk, "Hey, guys," she said in her Brooklyn accent, "you just got three more calls right before you came in…" The phone suddenly rang. She looked at it briefly before looking back to the others, "...Make that four."

"You know, I really liked having a rookie around," Peter's attitude suddenly swung from one direction to the other, "Someone to empty traps; clean the bathroom; stock the fridge while Slimer attacked him instead…" Peter approached Janine's desk and leaned onto the desktop, a slimy splat being left on her desk calendar, "Oh, Janine," he said in a sing-song manner, "When you're done sentencing us to an exhaustion coma, could you place an ad in the paper for us?"

Janine looked at the puddle of goo on her desk right where Peter's elbow was and became annoyed. She saw something about her desk that was in need of alteration and it worked to her advantage. She put on a sly smile as she looked sweetly at her employer, "Sure thing, Dr. Venkman… Oh, would you look at that? It's June already. Time to change my calendar!" She grabbed the sheet of paper representing the month of May 1995 attached to her desktop and quickly pulled it off, pulling Peter's arm up and off the desk causing him to land on the floor before her desk. She dropped the paper on top of his head, the slimy spot hitting him in the face. After a moment Peter spoke up, "Awww, we missed Memorial Day! I forgot!"

June 10th, 1995

SoHo Neighborhood

9:52 AM

The apartment was barely furnished, several storage bins scattered around the living room. The phone base was in the hand of a man in his early 20s, the handset off the hook as he had it to his ear. The man walked around in the living room in sweatpants and a tee-shirt clearly having a conversation with someone on the other end of the device, "Whoa, wait, what do you mean 'Overqualified'? You're looking for someone with both high voltage analog and digital design experience, aren't you?" After a moment the man stopped walking around as he heard the most insulting thing he had heard in a while, "So let me get this straight: Because I have a bachelors in nuclear engineering, that's why you're skipping over me?" After another moment he grunted, "No, you clearly don't even want someone who has anything other than mediocre experience so you can dangle their paycheck in front of their face… Oh, I'm unprofessional? Because I don't use your bullshit terminology? Here's a thought: Lose my number!" Slamming the base of the phone down on his end table, he subsequently slammed the handset on the hook.

The tall, blonde-haired man sat on his couch and put his head into his hands. He rubbed his eyes before removing his hands from his face revealing his green eyes. He looked to have still been waking up a bit, but the phone call he just completed annoyed him more than anything, "This is killing me. That's job number twelve I've blown this month," he leaned back and looked to the ceiling as he groaned loudly, soon after speaking to the sky as though he was addressing God, "Why in the great white hell did I let Jamie talk me into coming to New York?" He reached in front of him and grabbed the newspaper off the top of a stack of newspapers on his coffee table. Once again he searched the job listings, "I can't wait for the internet to make this easier."

After a few minutes he found something that caught his eye. It was a black and white rendering of a cartoonish logo with an advertisement. He was about to skip it when he saw the words "Now Hiring!" sprawled under the logo. The man's eyes squinted in curiosity before widening in excitement, "They're looking for people? Holy…" he read further and saw the advertisement stating walk-ins were welcome. He caught the address and started for the bedroom to get dressed. A few moments later he walked out of the bedroom dressed in a black tee-shirt, a black Chicago Blackhawks hat with the bill pointed backwards, and carpenter jeans. He went to the coffee table again, grabbed his keys, and grabbed a copy of his resume while exclaiming to himself, "14 North Moore, here I come!" He promptly walked out of the apartment.

A moment later the door opened back up as the young man walked his way toward the pile of papers on the coffee table in search of something, "I keep forgetting I don't know where anything is. Where the hell is that damn city map?"

Ghostbusters HQ

1:36 PM

A black Chevrolet S-10 ZR2 pickup truck approaches the front of the old firehouse and stops on the curb. The supercharger sticking out of the hood of the vehicle was an odd sight for such a small truck and it was whining down as its driver turned off the vehicle. He stepped from the truck and looked at the sign on the building. It was of a cartoonish ghost figure inside a circle-slash design. He sighed nervously as he spoke to himself, "This looks to be the place." he grunted in mild annoyance as he closed his truck door, "Geez, the traffic here is worse than Lake Shore Drive. Okay, Dan, whatever happens, don't be discouraged if you don't get the job. Just suck it up and move on."

The young man walked into the main doors and found a somewhat disheveled garage area, oil spots and coolant on the floor where a vehicle would normally sit. Further back was a desk in front of a set of filing cabinets. At the desk was a red-haired woman in glasses typing on a computer. The closer he approached and looked the desk over he found a nameplate on the desk that read, "Janine Melnitz". He walked up cautiously and removed his hat as he announced his presence, "Um… Hi. My name is Dan Shannon. I'm here about the job?"

The woman stopped typing and turned to him, her blowing a bubble with the gum she was chewing. After the bubble popped she addressed the young man before her, "Oh, yes. Please sit down. I'll need a copy of your resume and I'm gonna need you to fill out a form." She grabbed a clipboard and attached a sheet of paper to it just as a phone call came in. She quickly handed the clipboard to the man in front of her desk as she picked up the phone, "Hello, Ghostbusters. This Summer, check out our hot deal: Order three captures, get the fourth for a penny. Can I help you?"

As our new applicant - Dan - started filling out the paperwork he overheard the call before him, "Can I get a description of the entity you're calling about?" she budded the phone handset up to her ear and shoulder freeing her hands up to type on the computer. After inputting the information from the customer, she looked over the information that was generated on the screen, "According to our database you have a poltergeist, class 3…" she paused as she heard another round of descriptions. Without so much as a hint of worry in her voice, she spoke again. If anything, she was more annoyed, "It's doing what? Ma'am, you need to include all details of the disturbance so as to get a proper priority rating in our system. So, it's got two heads with acid for spit?"

Dan stopped filling out the paperwork and looked at the woman on the phone. She began typing again and she now repopulated the results, "Okay, that is now a class 5 caustic emanation. The next available appointment window will be this coming Tuesday at 3:30 PM." Dan looked back to his paperwork and spoke under his breath, "Dear God…" "Thank you very much… I'm sorry? Well, you might want to move into a hotel for the time being. Oh, and remove any baking soda from the house while you're at it. You don't want a foamy mess when you come back. If you do have any rust stains in the tub, I would take the opportunity to leave the shower curtain open." Dan looked from his paperwork again alarmed as she concluded the phone call, "Have a good day." She hung up and looked at the applicant across from her desk. She noticed his expression, "If you're looking for the door, it's the way you came. Otherwise, if you're done…" She pointed to the clipboard.

Dan chuckled nervously, "I need a few more minutes…" he looked at the form on the clipboard, "…to reconsider what I've been doing with my life."

After a few moments the blonde-haired man handed the completed clipboard back to the receptionist. She looked the paperwork over and began asking, "I need to ask you a few standard interview questions." Dan shrugged, "Okay; shoot." "Do you have any major medical conditions?" "No."

"Does your family have a history of mental disability?"

"Wait," the man stopped her, "do you actually mean 'disability' or do you mean condition? There is a difference."

"I shouldn't be quite so blunt about it," the woman stated in a more hushed voice, "but they're asking if you're crazy."

"I'll say 'no' despite the fact I'm actually trying for a job here."

"...That's a good way of putting it."

"It's a talent."

"What would you say are your strong points?"

"I have a masters in electronic engineering; a bachelors in nuclear engineering; I have an associates in computer networking…"

She interrupted him, "Why no doctorates?" He smirked, without missing a beat, "Because doctors are arrogant; I'm just but a humble asshole." She laughed a bit, being caught off guard from the response. Dan switched back to being serious, joking aside, "I didn't have enough funds to get more degrees. My parents could only afford so much and I was working at an appliance repair place to help with it. I'm not exactly a Rothchild here." She saw the look on the man's face and saw there was a struggle. She had to confirm, "Why here?"

That was when she saw it. A look came across the man's face and knew almost before he said anything what he was about to say, "I'm at wit's end here. I've had several job interviews this month and all of them said I was overqualified. I saw a few years back you guys tried to start a Chicago office and I was still in high school at the time…"

"Oooooh! That explains your accent," she commented, "You're from Chicago?"

He sighed, "That's not gonna count against me, is it?"

She shook her head, "It's not part of the interview. You seem rather interesting; granted the word interesting has a different meaning in this place."

Dan continued where he left off, "Honestly, your equipment fascinates me to no end. I just wanna learn. You could say the sight of you guys' logo always gets my attention. Above all else, I just need work. What are my chances here?" She went back to the man's resume and quickly thumbed through it. She nodded at it, "Ray could really use your electronics skills and Egon could always use the nuclear part of your training," she put down the packet of paper and looked the man in the eye with a smirk, "I'd say there's a good chance you'll get on. And honestly, I like you. You sound like the kinda person that could fire back at Dr. Venkman's smart-mouthed remarks."

"Ah, yes; Dr. Peter Venkman," Dan sighed, a hint of lamentation in his voice, "Seen plenty a news report with him talking to the camera," he raised an eyebrow, "He doesn't have a tendency of kissing mirrors, does he?" "Only a couple of times a week." He put his forefinger and thumb to the bridge of his nose, a chuckle in his voice, "I was being sarcastic…" "Look at it like this: the day he starts using lipstick before kissing it will be the day we'll have to retire him. Like the song says," she quoted, "'Ask me no questions; I'll tell you no lies.'"

He looked up, "You listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd?"

"That was Lynyrd Skynyrd?" she asked as she tilted her head to the side, "I thought that was The Bangles."

By this point the interview went off the rails. Dan just shook his head and sighed, "Never mind. There was a B.B. King song with the same lyrics in it." By this time the main garage door opened as Ecto-1 returned from its run of calls. Dan turned in his chair to see the long vehicle back into the garage. He heard the engine of the vehicle rumble as it came to a stop, the bullet-shaped tail light lighting up for a moment before the vehicle parked and the engine stopped.

There they were; the Ghostbusters. They stepped out of the car, each of them holding a smoking trap. The smoke from the devices poured from the doors of the vehicle and wafted toward the ceiling as all four men walked toward the desk. The black man of the four walked from the driver seat and approached the desk, "Who's truck is that out front?"

The woman stood from her desk and addressed the four of them, "Guys, this is Dan Shannon. He's here about the job." The heavyset auburn-haired one of the group came up to Dan as he was standing, asking the woman behind the desk, "Does he look like a good fit, Janine?" The woman - Janine, as her desk's name plate also stated - rounded the desk and handed the resume to the man, "See for yourself. I personally think he's good." The man thumbed through the document the same as she did just moments before. Dan started to fidget a bit as he watched the man look through the papers. His eyebrows raised up shortly before he nodded his head.

A man with blonde hair in a Flock of Seagulls hairstyle and a pair of red-rimmed glasses walked beside the heavyset man. The heavyset man noticed his colleague's presence and handed the document to him, "What ya think, Egon?" The man with the glasses - Egon as he was called - traded the loaded trap for the document and proceeded to also look through it. Dan became tense as this man looked his resume up and down, looking back and forth between pages to correlate information. "Hmmm…" That was a sound Dan didn't like. The man's expression was one of conflicted thought. Egon took his time looking to the man's credentials, making the person who provided the document squirm.

Egon handed the document back to Janine, "He'll do. We'll begin training tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM." The man walked toward the stairs to the upstairs of the firehouse leaving the other Ghostbusters with their new rookie. The heavyset man looked back to Dan and spoke with enthusiasm, "Whelp, you're hired! I'm Ray Stantz," he pointed to the black man and the mostly silent brown-haired man behind them, "This is Winston Zeddemore and Peter Venkman. As a time honored tradition we let the new recruit take the full Ghost Traps to the Containment Unit for disposal." Taking the multiple loaded devices all three men dropped all four traps into Dan's hands. Not familiar with the nature of the smoke Dan was nervous to let the smoke near him.

"Don't worry about the smell," Peter finally spoke up, "You'll learn to get used to the stink of roasted slime." Dan took a whiff of the trap smoke and coughed as he followed his new bosses to the basement, "I hope I don't lose my security deposit because I drag this smell back home with me." Peter smirked and patted the man on the back, "Speaking from experience, I'd invest in some Glade Plugins."

June 11th, 1995

C&H Salvage

Staten Island, NY

3:25 PM

Ecto-1 pulled into the parking lot of the junkyard as both Ray and Egon stepped from the front seat of the car. The two of them took a moment to look toward the back seat window and see their rookie's back pressed against the window. Ray leaned over and spoke softly, "Now?" Egon looked to his watch and waited a few more seconds before answering, "…Now." Ray unlocked the back door and opened it. Dan fell back-first into the parking lot's pavement, soon after backing up on his hands away from the car. Shortly after a green blob came hovering out of the back seat blubbering in some kind of language that sounded like gibberish. The green blob sounded like it was laughing.

Dan got to his feet and backed away from it, "Is there a reason you had to shove me in the back with… him?" "We're just getting you acclimated to being within close proximity of ectoplasmic entities," the physicist stated, "It is part of your newfound occupation, after all." Dan turned and looked at Egon a moment before looking at Ray, eyebrow raised and thumb pointed to Egon, "Does he come with a glossary?"

Ray spoke cheerfully as he explained Egon's verbal convolution, "What he means is Slimer is the best training aid we have. He is, more or less, what you're commonly going to encounter on the job." "Yeah, okay, but," the trainee began asking, "did he have to eat a whole bag of onions for lunch? Couldn't he have at least swished with some Scope or something?" "Never mind that," Egon moved on with the conversation. He knew this man was going to be interesting; perhaps a vocal rival to Venkman. He proceeded to pull a device off his belt. It was a small box with a screen attached to a handle, the face of the device adorned with knobs and lights. He held it up, "Are you familiar with this device?"

"Uh…" Dan looked at the device as Egon pulled the antenna from the top of the device and activated it, "A Sony Walkman for the deaf?" "This is a PKE meter. Psychokinetic Energy is an environmental anomaly left behind when a ghost passes through an area. Being mostly made of muons, PKE interacts with the physical environment creating ectoplasmic forms. Based on the amount of PKE accumulated, the more dense the entity."

"So," Dan surmised, "the PKE meter works the same as a Geiger Counter, but for muons instead." "Why, yes!" Egon was rather impressed with the young man's deduction, "A bit crude a description, but reasonable." "So, that's why you use protons," Dan deduced again, "muons are negatively charged and you use different intensities of oscillation to break down the PKE density and take hold of the negative ionization." Ray was surprised at the level of knowledge the man had, "Wow, you're pretty informed! More exactly, the beams are used to break the bonds formed in the ectoplasmic cohesion and then separate the PKE from the muons themselves. From there we use the Ghost Traps to trap the essence of the entity and store it."

By this time Egon had gone into the back of the long white and red vehicle to retrieve a backpack device covered with warning labels and indicator lights, "And we use these. I believe this device needs no introduction." The device was intimidating. From his education he saw that the device was in fact a Proton Pack: a nuclear accelerator used by the Ghostbusters to do their job. Egon handed over the device and placed it into Dan's hands. Dan was nearly pulled to the ground, taken aback by the weight of the device, "Whoa, Nelly!" he stabilized himself and hefted the device back up, "These things are heavier than they look." After getting the device on Dan drew the thrower and became familiar with the device as he looked it over. Dan activated the device and felt the cyclotron start to spin behind him, a menacing whirring noise accompanying it. He was mildly alarmed, "Uh, is that normal?"

"There's nothing to worry about," the occultist of the team stated, "The packs are perfectly safe."

"Aren't these things nuclear fueled?" Dan asked.

"Just some carbon-14," Egon confirmed, "perfectly sealed in its source canister."

Dan chuckled nervously, "Great. Just a source filled with a beta emitter. I feel better."

"Okay, we're gonna let you have a dry run in the junkyard here," Ray said as he escorted Dan to the gate to the yard, "We're gonna have Slimer hide and we're gonna see how well you can decipher how the equipment works. We wouldn't normally let you go in without some base safety instructions, but you seem to be a pretty mechanically minded kinda guy. We wanna see how you react to the situation."

Dan stopped and looked at the senior Ghostbusters with wide eyes, "You have got to be kidding."

Egon approached the other side of the man and proceeded to hand him the PKE meter, speaking in a very emotionless and monotone voice, "Good luck." Dan gave a half-hearted and obviously fake smile as he began walking toward the compound entrance. As he left the men's earshot he began talking to himself in a sing-song voice, "Man, if mom saw what I was doing right now, she would be panicking…"

Time went by. Walking between stacks of crushed cars and strewn vehicle parts of all sorts on the ground, Dan had the PKE meter in hand and was attempting to operate the device. He turned dials and hit switches to see if he could deduce how the device operated, "Okay, so gain is here; mode selection is here… How do you gauge distance and class on this thing?" He stopped when a blip came on the screen. It was right behind him. He felt the cold and could smell the onions behind him. He turned slowly to see Slimer directly behind him with a devious smile on the green ghost's face. Dan could tell the gears were turning and it wasn't boding well for him. He started reaching for the particle thrower as he looked the ghost in his yellow eyes, "I wouldn't do it if I were you."

Slimer suddenly took off toward him at full speed. Dan drew the gun on the pack and started to fire wildly. Without proper target practice beforehand he had no idea of the wild nature of the proton stream. He fired wildly at the ghost rushing at him screaming at the situation…

Egon and Ray were still standing by Ecto-1 at the entrance of the salvage yard waiting for Dan to finish his first practice run. They leaned against the passenger side fender as Ray spoke, "…And that was how I learned of the new revision to the The Esoteric Philosophy of the Tantras Shiva Sanhita. Turns out there was a descendant of the Prophet." "Fascinating," Egon said, stroking his chin, "I wonder if we can get this descendant to visit us and we can do a blood test." Ray raised an eyebrow, "You have a sample of the original author's blood?" "Had access to the original scrolls. Apparently, papercuts were a thing back then, too."

BOOM! An explosion rocked out from the salvage yard as a stack of cars suddenly toppled over. A proton stream was seen flying out over the tops of the piles of scrap. Egon and Ray looked at each other briefly before running into the yard.

A Ghost Trap was seen closing just as Egon and Ray made it to the yard. A slime-drenched hand came down and grabbed the handle of the smoking device. The two of them stopped dead when they saw a very angry and slime-soaked Rookie come walking toward them with the smoking trap in his hand. Ray came up to him and asked, "Dan, are you alUGNNH!" Dan slammed the trap into Ray's stomach knocking the wind out of him. He growled, "Here's you friend." He took a step forward and unclipped the meter from his belt, soon after throwing it hard at Egon, "Here's your toy!" The meter nearly hit the physicist in the face had he not tried to grab it. Egon fumbled with the thrown meter to get it firmly in his hand before Dan laid into the both of them, "The next time you assholes send me into something without proper operating knowledge of the equipment, I'm killing you. New hire or not, I am not playing to bullshit! Understand?!"

They watched as the young man walked toward the exit to the yard, ectoplasm dripping off him and he marched his way out back to Ecto-1. Ray lifted the trap up to look at it as he commented, "He took that better than I expected him to." Reversing the polarity on the trap and opening it, Slimer came out of the trap and began to materialize. Ray spoke to him once he completely solidified, "So, how did he do?" Slimer started to cry talking in his normal gibberish. He wrapped his hands around Ray's neck and cried into his uniform.

Egon was hearing this and had a look of shock on his face, "He did what?!" "I never heard of our packs being used for that before!" Ray agreed. Slimer reached back down and grabbed the trap from Ray's hand. Throwing it to the ground and hitting the foot trigger with his hands the green class five flew for the entrapment vortex and closed the trap on himself. He had no desire to ride home with Dan; it was safer in the trap. Ray picked the trap up and looked at it as he heard Slimer still whimpering inside of it. He felt bad, "Boy, he must have done a number on poor Slimer. He doesn't even react to Peter that way!"

"His aggression may be useful in getting lower classifications in line," Egon said as he clipped the meter to his belt, "It's something that can be an advantage, within reason, of course." They both started walking to the exit of the salvage yard following the trail of slime their new rookie made as Ray stated, "I wonder if he's this aggressive with everything he does…"

June 12th, 1995

Ghostbusters HQ

2:24 PM

After a day of cleaning traps and being quizzed on hardware Dan was led outside by Winston where Ecto-1 was currently parked, "Alright, you've made it to day two of training. How's it been so far?" Dan looked thrilled, and it's to be taken in the sarcastic sense, "Let me see: I've been covered in snot; my lower back discs feel like they've been compressed to half their size; I'm feeling like I need to see an oncologist more frequently, but only if my medical benefits kick in…" "Yeah," Winston interrupted him, "you'll have to wait 90 days for that. They are good benefits, though." "…Right. Anyway, I've loaded every snotball you've caught into that giant red terror-inducing thing you have in the basement. In all truth, this isn't as bad as some people's toasters. At least here, you know for a fact you'll be dealing with dead things."

Winston tilted his head to the side, "What ya mean by that?"

"I worked on people's appliances. Had a customer that had a broken air conditioner. Wanna know what broke the internal impeller fan?" Winston shrugged. "Rat fell into it. Poor thing's body bounced around and like a meat grinder, it…"

"O-kay!" Winston lost his willingness to listen to more, shouting, "I'd like to be able to use A/C… and eat a burger… without knowing more." "You think I wanna know it?" Dan asked, adamant about being an arbitrator of insanity, "I had to scrape dead rat guts off the condenser coil and the customer bitched about the bleach smell. I had to use a lot of bleach to get the stink out!"

Winston facepalmed in frustration before pulling his hand away and yelled, "Enough about the damn rat!" After composing himself, he looked to his fellow employee and explained, "It's time to teach you how to drive defensively in emergency situations. We'll take Ecto-1…" before they knew it the alarm went off. Peter, Ray, and Egon got into Ecto-1 and started the car up. Peter was the last out of the building and getting into the passenger seat he said out loud, "It's a clear $1,500 call at El Burritos de Oros! We'll bring you guys back a couple of burritos!" Getting the door shut the vehicle started and took off down the street, lights and siren activated.

In a flurry of "Um's" and "Ah's" Winston couldn't stop them from leaving. He put his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose and groaned in aggravation, "Well, there goes that idea."

"Why not just take my truck?" Winston looked back and saw the rookie pointing to the S-10 with his thumb, "I mean, I just gotta prove I can drive defensively, right?" "I donno, man," he looked the vehicle over, "Ecto-1 has a special license for emergency use. From what I heard we didn't have one until after the whole Gozer thing. Special thing with the city, I guess," after a minute Winston thought of an idea to still make Dan's work, "I got an in at the local police training facility. He was an old Marnie buddy of mine. Let me make a call…"

NYPD Emergency Service Unit Training Facility

Floyd Bennett Field

Roughly an hour or two passed and now Dan and Winston were at the NYPD training facility in Flatbush, Brooklyn. They were at Floyd Bennett Field standing on one of the old and currently disused runways with Winston's old Marine buddy. They walked from the main building to the training course as the two former Marines spoke, Dan trailing behind them, "Again, thanks for letting us use the tarmac, Gabe. It wouldn't have been easy to do this without Ecto-1 otherwise."

"Not a problem, Zee," the white NYPD trainer stated as he walked toward Dan's S-10, "The class I was supposed to train today bailed on me, so you got an open track. I just gotta ask though," the two of them stopped prompting the rookie Ghostbuster to also stop as Gabe pointed to the truck, "you planning on using this thing in the field? It looks like it'd get you somewhere in a damn hurry." "It's my personal truck, dude," Dan stated as he spoke up, "I got it from a police auction in Chicago."

"Let me guess," the trainer stated, a bemused look coming over his face, "The Espanola-Coal Courier."

That confused Dan, "Huh?"

"I remember this truck," the officer said out loud, "we had circulars from the DEA saying this was a courier vehicle; a drug running truck. This thing was chased back and forth from Espanola, New Mexico to Coal City, Illinois. Zee said you were from Chicago, right?" Dan nodded, "Yeah, like I said I bought it at a Chicago Police auction." Gabe continued, "Yeah, they busted the guy nearly a year ago in some town called Radium Hills, Illinois. This thing was fast. It being black made it easy to hide in the dark, especially in the desert and off the main highways. Guy was lucky as hell, too; nearly wrecked this thing several times, but he managed to evade the DEA agents and every other cop that came across it. After a while when we saw a new report on the truck and how it got away, we started calling it 'Lucky Black'. It's kind of an honor to be in this thing's presence."

"Lucky Black?" Dan asked, intrigued at the name, "I like it." He scoffed a bit as a smirk came over his face, "Strange the police several states away from where this guy was busted know my truck better than I do." The police trainer laid some parting advice as he geared up to walk off the tarmac, "From what Winston here told me, you could use a first response vehicle. That truck had a bad start in life. Maybe you can change it?" With that the NYPD trainer turned and walked away. Dan thought about it for a moment, "A first response vehicle? If the company paid the insurance, I wouldn't mind doing that."

"Well," Winston got ahead of the rookie getting any more ideas on the matter, "maybe we should get you trained on emergency driving before putting you in charge of something." That wasn't much of a ringing endorsement, especially from a senior member. As Winston went for the passenger door Dan took that as a slight, making him come to a decision. He ran his tongue over his teeth as he nodded, a sly little smile forming on his face once his tongue was tucked back into its proper place, "Okay. Take me for a dingbat, eh?" Getting out his keys he approached the driver's side.

After getting into the vehicle Dan started it up, Winston already buckled and ready to go, "Alright, we're gonna start out slow, but not as slow as you were getting here." "Really?" Dan asked, "Not as slow? I did that for your benefit."

All of a sudden, Winston had a bad feeling.

"You wanna see my normal definition of slow?" The rookie asked, shifting into first, "Sure thing, chief!" Dan revved the truck to 6000 RPMs and popped the clutch. The tires on the S-10 started laying patches on the runway and the truck took off.

Gabe the trainer heard the tires squealing, making him turn around. He watched as the truck started hauling down his training course at high speed. He laughed, "Yep, same Lucky Black. Definitely the right person driving that truck."

Back inside the vehicle Winston had at least one of his hands holding the roof handle with a death grip. The truck sailed around the corners and between cones as Dan shifted up and down with precision timing. The truck swerved around tight turns as the roar of the 305 cubic inch engine and the whine of the supercharger made for an ear ringing tension-filled excursion. Dan had thrown the truck around the track like a professional, it being clear he had done this more times than anyone originally figured. He dodged obstacles on the course with a flawless sense of awareness.

Going around an S-curve on the track, the truck came close to hitting some of the concrete barriers on the course making Winston yelp in fear, "Dan, is it possible for you to slow down, just a little bit!?" "You think this is fast?" the Ghostbuster-in-training asked as he reached for the dashboard and started flipping covered switches, "You haven't seen fast yet!" In one smooth movement Dan went from flipping the nitrous arming switch, straightening the truck out on a straightaway, and changing gears all while moving his feet back and forth between the gas and the brake. Once the truck was on the straightaway and pressed the nitrous activation switch recessed in the gear selector.

The tires once again started smoking as the truck picked up an idiotic amount of speed. Winston felt himself sinking into the passenger seat as he looked over and looked at the truck's speedometer. He caught it just enough in time to watch the gauge hit the peg. The additional auxiliary gauges including the NO2 saw all of their needles jump as the vehicle's engine topped out.

By this time everyone from the administration of the NYPD facility started to gather outside the hangar as well as some of the police department's aviation crew to watch the insane person in the black pickup running up and down the obstacle course. After a few moments a larger group of people started to come in from the airport museum space from the sound of the tires. They knew the sounds of cop cars going around this track, but this was a different sound altogether. It was a spectacle.

The truck was reaching the end of the runway where a loop of burnt rubber on the tarmac wrapped around an obstacle. It was a high speed 180 maneuver. Dan locked the brakes causing a significant drop in speed. Winston felt like the sudden decrease in speed was going to throw his teeth from his mouth. Dan downshifted causing the rear wheels to break loose and lose traction. He proceeded to snap the wheel and begin the process of swinging the back end of the vehicle around the obstacle. The truck's tail whip cracked around the obstacle and immediately after clearing the tight turn he dropped the hammer and spun the tires.

Winston was rather panicked at the erratic driving style the man performed, "Are you trying to flip?!"

Dan ignored him as he began pushing for more speed. There was a final stop box beside the concrete barriers for the purpose of performing a powerslide parking maneuver. Normal trainees would have to perform this maneuver at speeds not exceeding 60 miles an hour. Dan was going…

Face it, Dan was going faster than that. Does it matter what the number is?

They were approaching faster than any other car had previously. Winston was severely losing his cool, "Dan? Dan, man, slow down, please!" He was getting more manic and louder as he grabbed the man by the shirt sleeve, "Come on, homeboy, back off the pedal!" "I'll back off when I'm good and ready!" Winston looked to his rookie terrified. He saw the smirk on his face as he maintained the speed. They were still approaching the barriers too fast for Winston's liking. He wanted to scream…

"Okay," Dan finally stated, "I'm ready!" He promptly grabbed and pulled on the custom installed hydraulic emergency brake handle. The tail broke loose again as Dan again flicked the wheel and pitched the truck sideways. The passenger door was now squarely lined up and heading toward the stop box and the barriers Winston took a keen interest in. Winston saw the barrier approaching and threw his hands and arms in front of his face…

The truck stopped, neatly inside the stop box. Dan pulled the vehicle out of gear and powered the truck off. After a moment of looking over at his superior he still saw Winston frozen with his hands still up, "If you were dead, St. Peter would have told you by now." Winston opened his eyes and saw the vehicle was off and everything was calm. He looked to the rookie in the driver seat as Dan stated bluntly, "If you messed my seats, you're paying for it to get cleaned."

"Maybe it's good we didn't wait to take Ecto-1," Winston said as he finally relaxed and wiped the sweat from his head, "El Burritos de Oros would have messed those seats by themselves for sure."

"So," the young man began to ask, "you think I'm already rated to handle emergency driving?" "Dan, your driving is an emergency," Winston spoke bluntly, "and if anyone else says otherwise I'm gonna call him the worst kind of…"

Just then Gabe came to the driver window and knocked on it. Dan rolled the window down and proceeded to ask a smartass question, "What seems to be the trouble, officer?" "That had to be," the trainer said, "the most insane and precision stunt driving I've ever seen. Where'd you learn to drive like that?"

"The Dan Ryan?" Dan joked.

"You're better than anyone who's ever hit this course!" the trainer stated, "If you were one of mine, I'd stamp your card immediately!" "I'm glad you believe so," Dan stated as he pointed beside him, "Oh, Winston wanted to tell you something," he turned to the Ghostbuster in the S-10's passenger seat as he started to repeat what he was saying, "Something about calling that certain person…" Winston interrupted Dan with a loud throat clearing before quickly transitioning into speaking, "I think we're done here. I'll meet you back at the firehouse."

Dan raised an eyebrow, "Why not let me…" Winston interrupted him again as he opened the door and stepped out, "That's okay, I'll catch a cab. Later!" He stepped out of the vehicle and started running back toward the administration building. Dan looked at Winston's Marine acquaintance, "Was he always like that?"

June 23rd, 1995

Ghostbusters HQ

5:24 PM

Dan was finishing up cleaning the main bunk room. He spent a good deal of the day moving the bunks around the room to add another bed for him. After that, he got roped into cleaning the floors, closets, and even the ceiling of all the flaking ectoplasmic residue Slimer had left behind. After over a decade of slathering the material all over the place it had built up to a significant amount to the point the PKE meters had a slight echo of the room. After that, he dropped the final dust pile into the garbage can by way of the dust pan before hooking the pan back on the broom handle.

For the last few weeks he had been doing a lot of odd jobs around the firehouse. Between learning the basics of the actual physics and repairing packs, he had a very busy month getting himself acclimated to the place. After dusting the dirt off the knees of his jeans he stated out loud, "This is bullshit."

"You should have seen the place when we got started," Dan turned around to see Peter walking into the bunk room with a box, "We had to get rid of all the abandoned junk, repair the main supports of the building, and run new wiring to the lab and the basement for Egon's explosion generators." "'Egon's Explosion Generators'?" Dan asked as he placed the bloom next to the garbage can, "Great, like I didn't have enough anxiety."

"Ah, cheer up, Dan," the psychologist stated as he put the box on his bunk and began opening it, "at least you can get away from the place; we're kinda stuck living here, especially with that flying goo ball," he stopped opening the box and turned to face him, "I heard what ya did to the Spud the other day. I can only imagine you used the Magnus Effect using the flick of the wrist in your trap routine."

Dan picked up the garbage can and moved it to the other side of the room, "Explain the Magnus Effect." After a moment Dan looked at the other man in the room and saw Peter was using words he wasn't familiar with. He sighed at the "Scientist" in the room with him, "Dude, I know we all have the urge to use those new words we heard from Mr. Wizard, but you actually, you know, have to know what the term means."

"Hey, I know the last few weeks have been kinda harsh on ya," the man went back to the box he was opening. He finally took out a knife and cut the tape off the box, "but seeing you've been taking the place in stride, I argued we at the least give you the garb to make you official."

"But," the rookie said, "I haven't actually done a field call yet."

"Already arranged," the psychologist stated as he pulled a garment from the box. It was a one piece navy blue suit with gray cuffs and collar. On the shoulder was the cartoonish circle-slash logo that brought him to this place to begin with. Peter turned from the box and handed the suit to Dan, "After several weeks we have finally set your first appointment for greatness, but of course, you need to look the part. So, what's ya think?"

Dan looked the suit over. He felt a weight start to lift off him as he now had the first step to being ready for the field in his hands. Even though Egon was distant and Winston… Well, every time Winston heard his truck's engine he'd start to scramble away, but he felt a sense of accomplishment now having a uniform with the company. He never thought he'd be excited to wear a uniform, but here he was.

The rookie nodded, "I think I'm gonna like it here."