Chapter 3: The Gauntlet: Part 2
June 24th, 1995. It was 11:25 at night. Using the spare key for Ecto-1, I took Nicole Alkaline, a young lady - well, cosmetically, anyway - who had a demon living inside her back to the Ghostbusters' HQ, an old firehouse. I opened the main doors of the firehouse and parked Ecto-1 in the engine bay. Janine Melnitz - the company secretary - jumped from her desk and ran to the driver side window, "You guys have been gone for over two hours! What took you…" she looked back to front inside the car and saw the guys weren't there. She started to get concerned, "Where're the guys? What happened?!"
I got out of the car and closed the door. Now, I had been working here long enough to learn of the… *ahem* obvious hots Janine has for Egon. Let's just lay it out: Even 8+ rating welding safety glass couldn't blot out that spark. The best I could do was be frank, "Janine, there's no delicate way to tell you this, but the others are in serious shit." The worry on Janine's face went up Hiroshima, "Oh my God! They're not dead, are they?"
Now I was nervous. I'd known Janine for almost a month at this point. I knew she was one not to screw with. I had yet to see how she would respond to actual tension and I was dreading it. The worst part, now I had to figure out what to do and see if I could… well… do something to find or get the guys back. I just told her what I knew, which was nothing, "I don't know."
Janine heard the passenger door open in the car and looked past me to see Nicole stepping out of the car. She stood there beside Ecto-1, intimidated a bit as Janine looked her over. She said to me quietly, "Who's the beatnik?" I felt a flareup of panic causing me to close in closer to her and speak even lower in tone of voice, "Janine, I'd try not to say anything that'd piss her off. Trust me." I spoke a little louder as I introduced her, "Uh, this is Nicole Alcaline. I have to ask her a couple-two-three questions and maybe run some tests."
"'Cuppa-too-tree'?" Janine repeated what she thought she heard back at me, making me realize that holy shit, I have a dialect.
Goddamn regional language barrier. I hate being a Chicagoan in New York.
"It means a few," I explained.
Nicole locked up a bit as she heard what I said, "Tests? What kind of tests?" I turned to her and saw she locked stiffer than a two-by-four… Or, how I guess we said it back in Chicago, a "Too-by-Fur"... Okay, okay, I'll stop. Anyway, I saw her looking rather terrified at the idea of being played around with in a nasty way. I had to reassure her, "Relax. It's nothing that'll put you in an uncomfortable position." I looked back to Janine, "Hey, could you make a pot of extra strong coffee? Make it where when I snap my fingers, it jumps in the cup."
Janine smirked at me, "You gotta be careful how you request things around here. They have a tendency to become literal." She walked off to the coffee maker and started loading up the machine with fresh grounds. Nicole finally walked closer to me and asked me, "What does she mean by that?" That made me uncomfortable, "Let's just say in my line of work, very strange things happen," I remember having the distinct thought of Yeah, and I have yet to see any of it outright until now. With all that said and done I escorted her up to Egon's Lab.
After a few moments, having Nicole in a chair and comfortable, I started by looking through Egon and Ray's reading materials. They had some very old and strange books in their reference library. I was half-expecting to see a book bound in human flesh. Talk about the odd day that would be. Anyway, I found one of the books Egon always made reference to, "Ah, Tobin's Spirit Guide." I took the book off the shelf and started looking through it, "Okay, Sperkipy… Sperkipy… Sper… better avoid saying that three times. Maybe he spawns like Beetlejuice."
After a few minutes I figured out something, "Ah!"
Nicole had been watching me as I looked through the old dusty reference guide. She had a hint of excitement to her voice as she asked, "You found something?" "Yeah," I answered, "I found out I have no idea how to read this thing." I closed the book and threw it on Egon's workbench, "That was a waste." I noticed Nicole by the electronics workbench where I had a laptop sitting. I had another idea on how to look for this "Sperkipy."
I sat in the chair beside Nicole and opened the laptop. After I booted it up I started using the Occult Reference Net BBS to search for this little pain in my ass. As I started the inquiry and it took its time to search the database, Nicole looked over my shoulder and saw the laptop before her, "What is that thing you're using?" "What thing?" I asked back. "That flat television screen attached to that flat typewriter?" I actually had to stop my search and look at her. She was serious about it, too. She looked wide-eyed like a kid. I forgot she was perpetually stuck in the 60's. I had to explain it to her, "It's called a laptop computer. It's an electronic device that computes data quickly and can store that information for several years at a time."
"Groovy!" She said, "I thought only the government had stuff like this!" I looked at her confused, repeating what she said, "'Groovy'?" I remember sighing at that. It wasn't pertinent, "Nevermind. Anyway a lot has changed since the 60's. You haven't kept up with technology after this long?"
"N-no," she answered, "I tried to stay away from people. I've seen things change, but never to this extent. It's just…" she got out of her chair and moved the screen on the hinge a couple of times before saying it, "it's weird not seeing the tube or anything." I heard a chime play on the computer telling me it was done searching. I pulled the screen away from Nicole's hand so I could read the screen.
After getting the screen in the right spot, I looked at the only entry, reading it aloud, "Spearkipy - Native Demon of Protection. Since the early 1500's, when the discoverers of the 'New World' first arrived, Spearkipy has protected the North American Native tribe of Shalinky. After the battle of Fort Wilderness, the Shalinky tribe called upon the Demon of Protection to seek revenge on those that killed the neighborly tribe of Cherokee. After the deeds were done, the beast became restless and began killing the members of the tribe that called upon him. It has been believed since his release from the chief of the Shalinky tribe, Spearkipy has prayed upon those who wished others death, then uses its host to continue its killing until the host is…'" I didn't like what I was about to read next, "'...Is killed by an outside individual'? Holy shit!"
After scrolling down I saw a scanned picture of the symbol that was shining on Nicole's chest when the creature appeared. I looked to Nicole and saw her with her hands over her mouth with her eyes wide. She spoke from under her hands, "Oh my God! What have I done?!" I immediately tried to calm her down in case she triggered an appearance by the shithead of the hour, "Take it easy, kid! Just relax. This isn't your fault."
"Yes it is!" She stood from her seat again and started to walk away from the bench, stopping with her back turned to me, "If I didn't run away from my foster parents and talk to those witches…" "You were vulnerable," I told her, spinning in the chair, "You just wanted the pain to stop and what they did, well… There are people out there that don't completely understand the power they're screwing with. You may have sought them out, but that doesn't make you the bad one here."
She walked toward the fire pole closest to the front of the building and began to cry. She grabbed her upper arms. She must have had a nasty chill run up her back for her to realize how badly she saw herself in the screwup, "It doesn't matter now! I agreed to something that was dangerous so long ago and the only way it can be stopped is if… if I'm killed."
I got out of my chair and walked to her side. There was only one way to put it, so I just pressed ahead with it, "You know, it seems to me it wouldn't solve a hell of a lot if I were to kill you. You'd be dead and that thing would just find someone else to use like a damn Muppet. I don't wanna kill people. I'm sure you don't either, nor do you wanna be killed, so there's only one solution here: We gotta get that thing out of you."
She looked at me confused, "But you said he would only be released if I died!" "There's always another way," I had an idea, "and I think I know a way to do it." I grabbed the pole and slid down the first floor. I caught Janine as she was just about to head upstairs when she heard us coming down. I dismounted the pole and walked to her as she showed us she was carrying two coffee cups. She said, "I was just about to bring these up to you."
"Change of plans," I told her, "she's not staying awake now."
"She's not?" Janine asked.
Nicole asked, too, "I'm not?"
I shook my head as I said it out loud, "Nope. Found out the nasty secret with this thing. Janine, can you get Nicole a glass of water and two benadryl? I'll take the coffee. I'm gonna need it."
As I was grabbing the mugs Janine looked a little confused at me. I think she could see that I had an idea, "What are you gonna do?" "Egon and Ray showed me something I think might work for this. I may have to do some rework on it, it's our only chance here." She looked at me harder. She must have picked up that I was nervous about this whole thing. I was a rookie flying blind in a profession I barely had a grasp on. I had a controlled test in capturing a ghost, but I wasn't prepared for this. I wasn't sure about what I saw doing…
"You'll get them back, Dan." I remember cocking my head to the side until she explained what she meant, "If Egon and Ray hired you, that means you can do it. Like I said when I interviewed you, you looked like a good fit. I mean it, too."
That was rare for me. Here was the secretary of the company treating me like a person. It was a hard road for me getting to this point. I was supposedly highly intelligent, but I was treated like an idiot; I have the will to do anything, told I'm a lazy prick. It's been an annoying existence for me, but the first time I'm given encouragement it was a very extreme situation. Man, this was nerve wracking, I remember thinking. It was a big deal. For someone like Janine to tell me I was just as capable in a roundabout way was… very uplifting. I nodded, "Thanks, Janine. I'll do my best." It was a simple statement, but I knew I only had one recourse. After all, how am I gonna get those checks signed?
In the basement, Nicole was standing in front of the large red metal device that was called the Ecto-Containment Unit. She stood there and looked at the huge device as I was digging through the abandoned equipment storage closet. I was digging around for a very particular piece of equipment I was once told about. I went through several pieces including something that looked like a xerox machine. I looked at the tag, "'Plasmic Strainer'? The hell does this thing do?" I even found a Ghost Trap that was coated in wax with an impression left on it. I read the tag on that one, too, because it didn't look like an experimental piece of gear, "'Contains… Contains the Four Horsemen'?!" I released the tag and backed away from the trap, "Jesus!" When I backed up my heel kicked a trunk on the floor. I turned and looked at the tag and found what I was looking for.
I came out of storage with the trunk when I saw Nicole running her hands over the control switches and was about to pull the breaker switch to the power control…
I gripped her wrist, "Don't. Touch. The unit!" I had dropped the trunk I was holding on a nearby workbench and ran over to her to stop her from pulling the power breaker. I let go of her and leaned against the railing in front of the loading matrix to catch my breath as she looked at me annoyed, "Why? What's this thing used for?" I had to explain it in the most basic senses, "It's our Ecto-Containment Unit. All of the ghosts we catch go in this thing. If you shut the thing down, all the ghosts in here will escape in an explosion so violent, it'll…" She looked at me like I was turning into a goddamn polar bear. It was clear she didn't understand. All I was doing was repeating what Ray told me. Clearly this was gonna be harder to explain than I thought.
I figured there was no point, "Look, just… don't touch. Not a damn thing, okay?" I walked back to the bench and started unlocking the equipment trunk. After shuffling around I found the object I needed: A large rifle-like device that was covered with several components on its casing. Nicole looked over my shoulder and asked me, "What's that thing? Looks like something from a Buck Rogers comic."
I remember slowly looking back toward her, "Buck… Rogers? Jesus Christ, you are antiquated." Her eyebrows shot up and pushed up her bandana up her forehead as I went back to the trunk and pulled out a set of hand-drawn electronic schematics. I explained it to her as I thumbed through Egon and Ray's notes, "It's called a Destablizer rifle. It's supposed to break up the ectoplasmic density of higher classifications and make it possible to contain corporeal entities. In other words: Make solid things more ghost-like so our traps will work on them. I heard a demon threw an energy pulse back at Egon, throwing the beam back at him and it royally screwed him up."
"What did you guys call yourselves again," she asked, "'Ghost Busters'? You're not those two guys with the gorilla, are you?" I had heard this before somewhere. Two dufuses and a monkey supposedly tried to use the name at one point, but it was before my time. I could answer with, "Do I look like someone that messes with monkeys?" This girl really was from outside of time. She was the 60's female version of Mel Gibson at this point.
It was a distraction. I went back to the schematics and saw the issue, "It looks like there was an overpulse. The modulations couldn't smooth out enough because of the capacitor value. It wasn't a steady energy flow." I put down the schematics and opened the access panel and saw how the device was put together, "Yep, just as I figured. This capacitor is too far outside of tolerance. If I throw a few more smaller caps around this circuit then throw a bodge wire on the full bridge rectifier it might balance out the frequency hold on the microcontroller and steady the pulse. I have no idea how the hell they missed that."
"All that from looking at it?" Nicole asked.
I started to sit down at the bench to start work when I answered her, "I'm an electronic savant. When I was a kid I got hit in the head with a set of rocks bullies were throwing at me. I ended up with a concussion and since then I was able to tear things apart and know exactly how they work without any formal training. When I read my first electronics book I was able to build devices without much of a hassle let alone repair faults. Those rocks to the head opened up something in my brain that wasn't there before, at least I think." I settled in and started the soldering station. As the soldering iron heated up I began looking through the stock of components on the bench before me…
Nicole screamed, "Dan! One of the ghosts escaped!"
Before I knew it I threw all the components I had already grabbed all over the place in a panic as I jumped out of the chair. I remember feeling my legs being as stiff as tree trunks as I tried to look in the direction she was pointing. That was when I noticed what she was pointing at. It was a little green blob that was floating toward the top of the basement stairs by the door. I started to relax as I told Nicole, "It's okay. He's one of us." I couldn't help but laugh out of nerves now knowing it was nothing. I began sitting back in the work chair and picking up the components I threw, "You scared the shit outta me, kid! I thought the Containment Unit was gonna explode."
Slimer hovered down the stairs and flew before Nicole. Being as interested in people as the others were interested in ghosts, Slimer started talking to her, "Hi! I Slimer!" She backed up into the workbench and started leaning back and away from him the closer he came to her and looked at her with his yellow eyes. I had to stop him from getting too insistent, "Spud, don't scare her, okay? Remember what I did last month? Get your slimy butt over here, I need your help with something." Slimer backed away from her and looked at me. It was clear he remembered. He swallowed hard as he thought about my run in the junkyard.
Nicole was… timid, to say the least, "You let a ghost live with you?" As Slimer came toward me I explained to her, "He's kind of our guinea pig, among other things." I looked at him and was about to tell him the situation when he asked me in his own broken-English way, "Where Ray?" "I donno, man," I told him as I cleaned the iron and got it ready for work, "This girl here has a demon inside her that comes out when she's asleep. Peter, Ray, Winston, and Egon were attacked and… The demon sent them somewhere. I'm hoping what I'm thinking of doing will break its hold on them and let them go, but I'm gonna need your help, Spud."
Slimer floated over the desk I was at and paced back and forth with his hand to his chin in thought. It took a few moments but he finally got before me, "stood" up straight, and saluted me. I guess he was in.
An hour passed. I had completely torn apart the rifle and heavily modified the main power modulation control circuit. I was having a hell of a time getting the leads of the capacitors in the circuit boards and adding jumper wires across the boards to change the operation of the gun. I had an idea that would work better than an actual steady stream by itself, but I was jittering too hard to make the work efficient. When you tell Janine Melnitz to make extra strong coffee, have the good sense to not take two cups of the stuff?
Caffeine?
Meh, you get it…
Anyway, I was getting the rifle back together as I was explaining the plan to Nicole and Slimer. Nicole had taken the benadryl some time ago and now it was starting to put her to sleep. Time was getting short. I began escorting her up the stairs to the garage and helped her into Ecto-1. Slimer followed behind us and phased through the back window of the car once we made it upstairs. I walked to the back of the car and saw Janine round her desk. As I opened the back hatch of the car and loaded the Destabilizer rifle and a spare Proton Pack for Slimer, Janine came to my side, "You nervous?"
I locked the extra pack into the rack. I was trying to think of something to say that played off I wasn't, but that failed me this time around. I looked at her and nodded. I'm sure the caffeine was making the jittering worse. She tried to encourage me, "You were trained by the best, Dan. I know you'll figure this out." I closed the back door of Ecto-1 and looked at her again, "I'm not so sure. Egon said I can't figure out what I don't understand. There's still a lot I don't know about this job outside the basic Sap, Cap, and Trap. He didn't have any faith in me; neither did Ray. I don't even know if my plan's gonna work."
What Janine said next was about the most blunt expression of encouragement I ever received, "At least you're trying. I've known too many people in my own life that just gave up because someone told them they can't. You're stubborn, and no matter how many people tell you 'no' you just get right up and show them what you can do. Even if mistakes are made, at least you'll know what won't work. That's why you're a good fit for this place. Now, go out there and get those boys back!"
At least someone believed in me. That was a far cry more than I had thus far.
I got into the driver seat and was about to back Ecto-1 out when Janine stopped me. Janine quickly went into my locker and grabbed my Chicago Blackhawks hat for me. She knelt down at the driver's side window and told me one last thing as she put my hat on my head with the bill pointing back, "Don't forget your hat. I remember you mentioning it was your lucky piece." I straightened the hat out as I thanked her. She then told me, "And when you see Egon, please give this to him…" For a split second I thought she was going to give me a letter or note or something like that…
She kissed me on the cheek.
I pulled back and looked at her. I only had one thought on how this whole transaction was going to work. I felt it was necessary to explain it, "Okay, but I doubt it'll be the same if it came from me. You might wanna wait until he gets back." I put the car in reverse and backed out. After getting into the street I saw Janine standing in the garage. She had a very worried look on her face. The door closed as I looked at her until the last and it made me even more nervous. I was at the point of no return. I activated the lights and the siren and started pulling away back toward the docks.
It had to have been roughly 1 or 2 in the morning. Nicole was starting to nod off, the drugs definitely doing their job. Getting out and to the other side I lifted Nicole up and helped to walk inside. She was getting pretty heavy on her feet. As I escorted her I talked to her, "How ya holdin' up?"
She answered me, her voice was heavy, "I can feel him starting to come out again. Dan, are you sure this is going to work?" "Back in 86' one of the guys - Peter - was possessed with a powerful master demon named Wat. They pulled Wat and Peter apart. Egon showed me how to attune our Proton Packs to both a human frequency and a demon's frequency. Sperkipy is a solid being. Our traps can't hold onto something like that, but the rifle I was working on was designed to change that by breaking apart the tighter bonds of energy that make him solid. I had to change the rifle into a wave pulse rather than a steady stream. I even made a modification to send a compressed blast in case stupid gets wiley. Less likely to be reflected back."
"The stuff you're sayin' is far out there, man." She said lazily. She was getting further and further into sleep. I was getting just a touch edgy over the whole thing and I started picking up the pace. I got her inside the warehouse and got her into a seat in one of the shipping offices. I told her to stay put and focus on sleep as I walked back outside. Getting back to the car I unloaded the packs as Slimer came out of the window with the destabilizer rifle. I grabbed the rifle from him then gave him his pack.
As we loaded up I explained the plan, making sure we both knew our parts. In truth, I needed to say it out loud so I had it straight in my own head, "When Nicole starts glowing a symbol is gonna appear on her. I tuned your pack to her biometabolic frequency. Hit any other part of her other than the symbol; that's where ugly comes out so I'll go for it. When I signal, we pull. After that, I need you to duck off and readjust the pack and I'll switch to the rifle. You're gonna have to be my trap handler. You got all that, Spud?" He blubbered in his normal speech and gave me a thumbs up.
Me and Slimer had a bit of a hard start. We were first introduced to each other on my first day of training. Egon and Ray decided to throw my ass into the thick of a simulated fight in a junkyard in Staten and he was my target. I am not exactly the most… well, calm of individuals. When I get annoyed, I tend to fly off the handle. I'm not one to be messed with when it comes to malice for the sake of another's entertainment. In other words, I don't like being fucked with or bullied. Had enough of that in High School and frankly, what Slimer did that day was learn the hard way no matter how much you think it's funny, you absolutely, positively, do not slime me! I will admit, I have no idea what I did to him. I kinda blacked out in the process of fighting him, so whatever he remembers is more than likely what happened.
Anyway, after agreeing on the plan I walked back into the warehouse door that was blown off the hinges as Slimer levitated into an upper window in the warehouse. I got out my PKE meter and started scanning to see if Nicole had fallen asleep yet. Yep, sure enough I picked up two signals: Slimer's and Sperkipy's. I had a lump in my throat. I was terrified of what was happening. One fuck-up and I was toast and I knew it. I was a Ghostbuster in training; four veterans were presumed dead; a girl was possessed in a warehouse with a demon that could either kill me or send me where the others had been sent… I remembered taking out the patches from the others' uniforms, "If I do get you guys back, I expect an apology. I hope I make it that far."
I put the patches back in my pocket and started my way back down the corridors of the warehouse. I went back to monitoring the meter, but I suddenly felt a panic come over me when I noticed Sperkipy's signal was hanging right over the top of me! I looked up and I saw that huge, ugly bastard hoisting a crate over his head with the intent to drop it on me. I started running as he dropped the crate. I dove to the floor, the box smashing open and its contents exploding all over the spot I was just standing. I scrambled to my feet and started running again. I looked behind me and saw Nicole hovering behind Sperkipy as he jumped down and started chasing me.
At this point, I was in serious trouble. I started screaming for Slimer to help me.
I came to a dead end, turning into a blind maze of crates that came to an end with no passage. This thing approached me slowly after finding me trapped. I was done being scared of this thing and refused to go down without drawing blood.
Can you draw blood on a demon? I donno, Doomguy did it in DOOM.
I drew my thrower and hipshotted the fucker in the eye leaving me an opening to escape. As Sperkipy grabbed his eye I tried to strafe around him when Nicole - in her possessed form - dropped on top of me and got me on my back. She pinned me down and reached for the patch on my arm, tearing it off. She slapped her hand on the open portion of my sleeve and I started to feel that burning sensation again. It felt like I was being branded. As my arm burned I looked up and saw the symbol start to form on Nicole's chest again. It began casting light onto my face. I felt like something was tugging at my soul. I was blacking out…
She suddenly jerked around hard as I noticed another light coming from behind her. She started to levitate up off of me allowing me to look back behind her. Slimer had arrived and was holding Nicole in his beam. She was thrashing against the beam I tuned for the little class five and it was becoming an intense job for him. I remembered him blubbering in his usual gibberish in what sounded like panic. I finally got to my senses and got to my feet quickly and grabbed my thrower to join in. I grabbed the symbol on her chest with my beam and we both started pulling in opposite directions.
Nicole started to scream an inhuman scream. A light started to emerge as we continued to pull the girl and the demon apart. I called out for Slimer to not let up and we were fighting to tear the two of them apart. It was a difficult game of tug-o-war with Sperkipy also screaming in agony. The sheer screaming from the both of them…
CRACK! A bright flash filled the space as Sperkipy suddenly broke away from Nicole. We both powered down, me throwing Sperkipy into a stack of crates as Nicole dropped to the warehouse floor with a thud. Slimer tried to stop firing only for his little ectoplasmic form to be thrown by the proton stream halfway across the small section of boxes before bouncing off the crates like a pinball. He finally came to a stop as a splat on the floor beside Nicole, oozing out from under the straps of his pack.
I wasn't doing much better. Sperkipy being turned loose caused him to fly in a direction that pulled me on my heels and spun me around without warning. I finally killed the stream and damn near fell on my face. Just as I was pushing myself off the floor I looked to where Sperkipy landed and noticed him getting up. I looked back to where Nicole fell and Slimer slammed into the floor to see Nicole still out and Slimer reconstituting and, well, "sitting" up rubbing his head in a daze. We were all fighting against a clock and the damn thing just started. I looked back between both my threat and my responsibility and saw what was about to crash on our asses…
