Lunar Impact Four: Conjunction

by Ectodude

The Second Stanza has been played. The Order of Asatro is one step away from destroying the world and they have their hands in every means of control that would stop them. The Ghostbusters and the Sailor Scouts need help and it's about to come in the form of a package from a certain scientist. So when the Ghostbusters need help, who do they call?

5. Paging Doctor Allcome

Chapter 5: Paging Doctor Allcome

Tuesday July 2nd, 2002

Perpetual Motors

Idaho Falls, Idaho

9:30 AM Local time

Dr. Raymond Stantz - co-founder of the Ghostbusters - was a heavyset man with auburn hair and an enthusiasm that was neigh depletable. At least, that's what people thought at one time. These days, Ray's enthusiasm was now quashed under the heavy burden of self sustainment. That task could only be achieved by working a dead-end job: Car salesman.

Ray walked into his office with his morning cup of coffee. He missed wearing his Ghostbusters uniform; he missed driving Ecto-1; he even missed his occult bookstore he had for a short time. The adventures he and the others had were briefly revived when he visited Egon for his birthday years ago, but he had to once again relinquish those adventures back to the new crew of Ghostbusters. He sat at his desk and booted his computer, setting his coffee cup down onto a copy of National Enquirer talking about the global outbreak of attacks by monsters. He had been keeping tabs on it for nearly a week, but even though he felt he needed to make a call, he refrained. His fingers were itching, though.

A brown-haired middle aged woman walked to Ray's open door and spoke to him, "Morning, Ray." He looked from his still booting computer and spoke back, "Morning, Felicity. Everything okay in your neck of the woods?" The woman leaned on the door jamb as she crossed her arms, "Yeah, me and Tommy went and got more supplies. Are you sure this is just gonna blow over? I know you said you dealt with these things before." Ray nodded as he looked back to his now booted computer. There was a sense of urgency but after what he did to the new Ghostbusters…

"Oh," Felicity said, "Before I forget, you got a phone call before you got in." Ray looked back to her, excited, "Was it my prospect? Did she call back about the Volkswagen?" "No," she said as she had a look of confusion on her face, "it was from New York. Some guy named Shannon wanted to talk to you."

Ray's eyebrows shot up, "Shannon?"

Mead Canyon Air Tours

Henderson, Nevada

8:45 AM Local time

At an airplane hangar in the middle of the Mojave Desert just outside Las Vegas, a man sitting on a desk had a newspaper in front of his face waiting for the mechanics to check over a plane. The headline of the paper read Chaos In Big Apple: Monster Attacks On Rise. The individual holding the paper let go of one side when the phone rang, him picking it up, "Mead Canyon Air Tours. I'm sorry, but we're currently grounded due to the FAA ban on small flights that started yesterday…" "Winston? Winston, is that you?" The paper suddenly folded over revealing a black man with a mustache being the one holding the phone. Winston Zeddemore - the first hired field Ghostbuster - was surprised by the voice on the other end of the phone. He knew that voice anywhere, "Janine?"

"I bet you're not at all surprised by this call," Janine stated with her patented annoyed Brooklynite voice, "but we've got a problem…"

Sunny Sky Hand Wash Car Wash

Los Angeles, California

8:50 AM Local time

"Now, when you say 'problem', Spengs," Dr. Peter Venkman - the Original Ghostbusters resident psychologist - was leaning back in his plush office chair on the phone, the bill of his Car Wash company baseball cap covering his face from the morning California sunlight, "you mean a problem the kids can't handle? I was under the impression they could handle it. After all, I have a business to run here. Do you know any other way to rub elbows with those in Hollywood than to wash their Porsches?" Peter heard Egon sigh on the other side, "It's far worse than that, Peter. I'm sure you recognize the creatures."

Peter pulled the cap off his face and leaned back toward his desk to see the LA Times article on his desk with a blurry picture of one of the creatures. He picked it up and looked at it, "You know, I was wondering why they looked familiar. I just thought I was seeing an old girlfriend who somehow got famous." "You remember the ragnarok incident with Jeremy Whittington?" "Oh, yeah! I was wondering why Bethany suddenly grew wings." Peter heard a smack on the phone. He knew Egon just facepalmed himself. He got confirmation of his irritation when he heard Egon become stern, "Peter, will you get serious?! We learned of a whole new issue with these entities; what they are and where they actually come from. Worst of all, it has to do with the Sailor Scouts."

Peter suddenly sat up ramrod straight in his seat, his voice filling with stunned surprise, "The Sailor Scouts?"

"That's what I said, Ray. They're here right now at the firehouse." Ray was now on the phone with Dan, calling him back, "H-How?" "There's a cult…" Ray groaned and slumped in his seat. He knew how bad cults could be, especially after the Necronomicon was stolen. Dan knew it, "I know, dude, I know. The problem is, they summoned the recorder that Jeremy used thinking it was Norse. Come to find it came from the Negaverse; the dimension Sailor Moon destroyed." "How do you know?" "The pieces of the Symphony of Destruction were hidden in a book and other artifacts. Raye did a fire reading on it back in Tokyo while Amy was scanning the reading. Once they decided to come here to help, Egon showed Amy the note that caused Egon's meter to explode back in the 80's. It was a perfect match for the energy signature for the Negaforce."

"The Negaforce?" Ray was now alarmed, "You mean that thing that tried to come through the portal in the sky was the thing that gave Jedite and the other generals…" "And Beryl. Serena thought she destroyed it." Ray ran his fingers through his hair, "Oh, boy…" "Yeah, no kidding," he heard his former rookie sigh on the phone, "Look, Egon didn't want it to come to this and neither did I, but…" "I'll be there as soon as I can arrange transport." There was silence on the other side. Ray could tell there was a tension building and he knew what was being asked of him. He wasn't as young as he was, but he knew that if the Sailor Scouts were involved and they still needed help…

"Ray, I'm sorry about this," Dan said, with a clear regret in his voice, "I didn't want to upend your life…"

"Dan," Ray said with confidence, "if it weren't for you, none of us would still be alive. Besides, it sounds like it'll be fun!" Dan sighed again, "You're the only man I know who'd be excited to play chess with Death. Worst part, you'd kick his bony ass and live to gloat about it." "In all honesty I wanted to call you guys when these things started showing up, but I didn't want to step on the kids' toes again like last time." "I've been told. Egon and Janine are talking to Winston and Peter, too, and it sounds like all of you are in agreement. I guess as soon as they mentioned the Scouts they were on board, so you might wanna talk to them when we're done here. Bring whatever equipment you have, too. Egon doesn't care if it's old stuff; anything would be an advantage."

"Will do. Dan?" Ray waited a moment to say it. He remembered the 2nd Tokyo mission and remembered all his rookie did for him. He knew when Janine called him about Egon's birthday he did ask about him and their rookie from the Architect incident and heard that both of them were unreachable. The fact he was talking to at least one of them now after all the both of them did was something of a miracle. He said it with conviction, "It's good to hear from you again."

There was another pause. Ray didn't feel tension this time, but almost like Dan was soaking it in. He finally responded, "Same here. It's been too long. When this is over, we all need to catch up." There was a large flurry of noise on Dan's side of the phone. He spoke back to Ray, "I gotta go. We got a delivery. We'll see you when you get here." The phone disconnected abruptly. He chuckled a bit as he put the phone on the hook, "Yep, same ol' company."

Ghostbusters HQ

12:02 PM Local time

Dan hung up the phone on Venkman's old desk and rushed to the door after hearing a bang. He knew the sound of the UPS driver's knock anywhere. Janine had just come down the stairs with Eduardo and Amy after talking to Winston in the lab on a separate line. She watched as Dan ran to the main door to open it for the UPS man, "What is it?"

"I donno," Dan answered, "Were we expecting a delivery?" "Not that I'm aware of," she answered, "I'm surprised they're still running deliveries right now." Dan unlocked the doors and opened it up, "You and me both," he saw the UPS man in the front drive, same as always with clipboard in hand. The driver commented, "Afternoon, Dan." "Hey, Bill. Surprised you're even here." The driver presented Dan with the delivery signoff prompting Dan to sign. As Dan did so the driver commented, "So am I, but that's gonna come to a stop after today. The FAA grounded flights in and out of the city, so we're done from this point forward. Even ground transport's getting bad."

Dan handed the pen back to the driver as he stated, "Was just hearing about it this morning. Heard the Mississippi started flooding out of control and flooded the highways." "Among other things." The driver turned back to the truck and walked to a hand truck with a fairly large wood crate on it. The driver attempted to tilt it back a number of times before he finally got it balanced on the wheels and started rolling the package forward. Dan didn't see any markings on it for hazardous materials, so it wasn't the usual lab chemicals Egon needed. The driver rolled the crate in and placed it on the floor behind Ecto-1. Unstrapping the crate from the hand truck, the driver bid his farewell and exited the firehouse.

Dan, Amy, Eduardo, and Janine gathered around the crate and looked at it. Eduardo asked, "Uh… what is it?" The crate was made of what looked like hand milled wood. It looked rustic and rough-cut. The crate looked like something that would carry TNT in old westerns, but again, the crate was unmarked. Dan scratched his head, "I donno. I didn't order parts. I don't think Roland did, either," bending down Dan went to lift the box when it promptly pulled him back down nearly throwing him to the floor with it making him grunt. Amy asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Dan gathered himself and looked at the crate again, "I donno what's in here, but it's pretty damn heavy. Eddie, give me a hand." Team lifting the crate, the both of them carried the large heavy wooden box. They groaned at the weight of the box while Eduardo complained, "What the hell's in here, a car engine? This is worse than the packs!" "Oh," Dan moaned back, "shut up and carry, you putz! Janine, clear us a path; Amy, open the door to the back office!"

Amy opened the door into Venkman's office and stepped to the side as Dan and Eduardo hauled the box into the space and dropped it on the desk, both of them letting out a sigh of relief. Janine came up from behind and yelled at the both of them, "Hey, careful! I already lost one desk!" Dan looked back and huffed, "Sorry," he looked again to Amy, "In the toolbox next to Ecto-1, there's a crowbar and a hammer." Amy nodded, her blue hair bouncing lightly before she turned and ran back into the garage.

The end of the crowbar became jammed between the lid and the side of the box. Dan hammered the steel bar further into the crate enough to allow him to start prying the lid off. The box was held together with chisel-cut nails; an old type of nail that hadn't been used in over 75 years. Inside was a bunch of straw being used as packing material. Now Dan was really confused, "What the…?" "Why does this thing look like it came off the set of a John Wayne movie?" asked Janine. Eduardo started pulling the straw out and felt his hand hit something metal and… glass? Him and Dan brushed the straw away from whatever was inside until Dan saw what was underneath. He gasped, "Ho-lee shit! Eduardo, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Eduardo got beside him and looked into the crate himself to see something he hadn't seen in nearly two years.

A Flux Capacitor.

Three tubes attached to yellow wires with orange boots that converged to the central point sat contained inside a metal industrial enclosure with a glass window in the center. The last time either one of them saw this device it was on the ground broken in pieces after Dan detonated a Proton Canister inside the DeLorean it was built into. Dan and Eduardo looked at each other completely panicked. Eduardo backed up, "I thought you blew it up!" "Eddie, you were right there when I did it!"

"Then how did it get here, man?"

"Like I know!"

By this time Amy was looking at the device and had cleared more of the straw that was acting as padding when she found something inside, "Hey, there's a letter in here. It's addressed to you." Dan turned around and saw the aged, accordion-style envelope in the Scout of Ice's hands. Dan took the envelope and undid the leather tie that held it closed. Getting the envelope open and the aged yellow paper out, he opened it and started reading it aloud, "'Dear Dan, If my calculations are correct, you should be receiving this package at the precise moment you need to call for help…'" Dan skipped to the end of the letter to see who was writing it. Dan already knew who wrote it, but he just had to confirm. He looked down…

It ended with, "Signed 'Doc' Emmett L. Brown".

"Uh oh…"

Madame Holly sat at the island in her kitchen in a normal pair of jeans and a loose tee-shirt with a cup of coffee before her. She hadn't put on her lipstick, but she wasn't without makeup at all. It had been a full 24 hours since she was smacked awake by the older Ghostbuster that had visited her at her office and now she was sober enough to function like a real human being. It was slow going, mostly because she still felt sick to her stomach and in a haze, but there was only so much the body can process after nearly a decade of alcoholism. She had spent the morning looking through a file folder loaded with documents from the court case where she fought the Bishops. She was intoxicated through all of it, so looking through all of it was a somewhat new experience for her.

Along with that folder she also got ahold of all of the files involving her father's death, the police reports and documents involving the deaths of members of the Bishop family, and newspaper reports of all of the events combined. She was starting to see something she never even considered before. She wasn't sure why she did, but after that other Dan Shannon told her about the detective that went undercover at a homeless shelter in Dyker Heights, it was almost like he was dropping her a clue. She felt there was a link with all of this, but she couldn't zero in on it. She had already gone through a full pot of coffee and she was getting jittery. The whole thing was too much too fast but she felt like she wasted so much time as it was.

There was one thing that was clear and it was her senses. This voice that spoke to her now, she was beginning to think this voice had been with her for some time and tried to speak reason to her. She kept ignoring it and drinking it into silence just out of fear alone, but now she felt she knew the voice was not only truthful, but familiar. Whatever the case, she felt she needed to catch up on what had happened in her life since her call to Matthew. Now that the other voices were leaving her alone, she felt like she could think. She placed her elbows on the island countertop before placing her head in her hands and started thinking back…

November 15th, 1999

Quarter To Play Arcade

7:45 AM

Holly walked through the arcade's main doors and walked into the darkened floorspace. The arcade machines were off and the cleaning lights were not on. She was stumbling into the room so haphazardly she bumped into a crane game. She looked into it and looked at her reflection in the mirror in the back of the playfield. She looked horrible and tired; a bad night of drinking after her freakout. She used the opportunity to straighten herself out a little. She had called the man who handed her the card and to her surprise the man picked up the phone and even knew who it was. She had been instructed to be here of all places at this time of the morning. If it weren't for the garbage trucks blowing their horns at her Suburban in the alley she would have been late.

She was reaching into her pocket for a comb when she dropped it to the arcade floor. After she bent down and picked it back up she went back to the mirror in the back of the prize crane to do her minor grooming when the man in black with the gray hair appeared in the mirror behind her. She yelped and turned in terror at the man putting her back against the machine. He spoke calmly, "I'm sorry to have startled you, Ms. Bautista. You're punctual." Holly put her head into her hands and tried to suppress the pressure spike that felt like it was going to blow her eyes out of their sockets. After a minute she was able to compose herself, "Matthew St. James?" The man nodded, his hands behind his back.

Although composed, she still needed another moment to settle her nerves. She began to talk, clearly distressed, "You said you could help me a long time ago. I don't have any money; I wouldn't be able to pay you…" The man - now known as Matthew - raised his hand in a halting fashion indicating he wanted Holly to stop. He lowered his hand and started explaining, "I understand. I am in the unique position to go Pro Bono and assist you in whatever way I can. I have a proposition for you…"

"Stop," Holly belted out, "I am not gonna do that for your help!" "That was not what I was proposing," he said calmly, "Perhaps I should rephrase it so you understand my intention. I have a unique group of individuals that have the same wants, desires, and predicaments as yourself under my consultation. You lost everything you ever had. Everything was taken from you all because of a bout of rage. You've been kicked, defiled, and ridiculed for what happened. The evil of this world has reached a point where it is overflowing. You're not allowed to have a chance; denied your birthright. I myself have had family reject me and leave me for dead. I understand your anger."

Holly was taken aback by what this man was saying. It was very… invasive. But… It was true, "How do you know all of this? Why do you want to help us? Me?" "Among all of the people I've consulted," he stated as he paced the arcade, "you have a very particular pain. For the people in the position I normally converse, their families were either taken, or they were rejected by potential new families. Otherwise they were able to make their way. You? You are different. You made a mistake. It was a horrible mistake, but it was a mistake. Since this world only grants second chances to those in an inner circle, I have vowed to dismantle that inner circle and equalize the great social imbalance."

"What… in the fuck… are you talking about?" the young intoxicated woman's head was swimming from all of the elegantly spoken words. It was like eating sugar after drinking on an empty stomach, "Can you just speak English, here?" Matthew turned on his heel and spoke in a more straightforward manner as he approached her, "You need my help, but I also need your help. As do others. Because of how badly you've been repudiated - denied - your basic right to rebuild your life, others would look at you as a leader once you fought and regained your lost life. They would see you as someone who would right the wrongs and lead them to a better life all while also making sure children would never be denied in such a way ever again," Matthew gently put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her light gray eyes, his dark blue eyes putting her into a near trance, "You would be their leader, and with my help, we'd have a better world as a result."

Holly looked at the man before her and started to giggle. She then started to laugh. She backed away from his hold back into the crane machine and used the ledge where the joysticks sat to hold her up as she put her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter, "Leader? Lead a bunch of orphans? Who are you, Peter Pan? Do I look like Wendy to you? What's next, I'm gonna cover everyone in fairy dust and take them to Neverland with you?" Matthew began to smile and chuckle himself. Holly looked at him and saw his face. After a moment of him chuckling she started to have a very bad feeling crawl up her spine, her feeling a bemusement was quickly running away from her as a sense of dread came over her. There was something that switched in this man and it was very quickly overtaking her senses.

After he was done with his own small laugh, he explained, "The people under my consultation are of sufficient and comparable age to yourself. They feel bitter and cheated. I have a plan to make their dreams reality, but I need someone far more controlla…" he stopped a moment, but started again, "... need someone more charismatic to lead them then myself. If I help you regain your father's concrete business and all of your family's assets, would you help in my cause?" Matthew extended his hand toward her. She looked at his hand for a moment as she thought it over…

"Don't."

Holly's chest suddenly tightened as she heard that voice again. She had sobered up too much again to hear the voices. Reaching into her back pocket and grabbed a different pint sized bottle of Jim Beam than before and quickly downed the contents. As she did, the voice pleaded with her, "This man is trying to take adva…" the voice started to muffle as the brown liquor flowed down her throat. She finished the bottle and coughed as she again gasped the alcohol vapors down her windpipe. After her coughing fit, she looked at Matthew's still extended hand again. She wasn't sure what this man was planning, but she wasn't all that clear minded to think it over more thoroughly anyway. Figuring there wasn't anything left to lose, she took the man's hand.

After a moment they broke the handshake. Holly was still thinking enough to start asking questions, "So, how do I go about helping you? What do you want from me?" "I can only answer that by asking another question first," Matthew said, "How much of Norse mythology do you believe to be real?"

Holly scoffed, "I don't believe in that shit." Matthew smirked, "No?" He opened his suit jacket and reached into his inside pocket. He pulled out a very old piece of cloth-like paper. It was yellowed and looked to be very fragile. Holly watched in puzzlement as he unrolled the parchment and began to speak a very strange language. After a few words spoken the parchment started to glow blue. After a few more words, the parchment was let go of and started to float on the air on its own. It began to float up higher toward the ceiling before the paper pulsed a bright blue light. Holly covered her eyes momentarily before uncovering them and seeing a different blue floating object.

A ghost.

She jumped and screamed at the specter's presence. It floated before her and eyed her up as she backed away from the creature. It was being harmless. She stuttered, "Wha-wha-wha…?" "This wasn't the only demonstration I had planned," he said as he waved his hand and the ghost flew off elsewhere. Matthew extended his arm in the direction of a room in the corner of the arcade, "I must now show you the threat we face if we're to go forward."

After a few minutes of sitting in the security room in the corner of the arcade Holly witnessed a group of people walking into the building wearing backpacks and uniforms. The two oddballs of the group were a girl in goth makeup wearing a black bodysuit with orange shoulder pads and a man in a wheelchair. They wandered around the machines in search of something with the girl holding a device in her hand. After another minute the men in the group pulled what looked like some kind of gun from the side of the backpacks. The one man of the group - tall blonde-haired man in a blue suit with gray trim - looked familiar, "Wait…"

The ghost flew out of one of the machines as all of the men launched some kind of rubberized light from the guns of the backpacks, the beams destroying objects around the room. The man in the blue suit attempted to fire the weapon only to get knocked back and fall head-over-heels over one of the games. She couldn't help but laugh a bit at the man's ineptitude. The ghost evaded them for the moment. After the man got up and they all talked, Holly turned to Matthew, realizing what was happening, "Aren't they the…" "Our problem," He continued to watch the people outside of the room through the one-way security glass as he explained, "The one that will help us through equalizing the world could be stopped by these people: The Daughter of Loki; Hel."

"W-what do we do?" asked the clearly confused young woman.

Matthew looked at the man in blue again, taking notice of his presence, "We'll need to learn all we can about the Ghostbusters, but as of right now they're no threat. The first thing we need to do is make you an avatar for the other's desires, but that could only happen once we secure your legacy back from those who took it from you." Holly looked over and up to Matthew as he said that. It was a rather unusual thing she was getting herself into, but if it meant getting her old life back…

The light intensified outside the room again. The man in the blue suit got back on his feet and got the ghost ensnared in his energy beam. He started throwing the entity around the room and smashing it into machines and walls to weaken it. At first she thought this man was a clown, falling all over the place trying to use the clearly sophisticated equipment, but now he was becoming aggressive. That aggression translated harshly in his action. She saw a rage in his eyes, and for a very brief moment - a glint really - that his eyes glowed.

The woman threw the yellow device that was attached to her orange pads to the floor while holding another device attached to it by a cord. The doors on the device opened sending out a flash of light as it started to pull the blue ghost into it. The doors closed and started to smoke as she heard Matthew speak softly, "Time for us to depart." He started walking out the back door to the security office as Holly continued looking at the man in the blue suit. She knew that he was the one that was in charge.

It was the first time she saw Dan Shannon as a Ghostbuster. To something of an extent, Holly felt sorry for him. She learned his history and everything he did all while still under the darkness of inebriation. Here was a man that had a dark history of his own and he was the one in her way to gain what she wanted back. The horrible part was she… envied him for his ability to not waver in his integrity. He'd been through so much since that first day…

"What in the hell have I done?" she asked openly, "I wanted it back, but…"

"You didn't want to hurt people, either." Holly nodded. She looked at the contract for settlement from the Bishop's and it was disturbing how much she was now in control of. It had been a real eye-opener at how much she had done in the last 2 years she had these assets under her name. The worst part was Matthew had access to these same assets, "Tell me something, what can a person do with this amount of control?" "Now that's up to you, isn't it?" She sighed in frustration, "That's not what I mean and you know it." The voice was silent for a moment. She could almost feel the tension the voice had, and it did seem like it knew more than it led on. She heard it exhale, "Look, I knew from the start you weren't a bad person, at least until you became drunk. At that point, you're open to suggestion. You were a symbol for those in your congregation. To a point, he needed you to exert control on them. As for you…" "He had it over me," she closed the file folder and leaned back in her seat, "How long do I have?"

"The way I figure it," the voice stated, "not very." Holly closed her eyes in defeat. The voice called back to her, "The more you do nothing, the sooner it'll come. That other older Ghostbuster that came here is one of the few that want to believe in the good of you. You might want to take that open door while it is open. Like when you ignored me and shook hands with him, you figured you had nothing left to lose. Without that man, you'll have nothing again; maybe worse." "You know who he really is, don't you?"

"Who, my Gydja?"

Holly's eyes snapped open as she jumped from her kitchen island stool. She saw Matthew standing to the entrance of her kitchen. She started screaming in reaction, "Will you STOP doing that?!" She put her hand to her chest as Matthew approached her, calm and even as always, "My apologies. Your door was open and I had not heard from you for a while…" he looked to the island and saw the file folder with the lawsuit and settlement documents in it. He saw Holly was nearly done composing herself in the corner of his eye and continued to speak, "...I just wanted to make sure you were okay." She exhaled rather harshly before she answered, "I'm fine." He looked her in the eye and noticed there was something different with her. He proceeded to speak again, "We have a development. I need you to come with me to the depot."

"You might want to go with him. We have to see what he's up to." Holly nodded. The look in her eyes was unusual to Matthew. Nevertheless, they proceeded to the waiting vehicle outside. She wasn't sure what was going on, but it was looking like things were starting to get out of control.