It had been 3 weeks since I had started in my new place of employment, and even though I'm still finding some of the changes from what I used to do strange and difficult to adjust to I'm grateful to be active again and surprisingly am finding the work rewarding. A large part of that is the similarities of this job with the one my partner and I had at our previous company, where I had gotten my start.

I actually owe my partner for convincing our former employers to negotiate my transfer to his friend Winston Zedmore, former Ghostbuster and the entrepreneur currently financing and supplying the current team that I'm working with as their junior. He apparently couldn't stand the idea of my sitting around doing nothing while he left on his retirement, and since the rather secretive nature of our work meant there wasn't too many acceptable places I could go I was grateful he managed to arrange it.

Unfortunately I was still undergoing my orientation during that whole "Death Chill" business, getting used to my new setup and equipment as well as learning how to work with an active team in the field as opposed to just one partner, so I can only imagine how that would have turned out differently had I been ready by then. Fortunately they managed to get through the crisis relatively unscathed and earned the acceptance of the city like their predecessors before them, and it wasn't long after when Mr Zedmore introduced me to my seniors. I was concerned how well I would be accepted by such a large group who had plenty of actual experience on the job as opposed to just the training simulations I went through, but to my delightful surprise they were all warm and welcoming. Especially young Phoebe Spengler who, despite still being a minor, finally managed to get official authorization to join the team as an unpaid intern. Now this internship did come with certain restrictions, such as she was not allowed to occupy the gunner seat (the team leader, her mother, would be seated in it for all dispatches), but she was permitted to operate the RC and drone traps (which she proved rather adept at) and even could wield the proton pack so long as she was in the presence and direct supervision of a full-fledged team member. Of course the latest model Mr Zedmore had supplied them with was designed so that every seat could be activated as a gunner seat, and my role in the team gave me the ability to activate each of them as needed, but Ms Spengler gave me strict instructions to not reveal that fact to Phoebe until she came of age and was able to become a full-fledged member of the team, emergencies not withstanding.

Interestingly it is with Phoebe that feel a kinship closest to that which I had with my old partner, likely to how we both had experience prior to joining this team yet we were essentially the rookies here. Still I was rather impressed with how bright she was at her age and how she was not afraid of getting her hands dirty. It made me miss my old partner a little less, and I hoped that I could have a long partnership as well though as brilliant as she was I wouldn't begrudge her if she decided to do something else after graduating high school.

As enjoyable and fulfilling as my new job was, however, there was one thing that did sour the experience for me rather consistently, and that one thing was standing before me right now. The man currently complaining to and belittling my teammates once as the mayor's aide made the original team's job extremely difficult to accomplish, not to mention how his arrogant actions caused the disaster that nearly lead the city to be destroyed by Gozer, and now that he was mayor himself he seemed determined to make our lives miserable every chance he got until he found a way to run us out of the New York for good. Honestly, the fact that this guy had managed to get himself elected despite how he was essentially fired as the mayor's aide over a decade ago due to his incompetence is nearly enough to make me lose my faith in the human race.

As usual the mayor barely gives me a glance as he dresses down my teammates, but that reaction is not unfamiliar to me. Back when my old partner and I chased down this criminal or that one he was the one who usually took the heat, my presence usually overlooked by most except my partner or our support unless I made my presence known. Still I did my part to help keep him safe and together we helped so many people until we became too old to do the job anymore, but in that time together it truly felt like we were making the world a better place.

Anyway it was Mr Zedmore who had advised me to let the others do the talking, especially when this guy came around, until I had proven myself beneficial as a member of this team with my skills. However I found it increasingly difficult to remain silent. Despite the fact that the amount of collateral damage resulting during our dispatches has dropped significantly since I joined, this walking wiener coat still finds things to complain about us, and I'm getting rather fed up with it.

"Those gargoyles have proudly adorned that building since before any of us here was born!" the mayor screamed at my teammates while he pointed at a building located a couple of blocks back when he approached us while we were stopped to retrieve the drone trap containing the ghost we just managed to wrangle and capture, "They had endured the elements for well over a hundred years, drawing in tourists with their unique design, and today you lot had reduced them to dust and rubble in moments with your laser guns!"

"Particle throwers," Phoebe corrected him in a disgruntled tone.

"Quiet, missy," the mayor replied, looking down on her, "The adults are talking."

"Really!? You could have fooled me," Phoebe snarked as she crossed her arms.

"Phoebe!" Ms Spengler admonished her before turning back towards the mayor and saying, "We very much regret the damage resulting during our apprehension of the class 5 entity, but if we had let it loose when it had put those gargoyles between us and itself it could have gotten away, making things worse. We had to maintain the stream to capture it before it could hurt someone."

"And we did snag that sucker in record time, by the way," Ms Spengler's fiancee chimed in, "Plus you gotta admit that we have been destroying a lot less stuff here lately."

"Oh yeah, sure. I'm sure that we'll soon be hearing words of thanks from the Post Office, Department of Transportation, and the electric bike rental companies now that you guys have decided to focus on quality rather than quantity," the mayor responded sarcastically, "The council may have dismissed my concerns when I opposed your request to grant the internship request to your little girl, but the devastation from today's rampage just demonstrates how I was right!"

"For your information sir, I was the one who was wielding the particle thrower, as per the agreement I and not my daughter was in the gunner seat," Ms Spengler argued back in the calm and even voice I only heard from her when she was really angry, "and it was thanks to her expert piloting of the drone trap that the spectre was brought under control so quickly before more damage could be done, so I don't see the issue."

"You, Ms Spengler, just made my point for me," the mayor said as he turned and pointed at her, "If you, the leader of this so-called team, are causing this amount of collateral damage with this equipment then it casts doubt on your ability to teach her how to handle it properly. Might as well have classes in safe gun handling being taught by someone who was blinded by his own weapon!"

"Come on now, buddy, why don't you stop picking on the kids already and have a drink or two with us," Peter Venkman called out as he walked up together with Winston Zedmore and Ray Stanz, "You can shed tears into your beer as you explain how you're uptight due to your utter lack of a love life and that you're jealous how our friend Egon had gotten more than you ever had."

"I've heard more than enough out of you, 'friend', so you can just shut the hell up!" the mayor yelled as he whirled around on Mr Venkman, the hate clearly visible in his eyes, "You may think that you and your friends are invincible after having convinced them that you guys were responsible for ending that freak ice storm, but it's only a matter of time until I find out the real reason for it starting and how it ended, and when I do I'll have great pleasure in exposing you all as the frauds you are as I bring that dilapidated farmhouse of yours down to grade level once and for all."

"Oh please! Like you could have done any better, you self-serving jackass!" I finally said to him, unable to remain silent any longer.

"Who the hell said that!?" the mayor said as he looked around, not once actually looking at me.

"I did, and I'm quite tired of your high and mighty attitude," I responded truthfully, "How anyone actually actually voted for you, considering how you're pretty much responsible for at least two of the biggest disasters that befell this city in the last 40 years, is something that baffles even me."

The mayor was finally looking at me, and he first looked baffled for a handful of microseconds before that was replaced by an expression which seemed to be a mixture of amusement and mild irritation as he said, "Cute. That's real cute." He then put his face uncomfortably close to me as he said, "Is there a camera hidden here or something? If you think that hiding behind a monitor screen will prevent me from finding out who you are and suing you for slander you are in for a rude awakening."

"I'm right here, not hiding, so I think that makes you the rude one," I replied, causing the mayor to jump back as I continued, "and could you please get back a bit? Just because social distancing is no longer a thing doesn't mean that you should ignore someone's personal space."

"What is this!?" the mayor demanded as he glanced around accusingly at my teammates.

"That would be Ecto-X," Ms Spengler's fiancee said as he gestured at me.

"Do you take me for a fool?" the mayor replied, sounding rather upset though I could tell he was trying his best to not lose his cool in front of this crowd, "Do you really expect me to believe that your car had slandered and insulted me on its own?"

"It's true, Mr Mayor," Mr Zedmore said with a confident air as he gestured at me, "Ecto-X, or Ecto as we call him, is equipped with AI that was advanced back when he was originally conceived back in the '80s, and he even can even be the equal or better of many an AI that exists today save perhaps for those that come from his original creators at Knight Industries. He could perfectly triangulate and track a class 3 ectoplasmic entity and beat you in 3-dimensional chess while reciting the works of William Shakespeare and flawlessly navigating the worst of New York City traffic at speeds exceeding 88 miles per hour, not that he's needed to go that fast since being reassigned here."

"I used to be able to go much faster, but this isn't a top-of-the-line model that you've retrofitted me into," I pointed out, "Still I suppose that this form does fit the needs of my new job here, and I'm grateful for being granted the opportunity to be useful once again in helping people as opposed to gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere, or being planted in a museum for people to gawk at poke at. So thanks Mr Zedmore, sir."

Meanwhile the Mayor looked like someone had dropped an anvil on his head ever since the topic of my creators was casually dropped, and so seemed to be having trouble finding his words until he finally managed to say, "Did you just say 'Knight Industries'?"

I was puzzled by his inquiry for about 3.865 microseconds, then I recalled a bit of info I'd looked up during my retraining. "Oh yeah, that's right. Didn't you try to negotiate a contract with them to update the city's police force as well as the security of our governmental facilities?" I pointed out as I put the pieces together, "It's a shame that your prior reckless and self-serving actions caused them to feel like you weren't trustworthy enough to proceed with your proposal, and to ultimately walk out during the final negotiations."

"For your information I was the one who ended negotiations with them because their projections weren't cost effective for this city!" the mayor barked at me while violently jabbing a finger in my direction, "And if you go and slander me one more time...!"

"You keep saying, 'slander, slander,' but it's only slander if it isn't true, and it just so happens that I have proof of what I've been saying," I interrupted in a confident tone, "It so happens that I still have contacts with my old employers at Knight Industries, and they had unearthed and sent me a 40 year old security footage of your ignoring the original Ghostbusters' warning against turning off the security grid of their containment unit, resulting in the explosive escape of every ghost they had managed to catch which led to the city nearly being destroyed by Gozer."

"You're lying," the mayor said tonelessly, though he couldn't quite hide the nervousness in his eyes.

"Am I? I'd be happy to use my holographic projector to show you if you'd like," I responded politely enough, "Of course that means that everyone gathered here would end up seeing it too, but if you insist..."

As if on cue to what I was implying, a good number of people in the crowd brought out their cell phones and held them up, aiming their cameras in what I figured was their best attempt to catch the mayor and myself within the frame. I then sighed and said, "Look, I'm sure that we both have better and more important things to be doing to bother sitting around here and wasting our time on a mud slinging contest, so how about this: you agree to stop harassing us and let us do our jobs, and I'll agree to let the matter drop and do the same."

"Sounds reasonable," the Mayor agreed, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder towards Mr Zedmore and the others behind him as he added, "much more so than them."

"However, if you should forget again and come at us again without legitimate cause I would, of course, have to come down to you at City Hall to remind you with that video," I reminded him, "regardless of who else might be around to also watch and possibly repost it."

The mayor looked mad enough to swear like a sailor, but he bit back whatever he was going to say and just pointed at me and said in a barely controlled voice, "You just worry about doing your job! You mess up and cause issues with this city and I won't hesitate to condemn you as a dangerous road hazard and have you scrapped!"

I sighed then and said, "Whatever you say, Mayor Dickless."

"It's Peck!" the mayor yelled at me, spittle flying from his mouth making me wish I had wipers on my hood as well, "Mayor Peck!"

"That so? My apologies," I responded, "The information in my database must have gotten scrambled somewhat during the retrofit process, but I'll make sure to go over it and correct the errors in it when we get back to the office."

Mayor Peck looked like he wanted to say something more, but his guards and aides steered him to the car they'd arrived in and drove off. As the crowd began to realize that the show was over and dispersed Mr Venkman laughed, taking a handkerchief out of his back pocket and wiping the mayor's spit off my hood as he said, "This guy is great! We should have brought him onboard at least 20 years ago!"

"You kidding? Do you know how much paperwork I had to fill out to convince Knight Industries to entrust him to us rather than his being placed in permanent storage?" Mr Zedmore said as he walked back to his own stretched car with his old comrades, "Worst carpal tunnel ever."

As they merged into traffic I couldn't help but to grin from ear to metaphorical ear (since I didn't have any, obviously) as I recalled the look on Mayor Peck's face when I got that last jab in. I wondered how he would have reacted if he realized that I was lying about not knowing what his name was, that the same satellite-direct internet connection that enables me to precisely track the flow of automotive and pedestrian traffic also granted me access to the same information that anyone with a smartphone or computer could access, with connection speeds that bested even what anyone who weren't in the upper echelons of government service had access to.

As I was thinking of this Gary Grooberson, Ms Spengler's fiancee, turned towards me with a little smirk as he said, "That's probably going to come back to bite you in the bumper, but I thought you were brilliant! I'm kinda surprised that you hadn't mentioned this video of yours before, though."

At first Gary's car puns had come off as somewhat annoying to me, especially since I'd heard similar ones to most of what he came up with in those Cars movies and shows, but now I'm finding myself enjoying the humor in them. "That's because it doesn't exist," I told him once I confirmed that no one else outside of our team was paying any attention.

"Say what?" Ms Spengler said with a shocked expression.

"Although your father contemplated setting up a surveillance system to monitor the containment unit following the River of Slime incident he hadn't completed it before he moved to Oklahoma to make preparations to prevent Gozer's return," I explained to her, "Also the Hook and Ladder Company 8, who coincidentally happened to be the ones who in 1908 found the Orb of Garraka that recently almost turned New York colder than Fairbanks, Alaska, didn't install any surveillance equipment of their own before being decommissioned 10 years later, and the building had remained vacant until our predecessors had purchased it and fixed it up to meet their needs."

"You bluffed!? I can't believe you, Ecto!" Ms Spengler said with a sigh as she held her head in her hands, "Didn't it occur to you that the mayor might call you on it?"

"It had, but I concluded that the odds of him doing so were quite low," I assured her, "Much like the other bullies I helped deal with in my previous job I figured that Mr Peck was as much of a coward as they were. This was supported by the efforts that he had made in suppressing any word of his involvement with that containment unit shutdown, such as the bribes disguised as 'additional retirement benefits' paid to the people who accomplished him on that day."

"So Knight Industries did provide you with access to that information after all?" Phoebe asked fascinated.

"No comment," I told her, and even though I was physically unable to wink I hoped that she would hear it in my voice, "In any event this evidence is too circumstantial and inconclusive to prove beyond the shadow of the doubt that he was responsible for the explosion, hence the bluff of the video. I figured that his preconceptions of me as a machine would weigh heavily in his impressions of my ability to craft a lie like that, and with re-elections coming up he'd want to avoid any evidence of his past mistakes being brought to light so he'd back off without challenging me on it. Even if he had found the balls to call me out, however, even though I've traded a Firebird Trans Am for a model of ambulance so ancient that most of them have been remodeled into hearses, I'm still confident in my ability to outmaneuver anything that the NYPD has that I can avoid being caught before I can disappear."

"Well please do your best to avoid it coming to that, okay?" Ms Spengler asked of me, "After all you're a member of our family now, and I'd rather not us parting like that."

Even though I'm acquainted with many forms of human expression, Ms Spengler's request stunned me. Even though Michael and I were as close as brothers, due in part to his being essentially reborn around the time I was put in service and partnered with him, this was the first time in my memory that I heard anyone consider me family. Unable to come up with any response other than, "Okay."

Apparently satisfied with my response, everyone climbed inside and fastened their safety belts. Phoebe then crossed her arms as she grumped, "Personally speaking I think that you should have just blasted the jerk. I would have."

"Phoebe Spengler, even if I could override the safeties in place to prevent me from aiming my particle throwers at a living being, such an action would be unthinkable," I chided her, "The proton stream could possibly inflict serious injuries and potentially even kill someone, and doing it deliberately would certainly cause us to be arrested or, in my case, impounded and destroyed."

Phoebe gave me a strange look as she said, "Dude, I was talking about using the slime blowers. Last time I checked the positively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime is non-lethal, and it would be an amusing way to shut him up."

I have to admit that the idea hadn't occurred to me, and the blowers were designed to safely drive the spectres out of the humans they may be possessing, so I conceded, "That is something, I suppose."

"Phoebe, don't be giving Ecto any ideas now," Ms Spengler said in a warning tone.

"Yes, mom," Phoebe said at the same time as me, and when Ms Spengler glared at me I hurriedly said, "I mean ma'am!"

Gary laughed good-naturedly before patting my dashboard and saying, "Well Ecto, would you like to take us home."

"I would love to, Gary," I told him, and after plotting out the most optimal path I changed modes to full auto to take my team... my family, home.