Eduardo simultaneously tapped his hand nervously on his desk as his right knee bobbed in synch. He looked up at the clock on the classroom wall; 12:40. English composition never had seemed so incredibly long. There was still an hour of class left, but he didn't plan on staying; Kylie only had five minutes left of her psychology class.
He leaned back and took a deep breath, still tapping his hand and knee. Man,Eduardo thought to himself, this is the most pointless class in the entire universe. All we do is read books, then talk about the book. Read, talk, read, talk. How can you *not* get an easy A in this class?
"Eduardo Rivera?" his professor, Dr. Clancer, called.
Eduardo looked up from his thoughts and desperately tried to recall what she had been talking about. He vaguely recalled something about a guy named Mearso or something from some book he had yet to find the time to read. Trying to keep his sweating to a minimum, he slowly stood up to give his answer. He opened his mouth, took in a breath and said...
"I...don't feel well. 'Scuse me." Before his professor could say anything, he grabbed his books and darted for the door. Slowing his pace as he left the building, Eduardo donned a pair of shades and headed to a nearby neighboring building. As he approached it, Kylie was walking out.
"Well, well," Kylie said to Eduardo, "once again you just happen to be passing by when I get out of class. Another coincidence?"
"Don't ask me, chica," Eduardo replied. "My class just gets out at the same time as yours."
Kylie forced her smile down. She had already looked into which classes Eduardo had, and knew that he was leaving early to "just happen" to run into her. "Ready to start our Garrett hunt?" Kylie asked.
They walked off the campus and towards the firehouse. "Roland's been working with Egon at headquarters for the past hour," Eduardo said. "They've probably built some trans-dimensiony thingy, got Garrett back to normal and had lunch by now."
The sun was shining brighter than it had in weeks. Eduardo turned to Kylie, smiling as the sun shined in hi face and said to her, "Something's gonna happen today, Kylie. I can feel it." Kylie didn't say anything in return, instead she turned her head and looked into his eyes, her mouth parted slightly. Eduardo was looking ahead and didn't notice her staring at his profile. Kylie stopped staring and once again looked ahead, wondering how such a simple phrase could seem to contain something so meaningful, at least to her, inside it.
Kylie realized there had been dead silence for quite a few moments now and decided to break it. "S-something good or something bad?"
"No se, chica," he replied," just something."
* * *
*z-z-z-ZAP!*
"YEOWCH!" Roland jumped backwards, lost his footing and fell to the floor. From his right elbow down to the tips of his fingers a painful tingling flared up and down. He stood up and rubbed his arm, wincing.
Egon quickly unplugged the new PKE meter they were constructing and winced at Roland's pained expression. "Ooh...that hurt?" Even as the words left his mouth, Egon felt that his reply was about 100 IQ points lower than anything else he had ever said.
Roland thought so, too. "Yes, Egon, it does."
Waiting a couple minutes for Roland to recover, Egon continued his work on the PKE meter. As he tweaked some of the dials and knobs, he dunked a Twinkie in his coffee mug and took a bite. He stopped his work as he noticed which coffee mug Janine had brought up for him. It was one he hadn't seen in years, was probably sitting in the back of his cabinet collecting dust the whole time. It was a plain black mug, with a picture of the Ghostbuster's no-ghost logo giving the peace sign. A smile appeared on his face as he started reminiscing about the good old days, back when he and his friends he'd known for so long loved the combination of pure adrenaline action and genius-level science they'd take on nearly every day. Strapping on the pack and throwing the ghost trap was new, and felt kind of dangerous, but that made the job all the more worth it.
"Egon? Egon?"
Egon snapped back to reality with a start. Sometimes he missed those days of going out there for the action. "Oh, sorry Win...Roland. Mind wandered, I suppose."
"Yeah, no problem. Anyway, like I was saying, I think Eduardo and Kylie are here."
"Hello?" Eduardo called from downstairs.
"Up here!" Roland called down. "C'mon up."
Kylie headed toward the stairs and just before she reached them Eduardo ran in front of her to cut her off. As he started up, he turned and gave Kylie that smart smile of his which made Kylie want to smile back as her fist was making contact with his face. The way he could switch between being really sweet and totally arrogant really got to her. Kylie decided that today was simply not the day she was going to beat him to death, and silently followed Eduardo into Egon's office.
Egon turned around when they entered. "Good, you're here. Roland and I were just about to test the PKE meter. With these new modifications, the PKE meter will lock on to the containment suit Garrett's wearing. It can also detect him from a further radiance than the normal PKE meter can. Roland, would you like the honor?"
Roland leaned over to turn it on and, remembering the extreme pain he had experienced earlier with the device, backed off. "That's okay, Egon. You go ahead. I insist."
Egon showed a small smile of understanding and turned on the PKE meter with a small *click*. A few lights came on immediately, with a couple more coming on a few seconds later. "One of the drawbacks to the enhancements to the PKE meter is it takes a few seconds to warm up." Sure enough, a few moments later it powered up. A small screen with a grid map on it came to life, showing a green blip. "That's him," Egon said to everyone.
"How far away is that?" Eduardo asked.
Egon took a moment to calculate out the scale. "Hmm...I'd say the other end of Manhattan, roughly."
"Well, what are we waiting around here for?" Kylie said, her voice showing something was bothering her. "...Egon, the last time we saw Garrett, he ran from us. What if he won't come with us this time, either?"
Egon looked at her and replied in a stern tone, "Use any means possible. If he won't come on his own..." Egon nodded his head toward a ghost trap lying on his workbench. The rest of them nodded, understanding.
"Well, c'mon," Eduardo said, handing the new PKE meter to Roland and heading for the stairs. Kylie and Roland followed.
At the doorway to Dr. Spenglar's lab, Kylie stopped, turned around and said, "Egon, we're a little short of Ghostbusters today. Wanna fill in?" Egon smiled a wide smile and grabbed a nearby proton blaster. Going back into action, Egon thought, Just like... Suddenly the term "good old days" had a different meaning to them. They weren't just old, they were gone. It no longer seemed his place to just run in blasting anymore. Now his place was back at headquarters, analyzing, making newer and better equipment, and making sure these new Ghostbusters don't get themselves into too much trouble when they just run in, blasting.
He put the proton pack down. "Think I'll sit this one out, Kylie. Besides, while you're off saving Garrett, I can stay here and continue working on saving Slimer."
Just then an obnoxious barrage of car horn honking came from downstairs. Kylie was amazed at how easily Eduardo could get her to grit her teeth even when they weren't on the same floor. A half smile passed over the right side of Egon's face. "Good luck."
Kylie turned to him. "Likewise," she said, and with that, turned and left. AS she headed downstairs, another series of annoying honking sounded. "I'M COMIN'!" Kylie yelled at him.
Egon walked back from the doorway to his desk and shuffled through a stack of nearby papers, sorting our the ones containing notes he had jotted down about separating Slimer from the Marinzean. Satisfied he had them all, he grabbed the half-finished prototype and some parts, sat down, and continued working. This time, he said to himself, I don't stop until it's complete.
* * *
Slimer had explained everything to Garrett. Garrett had been a pawn, doing everything exactly as Slimer had planned. It was Slimer who put those whispering suggestions in Garrett's head, with the aid of his newfound powers from the Marinzean counterpart, and Garrett had foolishly did everything the whispers had bade.
Slimer had understood Garrett's weakness, his desire to once again don the suit that gave him his legs, and used it to manipulate Garrett. The conflict inside the alternate Slimer was evident in the plan he presented to Garrett. "The Ghostbusters are now both our enemies, Garrett. They destroyed my Marinzean children, our plan to cultivate this world and make it into one to reflect our strong culture. Our previous planet was dying, fast. While we remained content in our old culture of magic and tradition, the Zineas strove for technological advances. Over the years our once beautiful planet was destroyed, defaced with the Zineas' desire for technology. We built our temples and simple housing under the ground, leaving the Zineas to destroy themselves above. Looking for other worlds to inhabit, we came upon this place. We started a silent war to destroy the humans who, like the Zineas, foolishly strove for ultimate happiness through technology. However, their technological growth was slower than the Zineas, and as a result the planet is still alive. We had begun preparations for out war when the Ghostbusters intruded, destroyed our plans...and turned they two of us into this," Slimer waved his dripping arms in front of himself.
Slimer continued, "The humans' technology destroyed us, Garrett, and they destroyed you. But, we all have been given a second chance, Garrett, a new beginning. I have turned the curse of this new body into a blessing, by using my powers to create a new race of Marinzeans, now from the spirits inhabiting your world instead of the humans. Your curse can too be turned into a blessing, Garrett. You are no longer one of them, you're a walking spirit, and as such you can give yourself to me. Your will is great, Garrett, I have seen that many times as you've battled, and combined with our might, we'd be unstoppable." Slimer's eyes burned red, his huge mouth in a grin of excitement as he reached out his hand to Garrett. "Join me!"
Garrett couldn't stand seeing Slimer like this, knowing that part of his old friend was in there, somewhere. Yet even as he despised what this Marinzean Slimer was saying, his arm began to extend to meet with Slimer's. He could hardly believe what he was doing, or why he was doing it. Then he realized the whispers in his head that he hadn't even noticed there were telling him what to do. Garrett, determined now, blocked out the whispering, jerked his hand back. A murmur arose from the group of Ecto-Marinzeans surrounding him.
Slimer wore a look of surprise, one that quickly changed to burning, intense anger. The Marinzean Slimer spoke again, low and growling. "Maybe you don't understand, Garrett. I'm allowing you to join me as an equal. I've given you the power to walk, just like you wanted. Now I'm offering you a seat, a throne next to mine, for the entire world, and you refuse. Very well, but you shall join me one way or the other." Slimer swung a hand from his left side to his right. A wave of pain swarmed through Garrett's head like a thousand locusts. The voices were no longer subtle whispers, they were screams, shouts, louder than Garrett could ever imagine a sound being. He screamed and, clutching his head, dropped to his knees.
Opening his eyes, he peered through the sweat that was running down his face. His hands, his entire body he noticed, was bubbling and pulsing. A thick green slime began oozing through his pours, engulfing him. A single scream of intense fear erupted from Garrett as he thought back to his dream a few nights ago. Garrett, still on his knees, looked up at Slimer, who was hovering over him, grinning. He hoped that perhaps Slimer was in there somewhere, could help him stop all this like he wanted to. But looking in those eyes, burning with a fiery hatred Garrett had never known, he knew the Marinzean leader buried Slimer far back there in that body, to be sure he wouldn't destroy his evil plans. Garrett was losing consciousness. He could hear the Marinzean Slimer laughing. The last thing Garrett heard was Slimer saying to him, "You should have known, Garrett, that a gift that good never comes without a price."
* * *
Speeding off in the Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters prepared themselves for a long trip. Kylie reached over and flicked on the radio. She scanned the stations through all the commercials and static, looking for some good alternative music to set the mood.
The radio flashed in and out of stations. "...and in other news...cloudy with a ten percent chance of rain..here with Dr. Venkman of the..."
Eduardo grabbed Kylie's shoulder. "Yo, chica, go back! That was Peter Venkman!"
"I know, I know, I'm looking for the station," she replied, quickly turning the knob.
"...the script for a second movie based on the many adventures of the Ghostbusters. Dr. Venkman, what can the fans out there expect from your new movie?"
Peter Venkman's voice came on the radio in his usual slick, laid back manor. "Well, Joy, I don't really want to give too much away about the upcoming movie, but I would like to lift the casting burden off all those ghostheads out there and assure you that the actors who portrayed us in the first movie will return for the sequel."
"Will there be any changes to any of the characters?" The news woman asked.
"There will be a couple of minor changes in some secondary characters, namely Janine and Louis Tully, but I think the second movie will better develop their personalities. I strongly believe the audience will love these two characters even more the second time through. And wait 'till you see Janine's new love interest."
The interview continued on, talking about the popularity of the original movie and the budget for the newer special effects. "They're changing Janine's love interest?" Kylie said aloud. "He's changing the one thing that has been more constant than any other thing in this universe! He'd better not have written that Janine's fallen for Venkman now or something..."
"It's Tully," Eduardo replied.
"WHAT?!" Roland and Kylie exclaimed, looks of disgust playing across their faces.
"Where would Venkman get an idea like that?" Roland asked.
Kylie answered, "Janine mentioned Louis looked kinda cute this one time where he dressed up in ghostbusting gear to help them out. I think it was when they went up against Vigo. When Venkman and the others found out, they didn't let her forget about it any time soon. Sounds like Peter decided to original it a little. How'd you find out she'll be with Louis?"
"The info leaked onto the internet a couple weeks ago. So...who wants to go with Janine to the premier?"
All three Ghostbusters raised their hands and smiled.
Looking at each other, smiling, the realization of the importance and danger of their current mission brought seriousness back to the group. Kylie continued playing with the radio knob in silence, while Eduardo stared out the window, anxious to get his friend back. His thoughts drifted back to a few weeks ago, when he had asked Garrett if he would give anything to gain the power the containment suit gave him. He had no idea how serious his friend really was.
The drive seemed to take a small eternity, which it very well may have, before they started getting close to Garrett's signal. After a couple of minutes, Roland drove past a dilapidated building, and then a park.
"You've passed 'em!" Kylie called out.
Roland quickly parked the car on the side of the road. The three of them got out of the Ecto-1 and Kylie once again checked the modified PKE meter. "He's in there," Kylie said, pointing to the run-down building a few meters away. The remains of a sign above the door read "T m's G oc ry". Eduardo gave a little chuckle. "Leave it up to Garrett to be hiding out in an abandoned food store, right?"
The team of three pried open the door and slowly walked inside the shell of a building, totally oblivious to the danger they were walking into. Over one hundred hungry eyes watched them enter. From the depths of the shadows the Marinzean Slimer grinned. Everything was going just as planned...
