A BONDING EXPERIENCE
PART ONE
Filed by Mick Nielson, GBWC
GBI Case File No. GBWC-2007-25/312
Mick, Jeff and Aidan all spun around, aiming their throwers at the threat... Finding only a large rat swimming away from them in the water and Jason clinging to the wall in terror.
"Are you kidding me? Get down from there and lets keep going, its bad enough we gotta slog through... well... SHIT. We don't need you flipping out on us too, Jason.
"It was huge though..." He said, slowly stepping down into the water again.
The call had come in about an hour ago from the treatment plant manager and of course, the four go-to guys on Ghostbusters West Coast when dealing with the unpleasant nature of the job were called in. The hazardous area made chasing the ghost difficult, not to mention the piping and machinery was interfering with the PKE meter, making it even harder to track down.
"Ectoplasm." Mick said, indicating a smear on the wall to their right.
Jeff scoffed. "How can you tell? There's more fluids down here than in Aidan's sheets..."
"Screw you Jeff, I already told you that was just slime samples that spilled!" Aidan retorted angrily.
The foursome continued down the tunnel until it came to a four-way split.
"Well isn't this convenient..." Mick said, shaking his head. "I call dibs on the dry one!" He shouted, heading down the drained pipe to their left.
The others muttered angrily and Jason adjusted his rubber jumpsuit, designed specifically for unsanitary working conditions like these. Their proton packs were of course insulated, so no coverings were needed, they would need a good cleaning by the end of the day though... Jason grudgingly headed down the pipe next to Mick's as he cursed their task. Jeff and Aidan each headed into their respective tunnels as well.
"Damn rodents..." Jeff said, kicking one angrily away as it investigated his sealed boots. He turned a corner, but froze, jumping back to hiding, peering around the corner and grabbing his walkie-talkie. "I found it, guys..." He whispered.
He stole a glance around the corner to confirm it and there it was... The little slime bucket was about three feet tall and a foot and a half wide, purple in color and constantly belching out a yellow mustard-scented gas.
Mick and Aidan hurried down their tunnels, trying to find a connecting route to where Jeff was, using their Proton Pack locators. Jason on the other hand, rounded a corner, but found himself staring into a huge mass of squirming, scampering rats all swimming in the disgusting fecal-infested water ahead. He took one look and promptly fled in the opposite direction, back towards the tunnels' entrance.
"I do not get paid NEARLY enough for that crap..." He said angrily, turning a corner again. As he did, unbeknownst to him, a slimy black substance leaked out of one of the vents overhead and slid down the wall, defying gravity, the fluid streamed across the wall, almost like it was following Jason's path. As he neared the exit, an echoing blast of a thrower beam rang out in the tunnels, followed by shouting voices, then the purple ghost shot into view, looking for a way out.
Jason met it's gaze and didn't waste any time, he opened fire, catching the creature in his beam and shouting for the others to hurry. "I GOT IT GUYS!!!"
Mick, Jeff and Aidan came barreling out of the tunnel it had fled from and opened fire as well. Jeff stretched out his arm and performed a frost spell to freeze the water on the floor and slid the trap out under the ghost, quickly triggering it. The purple blob squealed in protest and was sucked in by the blinding white beams of energy emitting from the box. The doors snapped shut and the trap emitted its familiar ‘bleep bleep'.
"Can we go home now? PLEASE?" Jason asked, trying to take a step... and failing.
They all looked down and groaned. "Dammit Jeff, you froze ALL the water!" Mick shouted in frustration as they tried to free their feet from the now solid water they'd been walking through a moment prior.
The others came over quickly, investigating the slime on his pack closely.
"Huh... That's different..." Aidan said, pulling his PKE meter from his belt and scanning it quickly. "It gives off a pretty damn strong reading... I think its actually an entity!"
"Well lets box it." Mick said, tossing a specimen canister to Jason. "I wanna get back to HQ and soak in the shower for about.... Three weeks."
"Fritz, that's the fifth time you've said fascinating, if you say it once more I'm gonna brain ya." Jeff said, spinning in his chair in boredom. "Figure out what it is yet?"
"Well from what I can see here, its not an entity like we know it... Its almost like it collects PK energy from the world around it and uses it to function."
"Which means..." Jason inquired.
"It doesn't generate its own 'life' force. My guess is, this is some kind of parasitic Ectoplasmic entity."
"Woah woah... How can a ghost be a parasite?" Jeff asked, getting up and looking over his shoulder.
"I don't know... It shares most of the same qualities as the mood slime that the New York team discovered back in the 80's... But this is different, watch..." Fritz said, dumping the slime sample into a two-part specimen container, then rolling his chair over to the mouse cages and grabbing one out. He rolled back over to the specimen container and opened it carefully, dropping the rodent inside.
The response was chilling.
The slime shot out tendril-looking appendages, trying to grab the mouse. The mouse squealed and shrank against the other side of the divided chamber.
"Jesus..." Aidan gasped out, sitting down. "It wants Pinky bad"
"Fascinating." Fritz said again, biting on a pen thoughtfully.
Jeff didn't even hear him, because the slime wasn't done yet. It lashed out against the plastic walls of the container with its tendrils a few times, then it began to slide off down. It apparently gave up, and returned to it's normal dormant state.
"I don't know what this stuff is exactly..." Fritz started, turning to the others. "But one thing is for certain... It needs to stay locked up. Furthermore, we need to know if there's any more of it down in those tunnels."
The black, oozing slime started pounding at the sample container again--and this time, it broke.
Nearby sat the cage with the unfortunate rodent the slime had menaced earlier. It shot a tendril into the cage, snaring the mouse and pulling it. The slime slithered its way onto the mouse's body and enveloped the now squeaking animal until it was completely covered by the fluid. The slime formed the rat's shape, but its eyes now glowed an otherworldly red.
It oozed into the hapless mouse, seeming to pass right into the mouse's skin, disappearing inside it, leaving the animal looking normal again.
"Fritz, you still up?" He asked, heading into the room and looking around. Nobody was in sight, but the specimen container was open and lying on its side, the mouse lay withered and dead nearby. "Oooh... That can't be good..."
Jason turned to go warn the others, when something dripped from the ceiling onto his shoulder. Jason looked over and the black substance squirmed across his shoulder, launching tendrils onto his face. He shouted in panic, toppling over into the door and swiping at the slime, but to no avail, it latched onto his fingers and spread across his body, slowly covering him completely...
Jason's eyes snapped open and he shot up to a sitting position in his bed. He looked around quickly, checking himself for any sign of the slime. There was none. "No job like this one..." He said, getting to his feet, it was odd, but even though his sleep hadn't been very restful, he felt more alive today, more energized than ever... and even a bit lethal.
Somewhere inside him, something stirred.
Ghostbusters West Coast Division Created by Andy Harnish and Vincent Belmont