OPENING NIGHT
PART FIVE
with plot assistance from the entire GBWC team
Edited by Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, Official Historian
GBI Case File GBWC-2003-21/001
And, as Venkman just announced, another mysterious member to be revealed...
"Let me guess. We'll have to wait and see who this 'new member' is?" said Andy both sarcastically and slightly angry.
Peter with one of his famous smirks nodded yes.
"Dr. Venkman, I like your style," Joey said admiringly.
"So do I," he replied still smirking. "He'll be here shortly. I suggest you all take a seat."
Chelsea, who had suddenly disappeared a little while ago, emerged from the West Coast's Headquarters.
"We've got to save the 'taking seats' for later. We've just got our first call," she spoke confidently.
Being reminded of someone from his past, Venkman smiled. "I'll tell you what, Chelsea. Ill take the boys out for a little bench test and if you-know-who comes in time, send him our direction. He might be able to help out a little," Venkman replied using the identical smile he used from before.
"Okay," Chelsea replied with a strong and confident nod.
"Let's head em' out boys!" Joey said commandingly.
"Nice. Very nice," Venkman commented.
The team in their new outfits, ran towards the entrance of the big HQ. All with a smile on their face, they ran to both the ECTO-1N and ECTO-1S. Venkman walking behind the group with Joey, Fritz and Chelsea.
"Any description of this so called disturbance?" Venkman asked obviously very experienced in this field.
"Now that I think about it, I sort of hung up after I got the address," Chelsea said blushing with embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it, we'll just wing it," Venkman said reassuringly.
Venkman, the only one out of costume, got into the front seat of the ECTO-1S. Leaning over the seat looking at Kyle, Andy, Peter, Jeff, and Chad--the soon-to-be Southern division of the West Coast Ghostbusters.
"I'm not pulling out of the garage, until you all have your seat belts on," Venkman deadpanned.
Andy and the other Ghostbusters began laughing. No one knew if it was because of Venkman's joke or of nerves but they continued to laugh anyway.
Joey headed to the driver's seat of the ECTO-1N; John and Jeremy were already inside it, leaving Fritz and Chelsea alone.
With everyone in the cars, it was silent. Each click of the heel echoed throughout the gigantic HQ which wasn't fully furnished yet.
"Fritz, lets go! While we're young!" Andy shouted breaking the silence.
"Well, it looks like I've got to go," Fritz said avoiding eye contact with Chelsea by looking at anything possible.
"Fritz..." Chelsea uttered softly.
"Yes?" Fritz said after an awkward pause.
"Um.. Be careful out there," Chelsea replied looking down at the dirty tiled floor.
"No need to worry about that. I'm always careful," Fritz said with a smile.
Fritz's smile must have been contagious. A grin then covered Chelsea's face as Fritz jogged towards the ECTO-1N.
As if planned, at the slam of Fritz's door, Joey said, " The Ghostbusters West Coast Division is now in business."
The roar of the engines of both ECTOs roared throughout the HQ, giving every Ghostbuster a tingly feeling.
"All right! Enough of this mushy/ movie memorial crap and lets go," Jeff said with a smile.
Two beautiful beams of light shot out from the front of both ectos glistening on the dark pavement as the ectos shot from the HQ entrance as a boosted matchbox car.
Chelsea then walked out the front door after both cars cleared the garage. She stared along the dark road which was slightly lighted by the stars. Chelsea then looked up at the blinding lighted logo and smiled reassuringly.
"To the Sanchez diner," Robert answered after taking a glimpse at the piece of paper Fritz was holding.
"This ghost's got some good taste," Jeremy said slowly smiling a beat after his comment.
"How much longer till we get there?" John again questioning.
"Well, we left a few wiffins past, so it shouldn't bee too much longer," Robert answered in a crisp British voice.
"I'm still puzzled as to who this 'company' is that Venkman spoke of," Fritz pondered staring out the front window, in which the lights were crossing across like some sort of florescent light show.
"I'm so nervous, I could urinate," Kyle said trying to keep his more advanced vocabulary.
"Same here. I'm practically wetting myself," Peter chimed in suddenly.
"If I were you I would get that fixed," Jeff said referring to their bladder control problems previously mentioned.
Venkman began laughing to himself at the familiar nervous anxiety which he once felt.
"I would feel much safer if you kept your eyes on the road Dr. Venkman," Andy blurted with an ounce of cockiness.
From outside the diner's door, you could see another stunning light show. It was a more condensed version of the northern lights, or at least it looked like that from afar. As the bright lights and dark shapes grew closer, you could begin to make out the Ecto-1N and 1S's bodies.
Screeching, almost simultaneously the two ectos stopped almost parallel to the diner's entrance.
Bystanders immediately gathered around the ambulances suddenly realizing they were here to clear up the major disturbance in the diner just by GBI's logo implanted on the side doors of both cars.
Slowly, milking all the possible publicity they could, there was a click of a car door's handle, which silenced the crowd of witnesses. A rather tall man got out of the front seat of the ECTO-1S.
With a rather experienced and commanding voice, Dr. Venkman said after looking around the area quickly, "Did somebody see a ghost?"
Almost, as if planned, the other Ghostbusters emerged from each Ecto.
"All right boys, let's do this thing," Joey said motioning for the team to follow him.
"I kind of wanted to wait till I was married..." Chad deadpanned.
At that moment, all of the Ghostbusters jogged into the diner. Diner was not a good name for it; it was the size of a stadium and the name didn't match its size.
In the front lobby, which was lined with beautiful red carpet and matching appendages, the Ghostbusters were conversing with the manager.
Venkman was lagging a little behind, intending to let the new Ghostbusters learn from their own experiences. But he wasn't stupid either--he'd put on a set of work gloves and a proton pack.
"So, basically you ran out before you could get a good look at the ghoulie," Andy said a little angry from the manager who proved to be no help.
"You'll have to forgive him. He was raised by Roseanne," Joey said dryly, slightly bringing Andy behind him as to keep him under control.
"That's okay. No harm done," the manager said with a guilty look on his face.
"If you could evacuate all of the remaining people, we could worry more about the ghost without having to worry about innocent bystanders," Fritz said confidently.
"Sure thing," the manager quickly answered as he left to do what he was told.
Venkman smiled once again being reminded of a group of very familiar men as they started towards the divided dining rooms.
As they entered the largest banquet room, they began observing all of the damage.
John started towards the center of the room under the intricate chandelier. As he stood viewing the damage, he felt slight pellets of liquid pound upon his forehead.
"In a place like this, you wouldn't think there would be so many roofing problems would you?" John asked not expecting an answer.
As they all looked up to view the object of John's comment they saw the cause of the falling liquid pellets. Everyone literally turned green with disgust and pity. Jeremy sat down on one of the chairs with too much fear to stand up. A body of a man, lay hooked on the chandelier, by being stabbed through the chest by one of the glass designs. His wound was enormous, and his remaining blood slowly dripped out, falling onto the floor.
"I've only seen one other man with the same look on his face in my life. It can't be him," Kyle said in a state of shock.
Chad, then too pulled out a chair from with-under a table, and took a seat and then rested his head within his hands.
"This looks extremely bad," Fritz said while not removing his eyes from a locked position upon the PKE meter.
Even Venkman was a little thrown by this ghost's love of torment and pain. Venkman put his black gloved hands on his sides and peered across the room, again looking for any sign of ectoplasmic residue.
Jeff slowly walked across the room to the large wooden door which led to another identical room. Slowly opening the door he peered in the room through a small crack in which he opened the door.
"Guys!!!" Jeff said in the loudest possible whisper, motioning for the others.
Suddenly a chair sailed through the door from the other room slamming Jeff down to the floor on his back leaving Jeff with the aftershock of the pain he felt slamming onto the bulky proton pack. All the Ghostbusters stared at the oak doors waiting and wondering what to do next.
"Now would be a very good time for him to arrive," Venkman said once again referring to the new member of the West Coast Division.
The door finally opened. A tall dark figure stood in the shadows of the dark room behind him.
"It's you!!" Kyle screamed.
This place was totally different from either of his homes. Either of them, how odd it was to live in two entirely different situations in less than a year.
Now he was expected to settle down to a life of research, and study. Confined to a lab, this was not a job; it was a prison sentence.
At least to him it was, Egon would have loved it. It just wasn't his style. He lived for being out in the field. Which explained why he would drive all the way from Stanford to Los Angles, just to increase his workload.
But it got him out of that lab, or as he had affectingly named it: "Vacuumed Hell". He didn't care what the Science Department standards were; a sterilized area is not needed for paranormal research.
"Crap, gas went up 15 more cents." He muttered to himself seeing a sign at a BP station.
Exit 143, he flipped his blinker and moved his cumbersome vehicle over to the exit ramp. He glanced down at his directions to make sure he was heading the right way; he wasn't about to get lost here.
Then he saw it, a large and old.....yet renovated warehouse. The familiar look of a No-Ghost logo, encircled in orange rather than red, glowed dimly in the heat of the day, or was that the pavement propelling heat upwards?
"Oh shit!" He yelled as the 1993 Chevrolet Pick-up truck smashed into a parking meter. Fortunately, the Brush guards were stronger than the parking meter. "Not even a scratch." He chuckled as he inspected the front of his vehicle.
Sunlight busted through the doorway of the West Coast Division's HQ. Chelsea Aberdeen looked up and saw a very tall man, around 6 foot seven she guessed who was rather large. He was wearing a Charcoal Grey flight suit, and what appeared to be standard equipment hung from a webbed grey belt around his waist. On the shoulder, a logo similar to the West Coast Division's but with green in place of the orange.
Her eyes wandered upward, his hair was a mess looked like he had just gotten out of bed. "Dr. Venkman, he is here." She said over the phone.
She looked up now, her eyes focused to what was below the No-ghost logo, looked like vials of some sort. Finally she could make out a black path on the left breast; there in big red letters was "DANIELS".
Venkman, stepping in front of the team, began taunting the beast. " Didn't you learn your lesson last time? We weren't even prepared and we took you out. It was sort of like beating the Mets, no one thought anything of beating a low class demon like yourself."
The other Ghostbusters stood staring at the seeming to be, future showdown.
"I can sense your fear, Dr. Venkman," The Ravisher whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"So I'm guessing you also can sense I've got to take a piss. So lets get this over with as fast as possible," Venkman said confidently.
"Your witty comments will be your downfall!"
"Yeah, I've heard that before," Venkman replied. "Now why are you here?"
"My master has been watching your current activities and is very displeased. He wants me to get rid of the only threat that exists. However small it may be," The Ravisher answered.
"I see. Well, let's show this low level demon, what it means to mess with LA!"
The Ghostbusters, with their particle throwers in hand, immediately switched them on.
"You know, we never actually used these things before," Chad whispered to Jeremy nervously.
"I just realized that," Jeremy replied in a whisper.
Joey and Andy stepped forward and simultaneously said, "On three!" and Andy alone replied, "Three!!"
In an instant, 10 proton streams lit up the room, only two of them actually hitting the Ravisher. (being Venkman and Andy)
The others flew backwards never realizing how powerful those proton packs actually were. They all slowly stood up, un-used to the heavy weight of the packs.
"Let's try this again," Joey shouted embarrassed.
The Ravisher, barely able to move by being hit by now a plethora of beams, telekinetically lifted up the long banquet/buffet table and hurled it in the direction of all of the Ghostbusters.
They all dodged the slender table, some only barely.
After the Ravisher regained its breath, he began walking towards Venkman, the closest to him.
The Ravisher slowly lifted Venkman up and brought his face close to his. Whispering in his ear, "It's time."
The other Ghostbusters lay motionless on the floor trying to get to their feet as well as remove the debris from the other tables, the slender table broke with its fall.
The Ravisher's nails enlarged a great degree and slowly grazed Venkman's neck with it.
"Nooo!!" Peter Kong screamed beneath a large half of a table which too was debris from the Ravisher's attack.
The Ravisher added slight pressure to Venkman's neck having a trickle of blood flow from his neck.
Suddenly another proton stream from behind hit the Ravisher head on.
"YEE-HAW!!" A large man screamed with a smile as he continued his assault on the Ravisher.
Peter Venkman fell from the Ravisher's grip landing on the ground with a thud.
"I'm glad you could make it Ron," Peter Venkman said loudly.
"So am I," replied Chad.
Ron Daniels, beginning to lose the on-going battle between his proton stream and Ravisher, shouted "So, you guys gonna help or what?"
Each Ghostbuster's eyes widened innocently and inexperienced as each threw on his particle thrower once again and began to attack the Ravisher.
With wind blowing from the powerful proton streams cutting the thick Californian air, Fritz stood still examining his PKE meter.
Ravisher let out a high pitched scream shattering the remaining unbroken glass objects.
"How cute, he's calling for his mommy," Andy said with a smile to Peter Kong as they continued to blast the Ravisher.
"I'm not too experienced at this but, isn't this the time where you're supposed to throw the trap???" Jeremy shouted throughout the earth shattering noise of the proton streams and the Ravisher's yell.
"Yes. Yes it is," Ron Daniels deadpanned.
John quickly unhooked the trap from his proton pack and diligently tried to untangle the long cord as Fritz was showing Venkman the unusual activity being displayed on the PKE meter.
"This is not good at all," Venkman said to Fritz.
"Didn't think so," Fritz replied.
As John threw the trap relatively close to the Ravisher, an explosion echoed throughout the room. Each Ghostbuster looked around puzzled. They continued to fire for a few more instants until they felt the aftershocks which erupted and sent each Ghostbuster to their feet and each proton stream broke away and ceased firing.
"I can't move," Robert shouted.
The Ravisher's pain stricken face screamed as cutting winds surrounded him and formed a tornado like covering.
"THANK YOU MY LORD!!" The Ravisher screamed, still with pain in his voice.
The heavy winds which encased the Ravisher sped up. Each Ghostbuster watched as their hard work began to diminish. Once the winds hit a speed which it could not surpass, a flash of light engulfed the center of the room, including the Ravisher, transporting the Ravisher to a more "safe" location.
Immediately after the disappearance of the flash of light, all the wind ceased, leaving the air still. Each Ghostbuster slowly stood up rubbing their eyes fiercely trying to get rid of the circular, green and purple shapes, which were the effect of such a bright light.
Venkman, Daniels and Harness were the first to stand. They began ruffling their clothes and brushing their shoulders off from being in contact with the dirty floor.
Once everyone was up, staring at one another, Joey broke the silence, "That wasn't such a chore now was it?" Joey deadpanned.
They all stared at him for a moment.
"Well Boys, may I introduce Dr. Ron Daniels, one of the most well-known members of GBI, formerly of the Georgia Ghostbusters and most recently of NOMAD, which you might have heard of," Venkman said proudly.
Joey walked over to Ron and put out his hand. After, their brief shaking, Joey said in a tone of authority, "Welcome to the West Coast."
"Welcome to the West Coast indeed," Ron replied with a smile.
"I read the report about what happened to NOMAD." Fritz said as he shook Ron's hand. "A rather unfair shame, in my opinion."
"It isn't always a fair world, Dr. Baugh" Ron replied, with a bittersweet grin.
"Wow!!!" John said, pumping Ron's hand excitedly. "I read about you--you were the guy who almost dethroned The Legend in the GBI pie eating contest!!!"
Ron smirked and rolled his eyes.
Joey pulled out a crumpled up package of cigarettes and pulled two out. He tossed one to Ron and placed one between his own lips. He then re-submerged the package into his pocket and lit both, knowing that almost all of the others didn't smoke.
They began walking out of the huge Dining hall to embrace the cheering crowds (which Venkman and Joey mugged for with pleasure) and the manager, who was left with a pretty giant size bill.
They noticed a truck parked right beside the two ECTOs. Right next to a downed parking meter.
"Durn big city driving's gonna be the death of me." Ron chuckled. "I swear some commie must have designed these roads..."
"We should have had'm!!" Andy shouted while slamming his fist on the top of the ECTO-1S.
"We should have," replied Peter Kong, nodding. "We should have."
As Venkman and Joey returned to the ECTOs after embracing the crowd for a little bit, Venkman replied with a rather sinister smile, "We'll get him eventually. Plus, there will be more. Many more."
Both ECTOs followed by Ron in his dirt smeared truck left to go return to the HQ. Leaving a cloud of smoke from the exhaust disappear into the night.
Ghostbusters West Coast Division Created by Andy Harness and Vincent Belmont