NIGHT SURGEON
PART ONE

Filed by Mick Nielson, GBWC
GBI Case File No. GBWC-2008-27/317

Tammy was heading home from work at the same time as she always did, she locked up her father's store, made sure she had the full deposit for the bank, made sure she had set the alarm, then headed for the parking garage up the street, where she always parked her car. She adjusted her ponytail, which had been slipping out all day and, finally satisfied with it, continued on her path.

After she'd walked about a block, she noticed a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that someone was following her. She glanced back and waited a moment, nothing greeting her but the normal sounds of the city. Tammy waited another moment, then continued walking, listening more closely. After a few steps, she heard it: Footsteps.

Tammy kept going, now sure that someone was matching her steps to conceal the noise and they were picking up pace a bit. Tammy reached into her purse as she picked up her own pace, turning the corner onto the street where the parking garage was, then pressed against the wall, waiting. A figure stepped around the corner, holding a knife and she pulled the pepper spray from her purse, letting loose into her stalker's eyes. He shouted angrily and Tammy made a run for it, unsteady in her heels, which soon fell off as she went faster.

Just as she entered the parking garage and frantically hit the button for the elevator, she heard the footsteps running after her, this guy wasn't going to give up... Tammy didn't dare wait for the elevator and ducked into the stairwell, running up. A moment after the stairwell door shut, it burst open again and her assailant sprinted up, much faster than she was. Tammy decided to get out of the stairs and ran out onto the 2nd floor, even though her car was on the third. As usual with L.A. raised girls, she began frantically screaming "FIRE! FIRE!" which, anyone raised in the city knew, you yell 'Rape!' or 'Help!' nobody pays attention, but anyone yells fire, people care.

Tammy's heart sank as she felt a powerful hand clamp down on her shoulder and slam her against the wall near the elevators. The knife went to her neck. "Don't move a muscle." the hairy man with appalling breath whispered, looking around to see if anyone had heard her. Behind them, one of the elevators opened and the broken, flickering light illuminated a figure with a long coat on, his face shrouded in darkness underneath a wide-brimmed hat.

"Mind your own business, asshole!" The mugger shouted, grabbing Tammy and holding the knife out threateningly.

"This IS my business..." The stranger said in a gruff tone, then his arm moved in a throwing motion and the mugger's body tensed up, toppling backwards, a dart sticking out of the forehead. Tammy, trembling in terror, looked down at her unconscious assailant, then broke down crying. "Oh God... Thank you so much, sir..." she said, turning back to him as he approached.

"No need to thank me, child..." He said, then suddenly grabbed her by the throat, revealing a large, shiny, surgical knife. "As I said... This is my business."

Tammy's scream echoed through the cement structure as the knife struck at her.

The next morning, across town, another large knife plunged down and dunked into a jar of peanut butter. Jason whistled cheerily as he spread it across his brad slices and glanced at the television, which was endlessly fixed to CNN.

"Can we change this?" Jason inquired to Jeremy, who had been watching it for almost two days.

"No, I'm telling you, someone is gonna take a shot at Obama... Any day now."

"Ugh! I'M about ready to take a shot at him if that'll get you to change this friggin channel!" Mick shouted, snatching at the remote angrily. Jeremy yanked it away and the two began wrestling around the room for control of it.

Sitting at the rec room table, Jeff sighed, annoyed. As the remote fell to the ground and they both ran for it, Jeff got up, turned to them and extended his hand, freezing their feet to the floor just short of reaching the remote.

"Dammit Jeff, why do you have to do that?" Rachel demanded as she floated past the door. "I'M the one who has to clean up that water when it melts!"

"Sorry, I just couldn't take anymore of CNN..." He said, grabbing the remote and turning the TV off completely. "Alright, well I'm gonna go work out." He said, heading out of the room.

"Wait, why the hell did you freeze us if you weren't even WATCHING TV?!" Mick demanded just as Jeff entered the hall.

"I dunno, boredom?" He asked, shrugging and disappearing.

"Dammit..." Jeremy said, struggling to sit down on the floor to wait for his feet to thaw. "Jason, can you get the hair dryer?"

"Wish I could, but I'm busy..." He said, sitting down at the table to eat his dinner.

Downstairs, Rose picked up the phone. "Ghostbusters West Coast, ready to believe you. How may I help you?" She asked, then straightened up, writing something down. "Okay, lemme put you on hold for a sec..." She said, then did so, getting up and hurrying to the office behind her desk, knocking.

Fritz looked up from his desk. "Come in." He said, then smiled at Rose. "What's up?"

"There's a..." She said, looking down at the notebook. "Detective Matheson on the phone for you, says he needs to speak with a Ghostbuster directly."

"Alright, I'll get it, thanks Rose." Fritz said, picking up the receiver as she shut the door. "Doctor Fritz Baugh."

"Doctor Baugh, this is Detective Matheson from the LAPD, and we have a bit of an odd case. I was hoping you might be able to help us out a bit."

"Well I'll do my best, Detective. How can I help?"

"Well, we were wondering if you or any of your staff has experience dealing with the occult..."

A few minutes later, Fritz entered the rec room and frowned at the sight of Mick and Jeremy trying to crack the ice around their boots with a fork and a book. "What's up?" Mick asked casually.

"I got a case for you and Jeff."

A few hours later, Mick and Jeff entered the LAPD morgue and were led downstairs by the detective in charge of the case, Matheson. "Now, you have to understand, this is all strictly confidential, you are not allowed to discuss what you hear with ANYONE outside your company and you will be paid as consultants, not your usual sky-high prices."

"Yeah, that stuff all gets taken care of by the office girls, we just do the case and get paid by the hour." Jeff said, waving a dismissive hand.

"Good..." Matheson said as they entered the morgue. They walked into the room, which smelled of chemicals and had the aura of the dead hanging thick in it, which Mick and Jeff were no strangers to... "This is her." Matheson said, indicating a sheet-covered corpse laying on a table in front of a doctor. "Keep in mind, it's a bit gruesome."

"Trust me, we've seen some pretty bad stuff." Mick said, nodding.

"Okay." The detective said, throwing the sheet aside.

It was bad. Tammy's body was sliced open from the groin-area to her sternum, like a dissection body in medical school. Her internal organs had been removed after her throat was cut, and the organs were all left behind after being treated with some sort of unidentifiable chemicals. The heart had been cut in half and the tissues treated with a different kind of chemical, before both had been discarded.

Mick put on a pair of gloves as Matheson handed Jeff a few sheets with readouts on them. "This is the test results from when we ran the chemical, we don't know what they are, so if you do, let US know."

"Anyone do research on this?" Mick asked, indicating a symbol, carved into the back of Tammy's neck.

"Looked like it was Satanic to me." Matheson said.

"Actually its quite the opposite, detective..." Mick said, annoyed. "This is a Pentacle Star, it's a holy symbol.

"I thought it was the devil's mark or something?"

"That's a PentaGRAM" Jeff said, just as annoyed by the common mistake.

"We can probably dig up some info on this and get back to you. Let us know if any more bodies like this pop up..." Mick said.

Matheson crossed his arms. "Why would you say that?"

"Well... The killer marked his victim, that's sort of a trait that serial killers share, isn't it?"

Matheson nodded. "Yeah... Kinda like a serial killer that has two other victims..." He said, dropping a folder onto the table next to Jeff, who opened it. Inside, there were photos of two other bodies just like Tammy.

"The plot thickens..." Jeff mumbled.

After receiving the murder case, Mick and Jeff realized this wasn't going to be a picnic, so Fritz gave them time off the regular busts, having Jason, Aidan and Jeremy switching shifts two at a time.

Jeff took the chemical reports and made a beeline for his local magic shop owner, Maverick Tanner, also a small-time sorcerer. He presented the chemical readout to his friend, who looked them over with much intrigue. "Hmmm, this is interesting... Lemme take a look at my stocks."

Jeff nodded and leaned against the counter while Maverick went into the back to look. Jeff surveyed the shop, knowing it pretty well. Maverick was a friend of Belmont, who'd introduced Jeff to him, he also provided Jeff with speedy means of traveling from L.A. to New York when Nightsquad needed him.

"Alright, I found a few of them..." Maverick said, appearing from his back room. "There's a few things here that are 'off the books' if you know what I mean..."

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna turn you in." Jeff said, chuckling.

"Okay..." He nodded, laying the potion bottles on the counter. "Most of the uses for these things are transmogrification, but there's a few in here that deal with MENTAL modifications." He held up two vials. "These are that, but there's 3 others in this readout that even I cant find anymore, they've been outlawed since.... Hell, I don't even KNOW how many centuries ago."

"Interesting indeed..." Jeff said, examining the bluish liquid in the dim lights of the shop. "Thanks Mav. Mind if I borrow a sample of these?"

Maverick held up his hands. "Take both vials, I got more of it in the back..." he trailed off. " I mean... Not TOO much more... Its illegal..."

Jeff chuckled again. "Take it easy, I'm not gonna call up the Order of Hermes on you or anything." He said, heading out of the shop.

Across town, Mick was jotting down some notes and nodding as the person on the other line spoke. "Alright, thanks again John." He said, hanging up.

Rose frowned from behind the desk. "Ya know, London is a long-distance call. I don't think Fritz is gonna be happy about the phone bill."

"Well it cant be helped, I dunno anyone else who knows as much about occult symbols..." Mick said, heading up to his room to look through his books. He pulled down one of them labeled "Order of the Templar Knights".

Jeff entered the office. "Found some stuff on the chemicals, turns out they're found in a couple potions that are used for physical AND mental transformations. Find anything on the symbol?"

"A friend of mine from England said its used by a few different people, but the way the body was cut up is similar to the methods used by the Templar Knights in their ceremonies, so I'm looking into it now."

"Right. Lemme know what you find, I'm gonna go see if there's any way to track down some of the illegal potions."

Mick nodded, writing down something. "Wait a couple minutes and we'll go to a place I know."

An hour later, Mick and Jeff climbed out of the Charger, crossing the street and entering "Midnight" a nightclub.

"Heard of this place..." Jeff said as he and Mick entered.

"Yeah... You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy, but watch your step, this place can be a little rough."

"Nice Star Wars quote..." Jeff said, chuckling.

"Yeah, sorry... Seriously though, ran into Papa Midnite a couple times before... Not the most pleasant experiences for me..." Mick said over the music.

"Didn't get along?" Jeff asked, keeping his eyes open for trouble.

"He tried to kill me."

"Oh, so he's not much different than any of the OTHER people you know..."

Mick and Jeff were stopped at the door in the rear area of the club by a large, burly man with a slightly red tint to his eyes.

"We need to see Midnite." Mick said flatly.

The burly guard glared at them a moment, then spoke into his headset quietly, then listened, nodding. "Okay, go in..."

The door opened after a few loud locks being slid open. The steel door creaked as it hit the inner wall and the two Ghostbusters entered, seeing a Jamaican man sitting at a large ornate desk before them.

"Well, well... He returns for another beating?" Midnite asked, looking up at Mick threateningly.

"Look, we just need some information, and I'm willing to make a trade for it."

Midnite's eyebrow arched. "I see... What have you to offer?"

Mick stepped up to the desk, plopping down an object wrapped in cloth. Midnite took it and unwrapped it slowly, revealing it to be a golden bracelet in the shape of a scorpion. Jeff's eyes widened and he smacked Mick in the shoulder, giving him a 'wtf?!' look. Mick held his hand out to calm his partner.

"Hmmm, a Bracelet of Anubis... Very hard to find one of these... What is it you need?"

"We need a few potions... Ones that are VERY off-the-books." He said, sliding the list across the table to him. "We also need ANY information you have on these things being used by known murderers in the last hundred years."

"Well, not TOO much of a demand, is it?" Midnite said, chuckling as he handed the bracelet off to his assistant. "No wonder your trading in a bracelet like that..." He said, getting to his feet and crossing to the other side of the room and removing a picture from the wall, revealing a combination lock on the wall. "Let me see what I have..."

He began entering the numbers, glaring at the two of them until they averted their eyes. There was a massive 'KLUNK!' and the entire wall slid aside, revealing a door, which Midnite unlocked and entered a safe, housing numerous oddities of the occult nature.

20 minutes later, Mick and Jeff emerged from the nightclub and Jeff once again hit Mick in the shoulder, harder this time.

"Ow! What?"

"You cant give away shit like that to people like him, you idiot!" Jeff shouted.

Mick frowned. "What do you care?"

"Excuse me if you don't see the problem with giving evil Voodoo Priests access to magical objects that can enslave peoples' minds!"

"Yeah... if it was REAL." Mick said, crossing his arms.

"It... was fake?" Jeff asked.

"Yup, bought that online, it's a replica from The Mummy Returns." Mick said, grinning and heading back to the car.

"You play a dangerous game, Nielson..." Jeff said, following.

To Be Continued

Based on Ghostbusters Created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis

Ghostbusters West Coast Division Created by Andy Harness and Vincent Belmont