THE REUNION
PART ONE
GBI Case File GBWC-2003-21/008
The wild eyed scientist grabbed a small pale remote and flipped its switch. Within a few seconds, what seemed to be a pile of junk began to move. Hysterically, the man began to laugh.
"My new creation shall help me take over the world!" Stophogus said to himself. A blinding white light shined in his face from no where. "What, who's there?"
Lightning struck as a young man in a Spider-Man T-shirt and Garfield baseball cap jerked around to see what was a miss.
In the doorway stood a man dressed in a black sweats and shirt and stepped forward, "Peter, what are you doing?"
"Oh, hey Kyle," Peter said organizing a pile of papers on his drawing desk, "just writing some stories for possible comic books or animation projects." Peter Kong is the typical dreamer, he enjoys having fun in life and trying new experiences. Despite the fact that Peter had quit working as head animator at the LA Disney studios, he was still prepared to go back if he ever would feel the desire to.
"Um, aren't you a Ghostbuster? There's no need for you to work on cartooning anymore." Dr. Kyle Stevens, former chief surgeon of Stevens Point Hospital, a fairly laid back type of guy. However, he often doesn't know when to quit his work.
"Who said I had to do it for financial reasons? I work on cartoons for personal reasons mostly. It's what I love to do and I it keeps my mind fresh."
All of a sudden, a knocking came from the front door. "I wonder who that could be?" Kyle wondered
"Normally a customer would just call at this time at night," replied Peter.
Michael Alan Chad, referred to Chad by his friends, rushed to the door and opened it. Behind it stood a two men and an ape wearing an adventurer's style hat. One of the men was a tall blond dressed in a blue suit and pink tie. Next to him stood a short chubby fellow in a red suit and brown hair. The trio was a little soaked from the rain.
"Who are you guys?" asked Chad slightly confused.
"The name is Jake Kong, Jr." said the blond guy.
"Kong?" Chad said with a blur and thought for a moment, "Oh yeah, Peter's dad. C'mon in, get out of the rain." The three entered the head quarters of the Ghostbusters West Coast. Chad extended his hand towards the short man, "And you must be Eddie."
"Yeah, Eddie Spencer, Jr." he replied.
In the kitchen, Dr. Andy Harness was hunting for a midnight snack. "Hmmm, what can a young teen age GB sick his teeth into tonight?" he said to himself. Harness is the very same Harness that lead the Eastern Tennessee Ghostbusters to a victory against the menace known as Ashram. Sniff sniff, "I smell monkeys." He turned around and was confronted by Tracy. "Oh my. I knew Peter had strange relatives, but this is ridiculous."
"Hey Peter," called Chad from the stairway, "You've got company."
Peter and Kyle dashed down the stairs in a flash, "what's up?" Peter asked.
"Son," called Jake.
"Dad? What are you doing here?" asked Peter.
"We were in town and decided to stop by," said Eddie.
"Good ol' Uncle Eddie," Peter said shaking his head with a smirk.
"Well, well," said a voice behind Peter, "What do we have here?" Subtly Peter turned around and noticed a tall brown haired man bearing glasses. It was the Emmett Brown of the group, Dr. Fritz V. Baugh.
"I am Jake Kong," replied Jake.
"Pleased to meet you," Fritz said offering a hand shake, "Peter's told me some fascinating tales about yourself."
"Let's sit down, we have a lot to discuss," said Jake as everyone gathered around the living quarters of the WCHQ. Dr. Joey Williams and DR. Robert John Griffiths were already in the room sitting and watching Everybody Loves Raymond.
"Ha ha ha," Joey laughed at the image of Frank Borone with a tuba stuck on his head. With the help of Dr. Peter Venkman, Joey was able to launch a Ghostbusting franchise in Los Angeles. Joey was wearing a tan shirt and blue jeans.
"Now you don't see comedy like that anywhere else these days, Joey," said Robert. Dr. Griffith is an engineer hailing from England. Robert was wearing a khaki jumpsuit with a few spots of ecto-plasmic residue.
"Hey Joey! Robert!" Peter called, "we've got some company."
Robert slowly stopped laughing and became a little embarrassed acting like that in front of them. "Sorry." He then looked up and his jaw dropped, "What's that?" he said pointing at Tracy.
"This is Tracy. Remember, my dad and his friends were once Ghostbusters. He's just a part of their group."
"A Ghostbusting ape? No way!"
In the next room, a long dark haired man was busy trying to read a book on folklore. "What's the commotion about?" he said lifting his head. It was Jeffrey R. Nash. Nash wore a black shirt with a fainted image of Darth Vader. "Better see what's up," he said getting off the desk chair heading for the door.
"Hey, look who's coming out of hibernation," giggled Harness.
Upon exiting the study, Jeff replied, "Shut your yap, Andy," with a sour frown. "What's going on?"
"Family visitors of Peter Kong," said Robert.
"Looks more like relatives of Venkman to me."
"Peter," Jake said as he sat next to him, "We need to talk."
"I'm afraid it's bad news," said Eddie. "I hate bad news."
Just before Jake to speak another word, the portable phone began to ring. Joey picked the receiver up and answered, "Ghostbusters West Coast. Uh huh," he spoke as he wrote down an address. "Okay, we're heading on over," he said as he hung up.
"So where's the show down, Joe?" asked Andy.
"It's on Lincoln Boulevard. Some place called Bed Rock Rockers," replied Joey.
"Maybe we got a call from Fred Flintstone," said Peter. "Where's Gazoo when you need him?"
"It didn't sound like a major fuss, so I guess all of us aren't necessary for this job," said Joey. "Peter, since your dad is here, you may stay behind if you wish."
"Well, why can't they just come along?" asked Peter. "I mean after all, they were once Ghostbusters."
"Yes," said Fritz, "But a different style."
"We can just watch, us old guys are too old for paranormal hunts anymore," said Eddie.
Joey paused to consider and kindly said, "OK, they can come. But the monkey must stay behind."
Tracy became upset immediately and pounded his chest angrily. "I think you hurt his feelings," said Eddie.
"OK, OK. I know when I'm licked, Tracy can come," said Joey.
"Can he drive?" asked Eddie. Joey slapped himself with a sigh. "He does have a license mind you."
Andy thought to himself, You know the world is coming to an end when they start giving apes licenses.
"Never mind," Joey said, "Let's just send a crew over there. Peter, Andy, Chad. Suit up and move 'em out. Your dad and Eddie may join."
"And Tracy?" continued Eddie.
With a grumble, "And Tracy."
The trio entered the garage and hastily put their khaki jumpsuits on and grabbed three standard proton packs. Andy was about to get into the driver's seat when Tracy already had Ecto's engine running.
"Smart ape," said Andy, "but I'm the driver here."
Jake, who was sitting behind Tracy, leaned over and said to Tracy, "This isn't our car, so I would think it is rude for you to drive this time, big guy."
"Shucks," Tracy mumbled as he got out and entered the passenger's side.
"I don't know what's worse, a gorilla as my chauffeur or my passenger," said Harness as he got in. Peter and Chad sat between Jake and Eddie in the back. "All right guys, buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride, Harness style!" said Andy as he backed up and put Ecto into full gear. The ECTO-1S, a white former SWAT van with the neon orange Ghostbuster logo on the side, rolled down the street, strobe lights flashing
As the van made its way to its destination, it hit a few bumps and curves. Eddie cried, "and he thinks Tracy would've been a bad driver!" With a quick jolt to the gear, the car made a sudden stop. They arrived at the restaurant, Bed Rock Rockers. Rockers was built to resemble what a restaurant in the cartoon, The Flintstones, would look like. Everyone got and geared up their packs.
"A restaurant?" asked Chad.
"Some ghosts just don't have respect for food, I guess," said Andy.
"Good thing we don't have an orange tabby that tags along with us on this job," said Peter.
"This feels like old times," said Jake to Eddie as the group walked to the entrance.
"Yeah, but we never used this equipment." said Eddie.
"Yeah, we had the dematerializers and ghost gummers."
"These guys remind me of the Ghostbusters that helped us finally rid this world of Prime Evil back in the early 90's."
"Well, this is a branch of that team."
"No wonder everything looks so familiar," said Eddie as the six Ghostbusters entered the stone-age style building. The room was filled with panic. Several people were running amock, while others were hiding underneath rocklike tables. A few areas were covered with a little slime.
"Ok Peter," Harness said, "Take some PKE readings."
"Ok," replied Peter pulling out a small device that looked like a remote control.
"And no pretending it's a lightsabre!"
Peter strolled along the room until he the PKE went berserk. Slowly, Peter looked up and spotted four ghosts at the cash register. Two ghosts were short stubby ugly creatures. One was colored blue and the other was red. The third ghost was a tall white ghoul in a tuxedo with what appeared to be a machine gun. And, the fourth ghost was even more startling than the others. This ghost somewhat resembled himself, only with a slight aura and red hair bearing a thin pair of vibrant shades. With his eyes glaring at the scene, Peter couldn't move.
Harness ran up and pulled out his proton gun quickly, "Peter, what the heck are you doing?"
"W-w-w who, are you?" asked Peter to the apparition. Casually, the spook turned around and revealed himself. Peter jumped back with shock and muttered, "You're...You're, my..."
"Brother?" replied the ghost.
"No, no. It's not possible."
"Oh yes it is. I am Jack Kong. Didn't Dad tell you that I died a week ago?"
Jake ran up to his boys and said to Peter, "I tried to tell you back at the warehouse, but I never had the chance."
"All I can say is that the spirit world is much more fun the living," said Jack as he pulled out a small pistol.
"Jack, what are you doing?" asked Peter.
"Exactly what the Ghost Father told me," replied Jack as he shot at his brother and dad. Chad managed to tackle the two to the ground without getting hit by the bullets.
"Let's go," said Andy as every dashed to the exit.
"Dang it!" shouted Jack. "Hip, Hop, go after them." The two stubby blobs chased the boys through the room shooting at them. Their silver bullets banged on Chad's pack.
"Oh no," he said dropping the pack as it malfunctioned.
"I never thought I'd see the day when ghosts became robbers and we become police," said Andy as he left the building. Everyone was safe outside, or at least they thought.
"I'm calling back up," said Chad as he picked up the radio from the car. Just as he was about to speak in it, the radio was shot and short circuited. The team looked up and saw the tall tuxedo ghost.
"The name's Stretch," it said as he loaded his machine gun with fresh bullets.
"I think it'd be a safe time to retreat," said Andy getting into the driver's seat.
"Oh yeah! Well let me at him," said Peter as he began to box air.
"Peter," said Chad, "this is no time to be Scrappy Doo."
As Stretch's machine gun clicked signifying that the machine gun was loaded, Peter replied, "yeah." He and everyone else got back into Ecto as Andy drove back to the HQ.
Jack laughed hysterically as he left Rockers with a large bag of money, "what a bunch of pansies."
"What I don't understand is what would ghosts want with money," said Eddie.
"What I don't understand is what happened to Jack," said Peter.
"Once we get back, we'll explain," said Jake.
"Where's the ghost?" asked Joey.
"The ghosts, they shot our packs!" cried Chad.
"What?"
"We ran into what appeared to be a group of gangsta' like ghosts," said Andy.
"It was like a scene from Dick Tracy," said Peter.
Fritz walked in puzzled, "Ghosts, with guns and as gangsters?"
"You had to have been there," said Chad.
"If you ran into trouble," said Robert, "why didn't you call us?"
"We tried, but one of the ghosts shot the radio in Ecto."
"Something to keep Otter busy, I suppose..." said Fritz.
"But that wasn't the worst part," said Peter. "One of the ghosts was my brother." Dead silence surrounded the room momentarily.
"Your brother?" asked Fritz.
"Dad," said Peter, "Tell me what happened to Jack. Why was I never informed and how did Jack die?"
"I never could get a hold of you when it happened. After all you boys are just settling in your business. I wasn't even able to tell your grampa about it yet either. But, what happened to Jack is quite disturbing," replied Jake.
"You'd better brace yourself, kid," Eddie said.
"A month after you left for your career at Disney, Jack started getting into trouble. He had trouble finding jobs and could never manage to hold them. Everywhere he went he would either get fired or simply quit because of something dumb. After about of year of this, Jack managed to find a job that he liked and was able to keep. Soon he was transferred from the Muncie location to the California location. It was an assistant to a warehouse manager. He kept the job up until a week ago."
"But how'd he die?"
"Well, from what I understand. Jack somehow discovered that the owner of the place was also a bank robber and a dangerous one. So one night when Jack was calling the police, he was shot in the back by his boss. He died instantly." Jake began to cry.
"But, but, if he tried to put a robber behind bars when he was alive, why is he performing such crimes when he's past on?"
"That's the scary part," said Eddie. "We don't know."
"Why did you keep this from me? Even though we were starting our business, you still could've called!"
"Sorry," said Jake.
"Did your brother mentioned anything back at the site?" asked Fritz.
"He mentioned the name, Ghost Father," said Peter.
"Hmmmm," Fritz turned to Kyle. "We'd better look that up."
"I agree," replied Kyle as the two left the room for the computer.
"Dad, I need some time alone. Where is Jack buried?" asked Peter.
Jake answered, "The cemetery on 32 second street."
"I've gotta go," said Peter as he left. Outside, he picked up a pack from Ecto. "I may need a little insurance going to a cemetery at this time of night." Peter called for a taxi and rode to his destination.
The cemetery was small and filled with trees and tombstones. It didn't take long for Peter to find his brother's. "This is it," he said to himself with a few tears. Born 1978, died 2003, the tombstone read.
Back at the HQ, Fritz and Kyle were logged on Tobin Online. "Let's see, if we type Ghost Father in search," said Fritz as he typed the name and clicked on the blue search button. The screen read,
"What we need to do sometime is get a cable modem," said Kyle. "56K is too slow for emergencies."
"In time, Kyle. In time." replied Fritz.
With a flash of light, Jack Kong appeared behind him, "What's up, bro?"
Peter turned around with fright, "Jack, what's wrong? Why?"
"To tell you the truth, all that back there was just an act."
"An act?" Peter said as he stood up.
"Yes, you didn't really think I turned from good to bad did you?"
"Well, no."
"Did Dad tell you?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'm doing the same thing here. The guys I'm working for here, I'm trying to get you guys to catch." Jack said he walked closer to his brother.
"Really?"
"Of course," said Jack putting his arm around Peter. The two walked along a path to an old abandoned factory.
"Ok, Ghost Father," said Fritz as he clicked on the hyperlink. Slowly, the page began to load.
"56K's no good, Fritz," said Kyle.
Fritz was about ready to tell Kyle where to jam his complaint. "Tomorrow, we'll get a new modem and internet service. But until then, this is what we have," he said as the page finished loading. "There. It wasn't that slow." Fritz began reading the info on the site and became nervous. "Oh my."
"What?" asked Kyle.
"Look."
As Kyle read the paragraph about the Ghost Father, he too was frightened. "This is bad!" The two ran downstairs to the living room.
Fritz yelled, "where's Peter?"
"He's over at the cemetery where Jack is buried," replied Joey.
"He may be in serious trouble," muttered Fritz.
Jack pushed a red button and the door opened as he said, "Enter and I'll tell you everything." Peter walked in and the door shut behind him. He then ran to the window.
"Jack, what's going on?" shouted Peter.
"Ghost Father's scheme is working. I've got one of the ten Ghostbusters in LA."
"This was a trick!?"
"Tis a shame that these days you can't even trust your own brother. Especially the dead ones," smirked Jack.
Ghostbusters West Coast Division Created by Andy Harness and Vincent Belmont