REVENGE OF THE ROSE PARADE
PART ONE

Filed by Jason Knetge, GBWC
GBI Case File No. GBWC-2009-27/316

The cold morning air was filled with excitement as the crowd of people lined the street eagerly awaiting the California Rose Parade . The sounds of clapping rang out along with the melodic beat of the passing marching band .

Siting on one of the stands was a woman with strawberry blonde hair dressed in a light pink sweater . In her lap sat a small one year old girl wrapped in a Princess Peach blanket . Her features were a mix of her mom and that of the man sitting next to them. The man sat on the edge of the bench, his pride not letting him take advantage of the spot reserved for the wheel chair he normally sat in . Dr. Fritz V. Baugh, frowned as he scratched at the prosthetic that was on his leg but smiled as he looked up at his wife Chelsea and daughter Abigail .

" How is Abigail ? It's sort of colder out here then we thought it was going to be, " inquired Fritz as he cuddled up to Chelsea .

" Just fine now that she is fully awake to see the parade and all snugly in her blanket . " Chelsea began to tickle Abigail causing her to commence in a fit of giggles . " You know I don"t see what Jason was talking about , This is sort of nice. Why didn't we do this before ? '

Fritz adjusted his glasses . " The same reason I never went to the Indy 500 despite living in Indy for my entire childhood: I hate noise and crowds"

Chelsea just arched a eyebrow and gave a " whatever " look .

" Oh well that , and Abigail wasn't old enough " mumbled Fritz trying desperately to salvage his point .

Abigail gurgled then giggled and waved at the Disney float went by along with all of it's famous characters . She then covered her face and blushed as Mickey waived back at her .

Fritz and Chelsea chuckled at seeing their daughter's reaction . " Oh come on now Sweetie , he just saying hi back "

With one hand still hiding her face she waived back once again until her blue eyes caught on the next float

Fritz picked Abigail up and sat her on his head then pointed at the big green cartoony looking dragon that came their way . White smoke puffed out of its mouth as it's head moved from one side of the street to the other on its mechanical neck. A knight and princess gave a comical performance at the base of the float .

Chelsea and Fritz laughed along with the rest of the crown . That was until Abigail started to kick and fidget with her face grimacing as she began to cry .

Scooping her daughter down and back into her lap Chelsea tried to calm her down " It's OK, Sweetheart, it's not a real dragon. . "

" I don't think that's what's bothering her , " stated Fritz as he gave a cold stare out at one of the honored guests of the parade .

A tricked out van loaded to the gills with the latest type of tech , the letters GRU emblazoned on the side of it , slowly drove down the street .
The crowd seemed to get overly excited for the paranormal team known as Ghost R us .

Chelsea rocked Abigail in her arms and cooed to her " There , there they are almost gone . "

Fritz scoffed and folded his arms as they went past " Five years and nothing, but they get the red carpet rolled out for them !"

A rather athletic man sitting behind Fritz taped him on the shoulder " Hay many , you got a problem ? Those are some real ghost butt-kicking heroes out there , show a little respect . "

" I'm sorry to correct you Sir but the real heroes were back in 1983 ." replied Fritz as he started to stand up " And the fact that I'm not booing or throwing food should ... "

He was stopped as Chelsea pulled him back down to his seat " Calm down. I don't like it any more than you do but lets not make a scene. "

Rose came in the designated recreation room on the upper floor where Jeremy , Jeff , Mick and Jason were watching the parade on TV . . she sat down on the edge of the couch enjoying her coffee break " Hey, I didn't know you guys where into watching the parade "

" It's all that's on every channel " Replied an overly bored looking Jeff .

Jeremy munched on a some cereal on the other side of Jeff " I don't know. It's not so bad . Some of the floats aren't so bad "

Finishing another sip of her coffee , Rose looked over at Jason who was sitting in the single chair , Trying to look at a comic and ignore what was on the TV . " I don't see what you have against the parade . Everyone one else seems to like it "

Jason shot a quick glance up from his Calamity Platoon comic . " Yeah , well try living by it for 24 years . It loses it's charm after a bit and becomes a little bit of a nuisance "

Mick let out a yon and rested his arms on the back of his head " Well, don't worry it's almost over "

" Don't bet on it " replied Jason . " After this they just keep re-showing it over and over until tomorrow, "

Jeff sat up in his sat " WHAT !! .. oh no fuck that shit . I'm going to play a game "

Mick and Jeremy didn't put up any fuss to the decision, in fact giving silent approval by inserting some extra controllers to the players two and three slots.

shrugging Rose calmly got up to go back down stairs " Well I guess this means my break is over " she sighed as the sounds of artificial mayhem came blasting from the TV .

In the middle of the night a large dump truck drove past the gated fence of the Falcon Rock land fill . It slowly backed up with its wheels stopping just at the edge of a large pit .

A man hopped out of the cab of the truck . " All right Frank , last load of the day then we can head home "

A second slender man stepped out as well " Oohwee Pauly ... You're telling me ! The stink of them dead plants were getting to me " Frank looked up and scratched the back of his head " Every year they spend months decorating them floats with them pretty flowers and then in the end we bust our humps having to scrap them . Just feels like a shame. '

" Yeah I hear you, but what are you going to do ?" Frank then pulled on one of the levers on the back of the truck . The back bin raised into the air dumping the slurry of rotting plants and Styrofoam covered metal on to the pit . The bin gave one last jerk sending a cartoony looking dragon falling onto the pile of floats long past .

" Oowee .. sure is a lot of junk down there . Hey Frank ,how long has this been the spot ?"

" What, this place ? Hell, we bin using this place ever since the beginning " Frank puffed out his chest with some pride " this place has some real history '

Pauly's eyes widen a bit " Really ? "

" Sure . C'Mon and I'll tell you about it over a nice salad. "

Pauly quickly covered his mouth to keep from gagging , " Hey man you suck ! "

Then two men then started a laugh before driving off .

Back in the pit some odd looking vines started their way up on to the dragon head . It's cartoony eyes shattering, giving way to a set of hollow cavities void of anything but a pair of glowing red light .

One of the Ecto cruisers pulled its way into to the garage of the GBWC HQ , stopping next to Mick Nielson who was tinkering away under the hood of his Charger .

Jeremy Hicks stepped out of the driver's seat followed by Aidan Munroe , who was holding two smoking traps in his hand .

" So how did it go ? " inquired Mick . not even looking up from his car .

" Pitiful. " replied Aidan sardonically as he made his way to the ECU

" It was just a couple of class two repeaters . " Added Jeremy as he went over to see what Mick was doing . " I tell you man this really sucks the GRU is out there stealing half of our clients and the half we do have can barely afford us ."

" Hey, don't come complaining to me, Man . At least you got to go out this time . " Mick stood and started to wipe the grease from his hands " Ever since the home office made Fritz force us to stick to a budget , I've been bored out of my mind. "

" Hey Man, that's not so bad , could be worse like Rachel's keeps saying . " smirked Jeremy

Mick arches an eyebrow at Jeremy then looked over at Aidan who was coming out of the ECU room to rejoin the conversation . " Yeah she's been complaining that with us here more there's more to clean . "

" What ? ,, " without looking Mick tossed the rag the he was using over in to the trash can only to have it land on the floor ' " How bad we can we be ? "

" Oh, bad enough " replied the voice of Rose Prevost as she came over to the guys " I've seen what she is talking about and from a woman's perspective she may as well be picking up after a bunch of barnyard animals. "

Grinning , Mick started to scratch his belly and let out a loud snort ," I don't know what your talking about ... snort . Hey guys you think we're being to hard on Cinder-Rachel ? Snort ! "

Picking up on the joke Jeremy and Aidan both snorted and grunted along with Mick .

" Can it, you three ! " Rose slapped Mick with a folder she had in her hand to quiet him down . " We just got a call " . She then stopped and looked around " Have any of you seen Andy or Kyle ?"

" No we haven't " replied Aidan . " I think Kyle said he had to go do something at Target and we haven't seen Andy since he went back home far the holidays . "

Shrugging Rose then just handed the file over to Jeremy for the guys to look at . " Nothing too big . A gardener in the a park claimed some of the plants were glowing and acting odd "

Jeremy groaned as he flipped through the papers " Man that half way across town . I'm going to be off in the next hour . " He then passed the papers over to Mick, " Here you said you wanted to go out "

" Well playing gardener isn't what I had in mined , " grimaced Mick . " But I guess it's better than nothing . Come on Aidan let's go "

Rose gently grabbed Aidan's arm before he could go anywhere " Not so fast there , Fritz want you to stay here "

Aidan turned and shot her a perplexed look " What .? .."

" He wants you on back up , " stated Rose in in calm tone. " You were out all morning and need a break . If they need you then you can head out on the bike . " She then stopped and tried her best to sound like Fritz " It's cheaper to fill up than the cars "

" All right " stated Aidan . seeing the point of the argument.

" Well if Aidan is out then tell Jeff to get down here! " bellowed Mick who at this point was loading up the car .

Rose shook her head to that as well and still did her impression " Ninja magic is even cheaper . " She then went back to her normal voice, " Sorry. Jeff's on back up as well . "

Mick slammed the trunk of the car " What . ? Well then that just leaves ... "

Mick looked at his PKE meter at he went from tree to tree . " Well...nothing over here. How about you Jason? "

Jason was crouched down by a flowers bed surrounding some bushes. " Nope, nothing here either "

Frustrated , Mick holstered his meter onto his belt " I'm starting to think this was a wild goose chase . I mean our only witness hardly spoke any English and his breath wasn't exactly the breath of someone who was drinking water all day . "

" Yeah , well would you rather have been back at home doing nothing ? " Jason switched off his meter as well then stood up from where he was and went over to Mick , not seeing the vine snake its way out of the grass but fail to grasp his leg . '

" Good point " shrugged Mick

" Well, let's go back and try to talk to him one more time and see what he has to say " yawned Jason as he stretched his arms " At least that way no one can say we didn't try. '

Mick nodded in agreement " OK . But after this , let's stop for a bite on the way back "

A man and a woman jogged along at a rapid pace then slowed down at a set of rocks to rest . The woman sat down on one of the rocks and took a swig from her water bottle , then poured it on her head . letting it splash on the rose bush behind her .

Her husband checked his pulse . " Just one mile to go Honey , then we can call it a day "

" I know I know " replied the woman in between breaths . " Humm that's odd ... " she then gave a look behind her " I don't remember these bushes being here yesterday '

In a flash thorn covered vines shout out around the man and woman's limbs .

Mick was stood looking down over at the the gardener as he sat under the tree " OK, OK, so you are saying you where just standing there when that dandelion roared at you ? "

The gardener rapidly nodded , confirming the statement .

" And you're positive you just didn't pass out and dream that ? " Mick ran his fingers through his hair as he let out a sigh.

The gardener just looked up at Mick a bit confused by the statement .

Jason rubbed his chin in contemplation ." Hey Mick maybe..."

A loud set of screams and yells broke out grading the two Ghostbusters attention.

Glancing at each other for just a bit , Mick and Jason ran off as fat as they could .

Once there they stopped in shock seeing the man and woman suspended up in the air by thorn covered vines , which where slowly constricting their way up the couple's neck .

Seeing the configuration of the situation Mick realized that the blasters were too inaccurate . Acting fast , he grabbed the N-saber from his belt which he had as a secondary weapon .
In a flurry the proton blade sprang out with a glowing humm as it sliced at the vines.

Jason on the other hand went for his slime pistol, a weapon of his own design . After jamming a fresh slime tank into the back of the gun he squirted the advancing vines on the victims . He then helped the couple up as the positively charged slime dissolved the vines .

" Jason get them out " yelled Mick as he continued to hack at the vines . He struggled a bit as the number of vines started to increase and thicken . " Contact HQ and get them to send back up ! This job is going down hill fast ! "

Nodding in agreement, Jason rushed the hobbling couple out of harm's way, then ran back walkie talking in hand " Jason to HQ Jason to HQ . We are getting overrun with plants here . Don't know what the whole situation is but we need back up ! " . Switching off the walkie , Jason took aim and shot an attacking vine that Mick didn't see .

Surprised, Mick looked behind him as the vine started to dissolve, then slashed another group of vines . "Did you make the call for back up? '

" Yeah , I sent something out " replied Jason as he sprayed some more vines .

" OK , then I think we can hold them off till they get here . " Mick slashed one more attacking set of vines only to have them retreat back into the bushes . " What the ?"

The bushes started to shake with a growing frenzy as a pack of panther-shaped plants lept out . With a roar the flower bud head bloomed revealing rows of teeth surrounding a mouth .

Mick and Jason both let out a gulp as the the number of beasts increased . With no time to switch back to their standard pack , they gripped their weapons and fired as the beasts made their attack .

The two Ghostbusters managed to keep the creatures at a rapidly decreasing distance . Preoccupied with the attack, the two of them failed to see one of the panthers leap out of the trees . Its thorn-like claws were spread out as it flew towards its two intended victims .

Just as they saw the beast over their heads, it was engulfed be a white flash, its now frozen form shattering as it hit the ground .

Falling from the sky and landing in between Jason and Mick was Jeff , N-saber and trap shield firmly in hand .

" Thanks for the save Jeff " yelled Mick with a grin . " But what took you so long?"

Jeff back handed one of the panthers with his shield " Well, Hell, if I knew you guys where having this much fun I wouldn't have taken that last turn at Albuquerque '"

" Glad to see you are having fun . " stated Jason as he popped another slime tank into his gun . " Is any one else on the way ? "

Jeff sliced one of the panthers down the middle . " Jeremy and Aidan are already on their way . I was told to go on and jump ahead"

Mick kept hacking away at creatures the best he could with the N saber " Hey, Jeff , you didn't happen to bring a extra.... "

Before Mick could finish his sentence Jeff tossed him one of the Rail guns he had attached to his belt . " I think this is what you're wanting "

His face beaming with a sinister grin , " Thanks, Man, " Mick activated the gun and let loose .

" Hey, Jeff, you didn't happen to bring one of those for me did you ? " inquired Jason hopefully .

" Sorry, Knetge. You're not cool enough for one , " Jeff spun around severing one of the panther's heads and drove the blade into another.

" What .... ! ' Jason gave a hard kick to one of the creatures " Oh.. you fucking suck, Jeff ! "

The three Ghostbusters stopped fighting briefly as a long shadow passed over them . They were then distracted once more as the sounds of the Ecto cruiser could be heard approaching ,

In no time Jeremy and Aidan came running up brandishing their proton guns. With some short bursts they sliced a path for Jason , Mick and Jeff .

Seeing the opportunity, Mick gestured to Jeff and Jason, then blasted one of the panthers in the face, " Fall back to Jeremy and Aidan "

With his slime gun giving it's last spurts Jason didn't give any argument as he ran back . Mick followed up shortly as Jeff slashed two more monsters in twain .

With the added fire power of Jeremy and Aidan , Jason had time to switch back over to his pack , While Mick and Jeff popped fresh canisters into their weapons .

" Hey, Mick you throw one hell of a garden party " grinned Jeremy as he kept blasting .

"None of that tea and crumpet crap for me, Nossir." Mick slammed the lever on his gun shut . " Thanks for coming . "

Facing the pack of creatures, the five Ghostbusters--standing shoulder to shoulder--took their time to aim . However their pack and weapons just whirled and hummed in anticipation as the men saw the panther plants retreat back into the bush .

" What the Hell ? " Aidan took off his trademark sunglasses to verify what was going on '"Through this they where fighting tooth and nail clamoring for our blood, and now all of a sudden they're turning tail ?"

" What ?... " Replied Jason who was just as stunned " You'd rather that they still attack ? "

" No , Aidan is right " added Jeremy " If there where more of us maybe but still "

Mick shifted his eye thinking intensely "You don't think they know something ?"

Once more the the team of Ghostbusters were stopped as a shadow passed over their heads . However this time the thunderous sound of flapping wings could be heard echoing throughout the park .

A tremendous force slammed down behind the five men kicking up dust and knocking them off their feet .

Slightly stunned, Jeremy and Mick were the first to stagger to their feet, followed by Jeff, Aidan, and Jason . As the dust started to settle the silhouette of two enormous wings rose up only to come down with an intense gust . Shielding their faces as the clouds of bust blew past them , the Ghostbusters looked up in shock at the towering plant dragon sneering at them .

" Holy shit ! " proclaimed an amazed Jason

" Take it down " yelled Mick as he readied his aim with his gun along with Aidan and Jason

Before a single shot could be made, the dragon let out a deafening sound, then hit Mick and Aidan with its tail sending the two men hurling back several feet on to Jason .

Jeff cupped his hands together intending to deliver an arctic blast but soon had to abort his endeavor as the dragon shot a torrent of flame out of its mouth at him . Having to think quickly, Jeff back flipped out of the way and up into a nearby tree .

Seeing the dragon occupied with Jeff , Jeremy sensed the opportunity and charged forward hoping to get a better shot .

Seeing this attack the dragon pounced on Jeremy snatching him up in one hand as it flew up into the sky .

" Oh shit, that thing's got Jeremy ! " Aidan helped Mick and Jason up to their feet as the three men rushed off to their car who were soon joined by Jeff leaping down from the tree he was in .

The Ecto cruiser and Charger gave chase to the now distant dragon in the sky .

Up in the sky Jeremy pounded away at the dragon's hand that was gripped around him . " Damn it, I hope this counts to my frequent flier miles " .
The dragon's grip tightened, causing Jeremy to wince in pain . Reacting instinctively to the crushing sensation Jeremy shot a stream of protons at the dragon's head . " Smile you son of a bitch "

The dragon roared in pain as the stream charred the side of its face . Disoriented, it loosened it's grip as it's flying began to stagger .

Jeremy tried to hold on the best he could but soon found his grip slipping as the wind speed and the convulsing movements of the dragon sent him into a perilous free fall to the earth .

"Okay, that wasn't the brightest thing I ever did!"

To Be Continued

Based on Ghostbusters Created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis

Ghostbusters West Coast Division Created by Andy Harnish and Vincent Belmont