Ghostbusters West Coast: Terminated, Part Two

Fritz clicked off his cell phone and smiled across the Meeting Room table at the Governor. "Good news Sir. Your family have been put on a plane and are headed out to D.C. Authorities at the scene didn't detect any signs of intrusion."

"I'm glad to hear that but also a little disturbed. I guess that means he... IT really is after me?"

"It definitely seems that way," replied the GBWC's leader.

The Ghostbusters were seated with the Governor at the big conference table in GB Central West's Meeting Room on the ground floor. Currently at the table were Fritz, Andy, Kyle, Jeff, Will, Chelsea Baugh and Jennifer Thompson. Jeremy and Aidan were across the hall in the Computer Room.

"I still don't understand why it would want to kill me, or take the form of a character from a movie I made nearly 25 years ago,"" said Schwarzenegger.

"We've encountered entities that have been motivated to kill people before," replied Kyle Stevens, "On our first case actually."

"Problem with this SOB is that he ain't talking," grumbled Jeff Nash, drumming his fingers lightly on the table.

"Well I think we can worry about its motivations later. Let's just focus on trapping for now," said Fritz.

"How are you going to do that?" asked Schwarzenegger.

"Jeremy Hicks and our new recruit are powering up the warehouse's PKE detectors. They're like our meters but they cover the entirety of GB Central West and a radius of 150 feet in all directions. The second it comes within range, we'll know," said Fritz.

"So it IS a ghost?" asked the Governor.

Kyle pulled a Petri dish out his pocket and placed it in front of the Governor. "As you can see, this is a sample that we recovered before we left your mansion. It may look like the mercury-ish mimetic polyalloy the T-1000 was supposed to be made out of in the movie, but really it's just ordinary ectoplasm, albeit with a fairly unique signature," Kyle said, holding the dish so that it caught the light from the ceiling fluorescents. The sample still glittered sliver but was now slightly transparent.

The Governor shook his head ruefully. "Mimetic polyalloy. If I had a dollar for every time that line got quoted to me..." he tailed off as Jeremy and Aidan came running in.

"Boss, we've got a problem," said Aidan, slightly out of breath.

"What is it?" asked Fritz, a cold feeling beginning to congeal in his gut.

"It's here," said Jeremy grimly. Abruptly, all the lights went out.

Rose Prevost was out in the garage putting on her jumpsuit (just in case) when the power failed. Several things happened at once. She yelped in shock, glancing around even though the darkness made it impossible to see. An alarm blared forth from the room where the GBWC's containment unit was kept. And lastly the emergency lights went on, bathing the garage in ghostly cones of light. Now that she could see again, Rose pulled the rest of her suit over her shoulders and rushed over to the heavy, reinforced door that led to the ECU. She threw it open to find, to her vast relief, that the backup generators had kicked in for the big machine. Problem was that the backups had a limited fuel supply; they'd have to find out what had gone wrong with the main power fairly soon.

"Everything all right in here Rose?" asked Otter Masterson as he came gamboling into the room as well.

"Everything seems fine but we'd better check just to make sure." As Otter began to examine the generators, Rose unclipped her radio from her belt.

"Chelsea? Can you hear me?" There was a pause and then the radio crackled as Chelsea responded.

"We hear you Rose. Where are you?"

"I'm in the ECU room with Otter. The backup generators came on just fine and I don't think there's any problems."

"Stay there for now but lock the door. We think that the T-1000 is already here."

"Roger." Rose immediately strode over to the door pulled it closed and activated the locking mechanisms on the door. Somehow she didn't feel much safer though. "Now I wish I'd grabbed a pack..." she muttered.

Back in the meeting room, the Ghostbusters had been startled but otherwise remained calm. "Jeremy, Aidan, where was it exactly when you spotted it?" asked Fritz.

"Right outside. Probably where it cut the power," replied Jeremy.

"Alright, this is how we'll do this," said Fritz, "Chelsea, Aidan and I will take the Governor upstairs and guard him. The rest of you, check the PKEs and find that thing. Let's move!"

Instantly the group began to move out, Jeff, Kyle, Jennifer and Jeremy headed out to the garage to get their equipment. Aidan, who already had his Proton Pistol belted on to his tan jumpsuit and Fritz who also had one, hustled the Governor over to the stairs. Chelsea briefly ran down the hall to grab the spare Proton Pack that Fritz kept stored in his office (one of those 'just in case things'). She came back, hauling the thing in front of her as they hustled up the stairs. Once on the second floor, they entered one of the nearby bedrooms, the one usually reserved for those rare times that Peter Venkman was in LA. As Aidan made sure the door was locked, Fritz helped his wife put the bulky pack on. "I somewhat wish you weren't here for this. I don't want you to get hurt," he murmured in her ear,

"And let Rose have all the fun? Perish the thought," she replied with a grin. Buckling the bottom strap around her waist, she turned around and gave Fritz a quick peck on the cheek. "We'll be fine. I know we will."

Their moment was ruined when Aidan cleared his throat. "Uh Boss, we should probably check on the others."

Fritz scowled at the new guy but Chelsea just giggled slightly. Pulling the radio off his belt, he flicked it on. "Jeremy, Kyle, how's things downstairs?"

On the ground floor, the others had jogged over to the equipment lockers but when they opened them, most of them swore loudly. The Proton packs inside had had their connector hoses cut. "You got to give him credit, he's pretty thorough," remarked Jeff as he pulled out a ghost trap that had been gouged into uselessness.

"Aw hell, now what? Where do we keep the spares?" growled Andy Harness.

"Back in Otter's workshop and there should be a spare pack or two in the Ecto-WC," said Kyle as he pulled out his PKE meter. Jeff immediately loped over to the converted SWAT van and tried to open the doors, but they refused.

"Hey Andy, you got the keys for this thing?" Jeff asked. Andy walked over, pulled his keys out and tried to unlock the back doors.

"What the hell? Why won't they open?" he growled. He strode over to the front doors and tried to unlock them but they also refused to budge.

"I'll be damned. This freak thought of everything! Guys! He jammed the doors on the Ecto-WC! Is there anything back in Otter's place?"

Jeremy and Jennifer had been trying to get into Otter's workshop but with as much success as Jeff and Andy. "No! Damn, how long has this guy been in here?"

"Forget that! Anybody got a crowbar? As much as I hate to say it, I think we're gonna have to bust one of the WC's windows," said Andy. It was just the when their radios crackled with Fritz's inquiry. "Yeah, Fritz we're down in the garage but we've got a few problems. It seems the T-1000 must have followed us back here. He works fast; our packs and most of our equipment have been trashed and he's damaged the locks on the Ecto-WC and Otter's workshop. Uh, we're starting to be up a creek without a paddle here..."

Jeff snorted. "Not if I can help it," he said. He placed both of his hands on the rear windows of the Ecto-WC and concentrated. Frost curled around his hands and spread across the windows. After a moment he removed his hands and then rammed his elbow into one of the windows, which promptly broke into several pieces.

"So much for bullet-proof Lexan," he smirked. He reached in and grasped the inside handle of the rear door and unlatched it. However the 'Busters hopes were dashed as they climbed into the van, finding that the T-1000 had been thorough enough to trash the equipment that had been left inside it. Jeff gently picked up his beloved Proton Railgun, the barrel of which had been sheared off. "Okay," he said, fury etched into each word, "Now I'm pissed.

"Forget it for now Jeff, get over here and work your magic on Otter's door," said Jeremy, who had just ran over to the Ecto. For a moment Jeff looked like he was going to "work his magic" on Jeremy but then he and Andy hopped out of the van.

"Better hurry guys. I think we might have a major problem," Kyle said as he examined his PKE meter, which was buzzing madly, its little arms waving frantically. `

Inside the ECU room, Rose had begun to pace nervously as Otter fiddled around with the odds and ends of the Containment Unit. She was just about to ask Otter something when she heard a crackling sound and a yelp. She whirled around to see a man dressed in dark clothing toss Otter back from the Backup generators. The eccentric engineer crumpled to the floor unconscious... or dead. The man turned to face her and she felt herself go rigid in shock and fear. It looked exactly like the character from the film, right down to the police uniform.

Funny, the boyfriend and I had just watched this movie last week.

She bolted for the door, knowing that she probably wouldn't be able to unlock it before it got to her, but a very strong desire to get away from what looked like a killer robot from the future made her try anyway. Unfortunately for her, the T-1000 lunged forward with inhuman speed, grabbed her and flung her away from the door. She sprawled on the floor next to the wall desperately wishing that she had picked up a pack before now. Just as she sat up, she registered the sounds of footsteps and glanced to her left; the T-1000 was coming straight for her. It reached down, grabbing the scruff of her flightsuit with its left hand and hauled her up against the wall as if she weighed nothing at all, knocking the breath out of her, which was just as well because it then raised its right hand, it's index finger elongating into a vicious spike. The T-1000's hand shot forward and it buried its finger-spike right through the meaty part of Rose's shoulder and into the concrete behind it. Rose let out a strangled gasp with what air she had left and then clenched her teeth against the pain. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before, the intensity of it causing her eyes to tear up.

"I want you to call the others," demanded the T-1000 in that maddeningly calm voice of his. Rose just stared at the monster, gasping in pain. The others? Did it mean the rest of the Ghostbusters? But wasn't it supposed to be after Governor Schwarzenegger? Her pause did not satisfy the T-1000, who twisted its finger spike, causing Rose to groan in pain. "I know this hurts. Call for them. Now," it said, perfectly motionless eyes boring into Rose's own.

"I... I... won't," she stammered, the pain making it hard to even think, "You'll just kill me if I do."

The T-1000 let go of her flightsuit and pointed its other index finger at her forehead. It elongated into a silvery spike as well, stopping just between her eyes. "I'll kill you if you don't," it said, simply. The spike began to inch forward ever so slowly. Rose was begin to have a full-blown panic attack, her fear and the pain from her wound pushing her to do as the shapeshifter said but her loyalty to her friends warred against it. Fortunately she didn't have to find out what she might let herself do.

Just as the spike began pressing against her forehead, a voice said, "Excuse me."

The T-1000 looked down and saw a most peculiar sight. The spectral head and shoulders of a young woman were poking through the floor. She smiled up him.

"Hello" she said brightly and then let loose with a piercing banshee-esque shriek. The effect was immediate. Though not human, the T-1000 recoiled as if it had been struck, thankfully pulling its spike out of Rose and allowing her to slide to the floor, groaning in pain, ears ringing and hair bleached white. This was one of the unfortunate side effects of incurring the displeasure of GBWC's resident ghost, Rachel Leavenworth. Rachel floated over to where Rose was huddled against the wall. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Watch out!" cried Rose and Rachel whipped around to see the T-1000, it's left arm now in the shape of a blade, swinging for her. Being a ghost, she didn't think it would harm her but the T-1000's blade, being an entity itself despite appearances, passed through her with a sound like a particularly bad static shock, causing Rachel to recoil. Rachel growled and the spectral dress she wore began to crumble with puffs of ethereal smoke, revealing a blackened skeleton underneath.

"Now you've really pissed me off! You come into my friend's and my home, wreck it and then try to kill Rose?! You will PAY!!" Rachel shouted, flying forward and body-checking the shapeshifter. There was a flash and a blast of noise and heat. The T-1000 went flying into the wall, next to the door, now back in his amorphous liquid metal form. Rachel floated up from where she had been when she had generated that burst of fire. She looked even worse now, her dress gone below her midsection, revealing a smoking skeleton. The spectral skin and on her hands had also crumbled away, the bones of her hands curled claw-like.

"That was for Rose and Otter you shapeshifting freak," she snarled. Suddenly, the door beeped and its heavy locks unbolted and the door swung open, allowing the rest of the team to scramble into the room. Jeff noticed the T-1000 first just as it elongated its hands into wicked-looking claws and lunged towards him. Jeff immediately whipped out his Neutrona Saber and swiped the T-1000's claws clean off. The shapeshifter let out a metallic screech and then bolted for the opposite wall. Kyle, Andy and Will opened up with the two proton pistols and the one pack that they'd found after breaking into Otter's workshop. The T-1000 was able to dodge the beams with liquid grace and dove into one of the air-conditioning grates.

"Oh no you don't!" shouted Rachel, who swooped after the T-1000.

"Guys!" came Rose's strangled voice from where she was slumped against the wall, "Check Otter, that... thing hurt him pretty bad."

"What about you?" asked Jeremy, noticing the streak of blood smeared on the wall, which ended at Rose's shoulder.

Kyle, who had finished examining Otter, confirming that he was just knocked out, made his way over to Rose. "I'm sorry we didn't get in here sooner. The T-1000 has been quite thorough in hobbling us," Kyle said apologetically as he lifted Rose hand away from where she was clutching at her wounded shoulder. Andy meanwhile was on the radio with Fritz.

"Otter and Rose are hurt pretty bad but nothing fatal fortunately. Rachel just chased it up the A/C ducts."

"Roger that. Get Rose and Otter taken care of and then let's track this thing down and trap it once and for all."

"Copy that boss-man."

Kyle had finished examining Rose's wound and began to apply a bandage to it from the med pack he wore on his belt. "I have wonderful news Rose. You're going to live!" he joked. Rose let out half-groan, half-chuckle.

"No offense Dr. Stevens but I'm not in the mood."

"You'll feel better once we get you to the hospital."

On the 2nd Floor, Fritz pulled out his PKE Meter, preparing to scan for the T-1000.

"We're going to need a review of our security protocols after this. I'm actually somewhat appalled at how fast this thing has been able to disable us," he said.

"Don't worry boss, we'll get it," said Aidan. He'd been restless ever since the action had started, a part of him wanting to be downstairs with the rest of the team, mixing it up. But the more rational a part of him knew that the best way to help the more experienced Ghostbusters was to do as he was told. Watching the two Ghostbusters movies and the cartoon a whole bunch of times did not a real Ghostbuster make. Just then there was a splorching sort of sound, which drew everyone's attention to the floor grate. Blue ectoplasm was bubbling up through it, causing Governor Schwarzenegger to back off with gasp. The ectoplasm coalesced into the form of Rachel, who looked both annoyed and apologetic.

"Sorry guys I lost him somewhere in the ducts," she said.

"That's OK Rachel, we'll find it soon enough," said Fritz as he adjusted his PKE Meter, which began to beep rapidly.

Chelsea, who noticed that the Governor was staring at Rachel in astonishment, took the opportunity to introduce GBWC's resident specter.

"Governor Schwarzenegger, this is our resident Spirit Liaison, Rachel Leavenworth."

"Um... hello," he said, not exactly sure how to react.

"Don't sweat it, most people have that reaction when they meet a real ghost," replied Rachel.

"Wait a minute..." mumbled Fritz as he swept the PKE Meter across the room. It was then that Rachel lunged across the room, hands morphed into vicious claws, heading straight for Schwarzenegger's throat.

Aidan, shock and fear thrumming through him, whipped his Proton Pistol up and blasted the shapeshifter, letting out a strangled sort of yell that kind of sounded like "Yaarrgghh!"

The blast didn't entirely stop the creature but it made it fall short of the Governor, who had thrown himself as far back as the small room would allow, its claws just raking the Governor's suit. This did give Chelsea enough time to unlimber her thrower and she let loose with a full stream blast that drove the creature back. The T-1000, who had now morphed back into its liquid metal form, slowly rose to its feet and tried to walk against the power of the proton streams but Fritz added to the onslaught with his own pistol. The shapeshifter took another two steps and then stopped.

"Confinement streams!" shouted Fritz as he cut off his pistol. Aidan had to remember for a moment where the knob was for that on his gun, but he clicked and he and Chelsea were now holding the T-1000 in a cage of proton energy. Fritz slipped the ghost trap off of Chelsea's pack and threw it at the feet of the captured T-1000. Fritz stomped on the trap's pedal and it activated, a brilliant cone of light sucking the T-1000 down into its depths, a metallic screech from the shapeshifter accompanying it.

The trap's doors slammed shut and all was suddenly quiet... until the REAL Rachel splorched through the vent grate with a shout of "Where is he?!"

"Ah... we just caught him," said Aidan a little shakily, pointing at the trap, which was smoking slightly and beeping.

"Oh. Damn, I missed it!" she said grumpily, then floated over to the trap, bending down so she was eye level with it. "How do you like dem apples?" she snarked.

"It's over then?" asked Governor Schwarzenegger.

"Yes sir, the only way it's getting out of that trap is sudden catastrophic failure. Which won't be happening because it's going straight into the containment unit," said Fritz.

"Aidan, are you alright?" asked Chelsea. She asked because he was currently bent over, breathing heavily.

"Yeah, just trying to... bleed off the adrenaline."

"I think we all felt that way after we caught our first ghost," said Fritz, a wistful smile on his face.

"In any case, I'd like to thank you all personally for saving my life, but didn't one of the other Ghostbusters say someone was injured?" asked the Governor.

"Yes he did. Aidan, grab that trap and lets get downstairs to help the others," said Fritz.

Though Rose and Otter had been hurt pretty badly and a lot of their equipment had been wrecked, there was a definite air of triumph. A car for the Governor soon arrived, along with a pair of ambulances and police squad cars and two bike cops.

Rose was loaded into one ambulance with Kyle Stevens riding along and Otter was loaded into the other but not before being thanked by the Governor for their efforts. He then turned to one of his aides. "Where is Penelope? I'd thought she'd be here?" he asked.

"She had something of a panic attack after you left sir so we sent her home." Nodding in understanding, the Governor turned to the Ghostbusters, who were lined up under the open doors to GB Central West's garage. He then shook each of their hands in turn.

"I'd like you all to come by the Governor's mansion in a couple of days after my family gets back. Re-elected or not, I want to thank you properly for saving my life."

Down the line, Aidan was standing next to Jeremy Hicks and Will Ketcham, still holding the ghost trap with the T-1000 inside. He felt an almost surreal quality to what was happening. He knew that being a Ghostbuster would be a whole different ballgame but for a suburban kid there was still some of that child-like wonder at being part of this case involving, in this case, saving a State Governor. Wait until I tell everyone back home about this one!

TERMINATED PART TWO

TERMINATED
PART TWO