Ghostbusters: A New Beginning

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It was about 5 pm as Vic came back from a pizza run. He looked up at the old fire station at 14 N. Moore St., Manhattan. He smiled widely at the ghost logo he had put up there with some help from construction guys and someone who could draw. He went through the garage where the soon to be Ecto-1 was under construction but was still in need of repairs so instead the company car was an old Volkswagen bus that still smelled faintly of cannabis from the previous owner that was actually a collage acquaintance of Victor's. "PIZZA" He called out through the station. Even though it was a business they still needed to actually get...well... business. All other calls had been false alarms or just pranks and no ghosts. Victor hoped that would change soon enough. He placed the pizza on a table where the reception was and opened one of the three boxes. He always ordered one extra for the occasional snack around the station if someone forgot breakfast or something.

Victor's words rang through Evelyn's ear, and right down into her tummy, as it gave a slow growl in return. She was always hungry, and her round face and thick everywhere else was a strong deal breaker. Pushing off with her legs, she took the computer chair for a little ride, as she made her way over to where the boxes sat open. Her green eyes peered up at Victor, as she gave a cheeky grin. "Thaaaankyou." she sang to him, reaching up a stubby arm and grabbing a couple slices. She took a big bite, and swallowed fast before speaking again, "We had another freaking prankster today." she complained, taking another angry bite of the pizza.

"Kid said he had some ectoplasm he wanted to show me." she let out a huff, her free handing showing her true Italian blood as it narrates the story, "So I played along of course, as I always do." another bite taken, a bit of cheese runs down her chin. "So I tell him, send me some photos of where you have witnessed it." wiping off the cheese she looks up at Victor to make sure he was listening to her, "And what does this asshole do?" she raises her voice in emphasis as she sets down her other piece of pizza on a pile of paperwork, "HE sends me a picture of his freaking boner!" Picking her pizza back up she notices the grease stain as she nervously tries to wipe it off, waiting for the reply of Victor, as she has told the story several times today to the other members of the team.

Olivia was quietly reading her copy of "McCarter's Guide to the Spirit World" when the call for Pizza came out. She carefully peered over the top of her book as Vic stepped past her loft. Her curiosity over the latest entry had her intrigued enough to forgo pizza for a few more pages when her stomach seemed to win this argument. She carefully hopped off the hammock as she followed behind Evelyn to snag a slice herself.

"One more Morticia phone call, I'm going to test a proton pack on a civvie..." Olivia grumbled as she bit into her slice of pizza. "Mmm, this is delicious, thank's Vic!" She muffled between bites of pizza. After taking a swallow of tea she spoke again. "Been reading the cards all morning, no signs of any spirit activity yet. I've got a client coming by this afternoon to pick up a painting, should cover a bit more of Ecto-1. He was really interested in my Woman in White paintings, maybe there's something there?" At the comment of Evelyn's phone call, her lips drew into a fine line. "Beats being told where I can check for ghosts at DaVinci's while picking up more paint."

Kyra had been leaning against the wall with her arms folded and music blasting through her ear buds. She didn't hear the call for pizza so much as the smell quickly made its way to her nose. Taking a deep breath Kyra shut off her music and pocketed the Ipod, pushing away from the wall to collect her meal. As she entered the room, she caught the last part of Evelyn's story. "There's a name for that, I call it the erectoplasm." She smirked as she picked up one of the untouched boxes of pizza, hording it for herself as she took a seat. "While these two were dealing with jokesters, I helped a nice elderly woman contact a psychic. Too bad we don't do séances, we might actually get business if we contacted the dead rather than caught them." Downing her second slice of pizza, Kyra picked up a third and began eating. "Man this is good. Thanks."

Eli quietly looked up from the book on clairvoyance he's been reading for sometime now. Pizza again it seemed. He was okay with Italian, but it got old quick. So he reached over and cracked open another of the deli sandwiches he's been eatting for the past few days. He groaned quietly, having heard all the stories so far. The ectoplasm, the Morticia phone calls, all of it atleast 3 times today. Not much they could do until they had some real work. He took a moment to call down to the other members of the team, "I'll pass on the pizza, thanks anyway. I still have a few more sandwiches left over." He bit into the corned beef, on rye with mayo and swiss. He was going to get tired of these too eventually he knew that. But it would have to do. His severance check was running out slowly but surely.

********

Elsewhere

Dressed in gold, silver, and platinum colored motley the Harlequin panted, running through alleyways and streets. Almost hurling people and other odd entities out of it's way as it went. The gold bells and rings on it's outfit jingled and jangled as it leapt and ducked through the crowd. Scared pants of breath escaped the gold mask on it's face as it ran.

A fierce leap took it up to the rooftops of the Ghostworld town. Along the flat and tiled roofs as quick as he could go. Hurried glances over his shoulder every now and then told the being that his pursuer is still back there. And he had to get away!

Suddenly to roof it was on fell in and the Harlequin crashed down through 4 floors of wood and dust, coming to rest in a dank, cold basement. Slowly picking itself up he groaned in pain, then looked around as baser beings seemed to appear out of the shadows of the basement. One of them a massive goat horned thing grinned evilly, "Master wishes to see you, Harlequin, and it's not right to keep him waiting." The Harlequin held it's cane up before itself ready to defend itself as it was swarmed by the creatures.

Alex didn't even look up from her computer as the pizza was brought in, no matter how tantalizing the smell was at that very moment. She had almost completed the AVBI system upgrade, and was determined to finish it before eating. After a few minutes of diligence had paid off in her favor, she finally conceeded victory over the program and sent it to the mobile units for install. Alex got to reception after the first pizza was gone, but managed to get a slice from the second. " Your Erectoplasm guy gets around, I got a call from him today too" Alex said, between bites. " By the way Victor, the upgrades are done, AVBI should be back online within the hour." As she grabbed her second slice, she heard the beep of an email and went back to her computer to check it. " Whoa, Victor, you better check this out." she said, sending the video to the big screen in reception.

(( I honestly have no idea what the video is, just thought it might lead to something))

Victor smiled as everyone gathered in and had a slice, him just managing to get a slice for himself as well. At Evelyn's story, Victor snickered."Maybe one day he will find someone who is actually into getting photos of strangers' junks" He commented after he swallowed and he burst out laughing at "Erectoplasm". "Well, Olivia. Let's hope this place isn't doomed. I refuse to drag any of you down into debt oblivion. Though doing seances wouldn't be such a bad idea" He joked, brushing some crumbs off his shirt, a black t-shirt with a twenty sided die which said "This is how I roll" in capital letters.


He nodded at Eli and then went over to Alex. "Great. Thanks Alex. You are the greatest" he said with a smile as he snatched another pizza. He then arched an eyebrow at the sound of the email and walked over the the computer with Alex, looking over her shoulder at the screen.

(Didn't see the edit.)

Vic checked the video and it seemed to be from a phone camera and by the sound of it two teenagers were operating it, talking in hushed tones and they were in a school.

"IT was here, I saw it"
"Liar. You are full of shit, Jack"
"I'm telling you, it was in here. Shut up"
*Trophy case breaking*
"FUCKING CHRIST"
"SEE!!! There's some freaky shit going on here during night"
"Dude, let'S get out of here"
"Not yet, there is something..."

Just then a bright red light blinded the camera and the boys screamed in fear. There was then a vague outline of a humanoid shape in the middle of the light in old style clothing. 50's maybe.

Kyra place the box of pizza beside her, standing from her position on the table. "Whoa. Hey, play that again!" She called stepping closer to the screen. She watched it again with a closer eye. "It doesn't seem to be scripted or edited. You never know with technology now a days but either we're dealing with a mob boss who misses the old days or this is the real deal. Were did you get this Alex?" She called jogging over to where Alex sat with the computer. "Who sent it?" Despite the excitement, Kyra's heart was pounding. Up until now everything they had run into had been a prank or hoax to make fun of them. Who was to say this wasn't a tech geeks version. Who was to say it wasn't real. No one else but them could deal with this, no one but them would deal with this. "What are we waiting for? Where was this filmed?"

Alex played the Video again. " it was just emailed to me, its supposedly PS 143". Alex said as she brought up streetview of the building on another screen. " If this is real were dealing with a class 3 spirit easily, if its fake, its really good." Alex looked up at Victor as the video ended. " what do you think boss? worth checking out?"

Alex had already been researching the building and the area, while the others watched the video the second time, three of her four screens now filled with various information.

Eli walked over from where he was sitting as the video played a second time. He had heard most of it the first time through and it had intrigued him a great deal. As the video played a second time he hrmed, swallowing the last of his sandwich, "That's some impressive video editting if it's fake. Almost Hollywood grade." He sipped at his bottle of water. Then squinted at the end, "Whoa...that's interesting. Humanoid...class 3 at the least. Maybe a class four free floating or even a class five residual perhaps?" He looks at the others, sipping from his water again.