There, in the training room (technically the basement, with a curtain drawn, so the Ecto Containment Unit wouldn't be a distraction), the training video was cut off.

"And that, Juniors, is the conclusion of the video portion of your training, today!" The trainer was a bizarre individual; she was 6 feet tall, and had bubblegum pink hair, done in pigtails. The uniform had changed itself, perhaps to set the Bureau of Occult Occurrences apart from The Ghostbusters? She was dressed in canvas work pants, a simple t-shirt and an open, navy blue field jacket, with a black name patch. The patch had red stitching that spelled 'GILLMORE'. The willful addition of the iconic "no ghost" emblem on the right sleeve, though not in line with proper uniform, definitely pointed to embracing the connection to the New York based business entity.

"Next, we'll be going over the standard field equipment, as the field is where you'll be spending much of your time, in this organization!" A pause, a falter to the smile, "Unless the Station Master assigns you to 'training detail' because he's mad at you, or something..."

Extending a telescopic pointer, she gave a a swish, "Who wants to pick the first thing we talk about, on that table?" Another swish, gesturing to a folding table, with a variety of equipment laid out for demonstration purposes.

Another swish, putting the pointer into a students' face, "How about you, 'sunshine'?"

Victor bristled at the trainer's gesture. He was sure she meant to be upbeat with it, but he found it annoying.

He was leaning back in his seat, not really paying attention to her. The name tag on his uniform read 'SILVA,' and his outfit appeared to be one or two sizes too big for him. His black hair was shaved on one side, and it was long and braided on the other, ending in bright green highlights. Victor's hazel eyes flashed as the instructor's attention shifted to him, conveying his slight disdain toward her attitude. He smirked a bit at her question, but there was no happiness behind it.

"Déjame en paz, payasa," he muttered to himself, rolling his eyes. Then, he glanced over at the table and gestured vaguely at what looked to be a metal box with a light bulb affixed to it.

"How about that? Is it some kind of fantasma-catching equipment, or do you just put your leftovers in it?"

The question was serious, but Victor laughed a bit at his own joke.

Javier sat there, sort of curious, sort of unimpressed after watching the video. Perhaps his expectations were a bit high, but he was here now, and so far, so good. He sat there in a relaxed stance, and his uniform had 'XIRAU' on his name tag. It was the right size for him, but it felt a bit tight. Like it shrunk a bit somehow.

He had presented himself normally with his curly black hair and facial hair trimmed a bit. Javier wanted to make a good first impression and seemed a bit overprepared. Which he does not know if anyone has noticed or cared about.

Still, Javier listened to what Gillmore said and looked over the table that had several pieces of equipment on it. He did somewhat pay attention to what Victor had said. Since he was very much curious about what was on the table, he chose to say something about it. "Yeah, what is that," Javier pointed toward what looked like a rectangular metal box. "Is that used to hunt or trap ghosts?"

She gasped, looking to the item they pointed at, then back to them, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oooh, a good pick, and a good guess!" She skipped over to the table, setting down the pointer, and picking up a controller.

"This, is the state of the art, standard issue, all-terrain ghost trap!" As she worked the control, it raised up on wheels, and zipped right off the table, only to sprout propellers, and fly about the room! "We kept finding ourselves in situations where we couldn't count on being able to just... Roll it under the ghost, so the PRDC worked this up, based on the innovations of none other than The Spengler Family!"

It took a dive, swooping much too close to Victor, "Whoops, haha! Do be mindful of where you steer it, though- one collision could make leftovers of your hair, and force a teammate to finish shaving their head, right, Junior Silva?"

Resuming more skillful control, she brought it to land where it started, switching from the controller to the pointer, again, looking around at the class. "Who's next?"

Danny had ben unimpressed with the training video. In fact while it was playing he was more focused on the fact he was given a brown uniform and if it was because of his last name, clearly visible on his nametag, or if it was just a coincidence.

When Gillmore showed of the ghost trap he was surprised by the box sprouting wheels until he heard the explanation. Seeing it suddenly fly was shocking, especially with how close it got to Victor's head but at least it seemed he didn't get hurt.

When Gillmore asked if anyone else had question Danny spoke up. "Yeah, what is with that backpack with the hose attached?" He pointed to the proton-pack, but was sure his description made it clear what he meant.

Inspector Gillmore blinked, eyes a little wider than usual, muttering, "We... Use these in public..." A slight shake of her head, and she continued out loud, "That, Junior..." A moment to eye his nametag, "-Brown! Ha! That is the 'Proton Pack'; removing the protective casing would reveal something similar to the original 'Spengler' design."

She stood it up, so they could all get a good look at it. "The casing adds a bit of weight, but, out here where we find ourselves running around in the woods and underbrush more often, it's vital for reducing time spent on maintenance, so, a bit of a trade off. Oh! Also-" She opened up a hatch in the center, and removed the element from the centrifuge, "Quick-release centrifuge, in case it's damaged, or there's a call to switch to brass-plated coils for more 'Oomf'!"

She set it down, "I'd demonstrate, but as a matter of 'saf-tee'-" She drew out the last word, and made heavy air-quotes, as well as a mock-frown, "-we have to keep it boring until we get you all cleared for weapons' training... The controls on the neutrona wand are largely the same; you have the ignition, at the base, witch connects the wand to the pack, the noise letting you know you have a good charge, and these two buttons-" she pointed to the two small buttons further up, one read, the other yellow, "The red is for the blaster stream; the fun one, that does all the property damage, haha, 'The tax-payers' bane'!" She made a show of waving the wand around, making explosion sounds before putting it down and continuing. "Haha, that one's my favorite! But, just as important, is the yellow button, that's the tether; the blaster weakens them, the tether is what grabs hold! The institute modified the functions so we can use either stream independently- Officially, they say starting with just the tether, and letting someone else blast the ghost conserves power- haha, right, because these babies are gonna run out of juice while any of us are still alive!- Nah, I think what nobody is saying out-loud is that when you start with the tether, the blast stream is less likely to miss, and add 'character' to the local architecture. Like I said, 'boring'!"

She kept smiling, but a look of concern came to her eyes, "I wasn't paying attention, are you all taking notes? I think there's a written test, in the training, nowadays... Whatever, and who can name this warm and friendly guy?" She held up what was easily the smallest device on the table, pressing a button, causing several lights to start blinking as a pair of little wings smoothly flip out, waving up and down.

While Javier was curious by the tech being shown by Gillmore but, glad she did not aim near him, unlike with Victor. He felt somewhat underwhelmed by it, and maybe once he gets to use it in the field for himself, he will have more of an appreciation of it. Mainly the photon pack which he did make mental notes of what is does and how it works. Javier just wished he could see a live showing of how it worked and not just making sounds with it.

Still, he guessed it was better than a rookie accidentally making someone bald or worse. So, for now, he was willing to tolerate it even if things were a bit boring. Which he tried to hide and not make a yawn but it did not dissuade him from continuing. That and he needs a job and this one seem like one for him. As long as he does not get in trouble, that is. Especially with the proton pack and make a place into swiss cheese.

When Gillmore brought up the next piece of ghostbuster tech, he tried to answer. "The.... ghost tracker?" He sounded and felt unsure, but it was the only thing he could think of. What else could it be if not that?

Seeing how Gillmore was laying it on thick Danny felt a bit stupid for not knowing what the proton-pack was but it wasn't like he watched every outing of the Ghostbusters. At first her descriptions just made him wanna take the thing apart and maybe see if he could somehow improve it himself. One word put a damper on those plans though, neutrona. He knew just about enough nuclear physics to know he didn't know nearly enough to mess with anything like that.

Still Danny was so distracted by his own thoughts that he barely listened to Gillmore instructions and only realized it when she mentioned writing ti down. Not wanting to fail any part of the tests he scribbled down: "Red is tether, yellow blaster. Always start with red button." He did wonder why they labelled the buttons that way but before he could ask any questions Gillmore moved on to the next device. The other attendee that wasn't attacked by the trap, Xirau, guessed it was a ghost tracker which Danny figured made sense.

Victor seemed interested in what Gillmore was saying, but he scowled at her overly upbeat demeanor. Someone could die if the equipment was handled incorrectly, and she was waving it around like it was a children's toy. He ran a hand through his hair at her comment about it, and his frown deepened. He was starting to dislike this woman.

He looked over at the other recruits, who didn't seem to mind this... eccentricity. Maybe they didn't see her behavior in the way that Victor did. If she acted this way during a mission or when things were dire, it could end up with someone getting hurt or killed. His face scrunched up a little as he raised his hand lazily.

"Why is safety 'boring?' Is it boring that we don't become ghosts as we hunt them? I mean, you may like that, but I'd like to stay alive while I do my job."

Gillmore smiled wide and pointed it at Javier, "Close! This is the 'Psycho-Kinetic Energy Meter'; also known is the 'PKE Reader'. It detects the presence of ghosts and other spooky things, both as a means of tracking, and detection when they think they can hide! Of course, it isn't a perfect tracking device; higher levels usually indicate that something is within range, and lower levels are just as often and indicator that a ghost was within range of your location sometime that day. It can't track like a homing beacon, or identify specific ghosts; we still have to keep up with our reading material to eyeball and assess-" That look came over her, again, "-Oh, right, the reading material-"

She paused for a moment at Victor's question. "Ah, well, Junior Silva, what I mean, is-"

She was cut off by the voice of an older man, dark skinned, with close cropped grey hair on his head and face, at the top of the stairs to the basement. "-Indeed, Lieutenant Gillmore; I am also curious to hear more of your 'nuggets of wisdom' where our safety protocols are concerned..." He had a look on his face that could be best summed up as "annoyed".

Her eyes went wide, again, but there was no mirth this time. "D'ah! Uh, Juniors, allow me to introduce Station Master Rochester! He's the boss of this here firehouse, and manages things like work assignments-"

"-Why don't you hand out the 'Spirit Guide'-s, and we'll let these Junior Inspectors go about the open-book test while we have a conversation about your work assignments..."

"R-right..." She picked up a stack of books (Tobin's Spirit Guide; Stantz Edition) as well as work booklets and little pencils. "You uh, can keep the books, in addition to your training manuals, just don't do or say anything you wouldn't want played back on the security tapes-"

"Well said, Gillmore; and without a hint of irony." She ascended the stair case, him moving aside to let her walk ahead, and addressed the class as they left, "Don't share answers, but do feel free to talk amongst yourselves when finished; you have 30 minutes, at the end of which your trainer will return to you."

The only part of what Victor said that Danny agreed with was that Gillmore shouldn't be playing with the neutro-wand, but even so the wands no doubt had several securities to prevent them going of randomly. In fact he believed that she only called the safe way boring because it was obvious none of the attendees had been very interested until the incident with Victor's hair and the trap. Of course he was quickly proven wrong when her superior appeared and it seemed Gilmore did this kind of thing all the time.

Rochester took Gillmore away for a lecture and told everyone to work on a written test in the meantime. Instead as soon as they were gone Danny moved to the table with the gadgets, wanting a closer look. While he didn't mess with the proton-pack he did pick up the trap and inspected it. "Hmm, I wonder how you turn this thing on."

It wasn’t that Max wasn’t paying any attention to the meeting, but it certainly would have seemed that way. Relegated to the back, tucked away, with his jumpsuit unzipped and tied around his waist, a loose white-grey t-shirt covered in yesterday's grease stains where his nametag should have been. He watched as Gillmore demonstrated all the equipment, shuddering at the thought of strapping himself to anything with that much electricity ‘contained’ within it. No, his attention was drawn to the trap which flew much like a drone, albeit a clumsy, clunky one. He couldn’t help but wonder when he’d be able to get his hands on it and test it out while the others risked death by anti-matter.

As the demonstration continued, Max took a look at the ‘spirit guide’ given to him. Flicking through a few pages, he couldn't help but realize he sure did have a lot of studying ahead of him. The guide was thick with illustrations, diagrams, and scribbled notes that seemed to speak of a thousand ghostly encounters. As Gillmore and Rochester took their leave, Max threw open his workbook and started tapping his pencil against the desk in a rhythmic pattern, one that someone with any musical inclination might recognize as Scorpions’ ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane.’ He hummed along quietly to himself, the melody a small escape from the daunting task ahead.

As the meeting wrapped up, Max noticed one person moving over to the table of equipment. A pang of resentment flickered through him as they started messing with the trap-drone he had a keen interest in.

“Is anyone gonna be sharing the answers?” he spoke abruptly, breaking the silence, “I thought I was just about done with tests..” letting out a long, exasperated sigh.

Javier took a mental note of what was being said, and he was curious. Though he felt like waiting until they knew what they were really messing with trying any of the gear. That and he would rather not accidentally kill himself or someone else with this gear. Plus, he needs the job right now, so better safe than sorry in this case.

When Rochester appeared and later left with Gillmore. Javier was not expecting an actual written test. He sighed, but at least it is a open book one, so this should be easy. So he opened his book and started looking for answers as he started taking the test.

Then, Max spoke up, and that was when Javier looked up and saw Danny at the table and messing with one of the equipment. Speaking to Max first, "I am not, I mean, it is an open book test it should be easy." Sounding pretty sure of himself, and he turned his head to Danny. "I think maybe not to mess with that, and we do have a test to do."

Suddenly, something came floating up, right through the table with the equipment on it! It left a light, sticky film of ectoplasm on everything it touched, it seemed...

It was barely the size of a house cat, semi-transparent, with a pink-ish tint to its aura. Mostly a round shape, no legs, or anything resembling hands, really; just two... Shapes, that waved like arms, but most of it's mass appeared to be a single, basketball sized eye! the lid, or whatever, seemed to change shape around the eye; trying to convey "mirth", perhaps?

It quickly floated over to the trainers' desk, and slowly scanned the room and all the trainees, with a red light blinking in the pupil.

Victor looked up from the page he was writing on and immediately jumped back, more out of shock than fear. His eyes widened and he pushed himself away from the table he was sitting at. He glanced at the others, then back at the thing.

"¡Carajo!"

"What the hell is that?!"

Danny was just about to put the trap back like Javier suggested when the ghost came up through the table. Startled he dropped the trap while the creature moved to the trainers' desk and he backed away from both the ghost and the table it came from. Hearing Vincent curse he was relieved that he wasn't the only one shocked, as that would have no doubt made a bad impression.

Keeping an eye on the ghost Danny kept backing away until he rejoined the others. "It doesn't seem aggressive at least." Of course that didn't mean it was totally harmless either, it could cause a lot by accident if it started playing with the proton pack for example

It was clear they had to do something but what? As far as Danny could tell there were two options but this wasn't something he should decide on his own. "We can either go get Gillmore and Rochester to deal with this or try to trap it ourselves, what do you guys think?"

Right as Javier was about to go back to finishing the test. That was when he noticed the ghost that had appeared. At first, he did not say anything and simply stared at the thing with a surprised gaze as the others reacted to it. Then his slowly dropped his pencil and moved away from the ghost to where the others were while briefly breaking eye contact with it to address the others.

Javier looked to see how Danny and Victor were doing. Victor was rightfully scared, and Danny was like him. Replying to what Danny and Vicotr said, "Yeah, it is peaceful, but for how long? I think that is a ghost or something weird." Javier kept his gaze on the ghost, just in case it did something new like being aggressive or moving towards them.

Again, replying to Danny after thinking about their options. "I think we should get help with this since I am not sure about my ability to trap this thing right now. So yeah let's get Gillmore and Rochester before it does something bad."

The ghost made a sound, like it was laughing, and turned to the curtain- A light shown from it's eye, like a projector! Although it was quickly obvious what it was projecting was not an accurate representation, but more likely a projection of it's own imagination.

The projection showed that room, viewed from behind the desk, and all the recruits were running around, waving their arms, and squealing. To add further insult, they all appeared to have wet themselves, and it laughed some more as it stopped the projection.

"BLINKY!!"

Gillmore had apparently returned, and tried to sound more serious, despite the smile on her face. She hopped up, and slid down the rails to the bottom of the stairs, and mock reprimanded the ghost, wagging her finger. "No taunting juniors on their first day! That was wrong-" She stood up straight, giving a thought before continuing, "-funny, but wrong."

As if nothing was amiss, she continued, addressing them all, "No firehouse should be without a ghost! Firemen get those ridiculous dogs, afterall, every good book store has a cat, and we have- Blinky! Plus, our little mascot doesn't have to be fed, so there!" Raising a hand, as if she were whispering a secret, "Don't tell The Boss!"

One more goofy face, mocking anger (likely directed at the Station Master), and she continued, "Anyway, are you all done? Who's ready for the fun part?"

She ushered them to the stairs, "Follow the signs to the roof, bring your tests with you, if you aren't done; the training range is strictly 2 at time, so you'll have a chance to finish while you wait your turn!"

On the roof, the edges were boxed in by what appeared to be 10 foot tall glass plates! They weren't clear and clean, either; one panel opposite the door had a pair of targets painted on it, and some slight scorching in many places. Two packs were standing at a yellow-black striped line on the ground.

"OK, we start with practicing the donning and removal of a pack, as well as drawing and putting away the wand- and then I skip that, and say 'aim for the flat-top!' Hahaha! Seriously, though, don't cross the streams, you'll kill us all... But if you can spell your name on the spectral barrier, you get to meet Gregory!"

It was good that Javier at least agreed that for now the ghost didn't seem dangerous. Danny also agreed with him that going for help was probably the smarter option, even if catching it themselves would be more impressive. Luckily they didn't need to do either as Gillmore returned.

The moment Gillmore confirmed that the ghost, Blinky, wasn't dangerous Danny relaxed and went back to his seat. His calm didn't last long though due to her question. He hadn't even checked out the written part of the test yet but before he could panic Gillmore explained that they were allowed to take the tests along and that only two people could use the firing range at once.

This time Danny listened to Gillmore's explanation of what to do but the moment she was done talking he frantically began working on the test.

Victor huffed in an annoyed manner at the ghost and its tricks. It reminded him of his mother's cat, Lady. It was annoying, sure, but it didn't look like it knew any better or meant them any harm. He decided to shelf that analogy, as he was sure Lady would hurt him quite badly if she was given the chance and if she was motivated enough.

Once he sat down after the brief interruption, he quickly finished the last few questions of the test that he hadn't quite finished. It wasn't hard, but it surely wasn't easy, either. Victor stood up and walked out the door and up the stairs, looking a bit confused as he took in his new surroundings.

"Who is... "Gregory," ma'am?"