How NOT to Ghostbust...

Posted on Thu Aug 27th, 2020 @ 2:04am by Lieutenant Tchaikovsky Ford & Level 2 Chiyo Takei & Level 2 Kitt Murrow & Captain Ash Shultz & Level 2 Itishaam “Tim” Mughabghab PsyD & Level 5 Nicholas "Nick" Medhurst & Level 1 Rev. DR. Finnegan Quinn & Level 3 Carmine Mannarino

Mission: It's... A Bus Station
Location: Hotel behind the NCGB HQ
Timeline: May 7th 2020 Late morning

Ford had gathered up the trainees and split them into two groups for ease of movement within the hotel. One team, led by himself, for the upper level, and the other with Ash taking the ground/first floor. As they took the stairs, with himself in the lead, he turned back to the still gloop-covered Chiyo and pristinely dressed Tim and grinned.

"First time's tricky, but this'll be fun," he told them. "Keep your eyes and ears open and take care on the steps. Slimers love to a swift rush move and they don't worry about walls either. Once we're up in the hallway, Chiyo you follow me to the left, Tim, you watch our backs. We move together, but keep enough distance between us that we don't topple like dominos if it comes right at us. Got it?

"Got it," replied Tim. "Eyes and ears open and watch your back."

"Yea yea, let's get the little ****" Chiyo replied with her device ready to fire and very anger focused.

There was the faint sound of something on the edge of their hearing (the action downstairs) and then a long low grizzling sound of a muttering ghost chuntering away from behind the wall adjacent to Chiyo. With no further warning than that, the slimer entity punched its ethereal way through the filthy wallpaper and aimed straight at Tim.

"Oh, no you don't!" growled Tim, taking aim with his blaster thingamabob. But, he realized that he didn't have time to properly aim and ducked instead. But, he was too late and ended up with slime down his left side. "Well, boss," he said to Ford as he straightened, slimer zooming off down the hallway. "Now you have a matching set."

"You okay?" He looked okay, Ford thought. Just a fresh coat of slime, but sense of humour still most definitely intact. Then he chuckled. "Welcome to the team," he told them, a warmth to his tone that suggested this was just about all he needed to decide they were both okay. "Now, c'mon, we gotta find this lil bugger before the others do. We're gonna win this one, right?" That wasn't a question, it was more of an agreement, a challenge they were all accepting by being part of this little team. "Let's move." Crossroads of corridors just up ahead, left them 3 choices. "Chiyo, check to the right, Tim, left. I'll take straight ahead. Stay within sight of each other."

Looking at Tim and rolling her eyes while shaking her head as she heads to the right and waves her hand "I will get this sorry excuse of a blob and make him regret that he slimed me" She placed her hand on the device as she looked carefully around moving forward keeping her instruments in check. Chiyo was not thrilled and her medium powers were now kicking in high gear, she could feel her surrounding and tried to trace the last known location. She was already a bit away as she taps the comm "This motel has a history, in a not pleasant way..." She spoke mixed feelings of despair and anger around her.

"That's the spirit!" Agreed Ford, as they all moved forward to try and flush out the lil critter. Then he frowned as Chiyo spoke again. "You're getting vibes from the place or from the entity?" He asked her. "Or both? Anything that's useful right now?"

"I am getting vibes from the hotel itself...this building has a history in a not good matter" Chiyo gritted her teeth looking around carefully trying to see if she would notice anything off.

Ford walked ahead, the three of them moving slowly of sight of each other now. Scanning with his ecto goggles didn't help much, there was slime everywhere right now. He switched to the PKE meter, which flipped off the scale for a moment, then hummed quietly to itself the next. "Okay," he said on the radio. "Back stairs. I'm looking right at him."

And there the lil green slob was, muttering to itself in the halfway point between upstairs and down. "Ash - receiving?" Ford called. "Got him. Rear stairwell. Watch your fire." And he raised the neutrona wand to try and snare the angry little sucker.

Hearing over the radio the confirmation of the target spot and turned around to rush towards Ford's location "On route" Chiyo actually said in a rather professional way.

"Great Chiyo! Stay to your side of him." Ford waited until he saw Chiyo approaching, then waved to her and readied his proton stream. It snaked out towards their slimer with a lazy, effortless crackle.

"Tim!" Ford called out, as Slimer dodged expertly out of the way by the simple method of shoving himself bodily up through the ceiling. "Look out!"

Tim, who had slowly made his way up a narrow stairwell several minutes before and found himself in a sort of attic, now blinked at the warning and tossed his head from side to side, trying to figure out what he was looking for. But, he was too late. The slimer burst up through the floor and startled Tim so thoroughly, he fell backwards onto his ass. Again. He attempted to aim at the oversized bogie, but it sped away between the piles of boxes. “Attic, headed... east!” he reported, jumping to his feet and taking off after it.

"Second floor! Moving on up through the ceiling!" Ford called into the radio, checking on Chiyo before heading in the same direction and keeping his goggles aimed at the ceiling.

Chiyo was getting grumpy. More then her usual self would be, all this exercise was getting to her and she didn't like the feeling or smell of sweat either "Where is this slime bucket going..." She asked annoyed as she takes another step taking a second to rest and then pushing on.

"This way!" Tim called over his shoulder. "If we hurry we can catch him!"

"Dropping down!" Ford yelled as he aimed a proton stream at a descending slimer. The lil bugger had dropped through the ceiling (again) and bounced towards him, arms flailing out and mouth wide open, all drool and teeth. "Chiyo! Tim! Second stream, quickly!"

But the ghost wasn't sticking around to be caught that easily. He rushed back up into the ceiling then appeared behind the three as they grouped back together and, cackling with laughter, sunk majestically through the carpeted floor to follow the sound of the other team.

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On the first floor, the silence was defeaning as Ash, Kitt, and Nick stood in the wide open space of a large reception room. Clearly no one had used this place for a while by the ruined state of the decor.

Nicholas had rushed back to the station to grab a body camera and was now bringing up the rear. With a small flashlight mounted on his wrist, he shined it over the dingy walls, which at one point had been what he could only describe as pastel blue but were now covered in a think layer of dust where the wallpaper wasn't torn off in ragged strips and holes were present in the walls. From the looks of it, someone had attempted to get at the copper wire and conduit but had given up halfway through their endeavor. Lowering the intensity of the light, he moved slowly through the hall, checking each door carefully.Occasionally, he could hear what sounded like gleeful cackling echoing through the corridors, which made him tighten his grip on his neutrona wand as his hair stood on end.

Activating his communications leak, he spoke in a whisper. "Team, gather up on me. I think our friend is getting closer-" he said, as the laughter became louder and he was hit by a rush of putrid wind and was knocked down to the deck.

None of them had seen Carmine enter the hotel. He was built strong and had an imposing height. His uniform was tight enough to show off his muscles, but not tight enough to limit his movements. He had seen the one man get knocked over and could smell the breeze that had hit him. At times he hated ghosts. He was hoping to not get slimed so soon after moving.

"Yo." A thick accent came from a lifelong resident of the Bronx, New York City. He spoke in a deep baritone. "Come on. Too dangerous down there." Carmine flashed him a smile and held a hand out. He had on the same uniform, but his still had the New York state flag, and the flag of The Bronx. He had learned the first time he met the ghostbusters, to never leave a team mate on the ground. The packs were heavy. Time spent trying to stand, was time the ghost had to get away. Or someone could get hurt if the ghost was throwing stuff. He looked around at Ash, while offering help to Nick. "I'm Carmine, from the Bronx. What we facing?"


"Class 1... Maybe a Class 2 apparition," Ash spoke with a shrug while she carefully pointed the shotgun-type dark matter weapon down the hallway leading out of the check-in desk. "Ford saw it... It's clever too. May of ducked into the rooms, which means we may have to split up and go door-by-door... Who has the ghost trap?"

"Grabbed one on the way in." Carmine said to her. "Hope that is enough."

Nick smirked. "Let's get this little bastard before he turns this place into a slime pit" he said in a low growl, powering up his proton pack. Turning back to Carmine, he smiled slightly. "Thanks for not making me into a Life Alert Commercial." he said jokingly

"I been thrown too. Last year at da Metlife stadium. Got tossed 'bout twenty yards. Rest of my team made jokes 'bout being a football." Carmine stated. "Always pick up the teammates."

"You and me are going to get along just fine." he said. Looking to Carmine, he motioned. "We got a lot of ground to cover- what do you think about having people stack up on all the doors, kick them in, and go in blasting?"

"Best to Stay in pairs." Carmine thought about it for a moment, then looked at Ash and Kitt. "Youse wanna sep'rate into pairs?"

"Sounds good... but if he starts phasing through floors, we may have to be more creative," Ash supplied and charged her shockblast and motioned for Carmine and Nick. "Count it down... and in we got."

"On three?" He asked Nick. "Slow and careful." He pulled the blasting part to his pack with one hand, while he pulled down the goggles he had Grabbed. "We'll get him."

"Three's good." Carmine pulled his own weapon and powered it up.

"Pairing off sound good if it's good with yall," Kit shrugged. "Whatever works. Let's get this booger!"

"Three." Carmine pulled his own goggles over his eyes with his free hand. "Two." His free hand now moved to his weapon. "One."

Ash took a deep breath and kicked hers in first - which wasn't hard, considering how old the door was. "Clear," she spoke once it was apparent no ghosts were in the room she had just entered.

Carmine kicked at a door across the hall. With his goggles he did a quick scan. "Don't see nothin." He took one hand off his weapon and grabbed his PKE meter. "Nope. Not here, but it's close."

"First floor! Moving on down!" Ford's voice carried down the stairwell.

"Right... Everyone regroup on the second floor," Ash called out over the comms and began to move up the stairwell. "Carmine, you take the rear and watch to see it doesn't double-back to the first floor."

Carmine nodded. He was good with taking the rear in this. "Yo." He said with a nod.

Right on cue, the slimer dropped through the ceiling above Ash and blew an angry raspberry at her before rushing towards her, arms up in protest of their presence in its home.

Sliding to her knee as Chiyo aimed her pack at the slimer and fired hitting it for a brief of a second and then loses control of its grip as she lets go of the trigger "Your mine" She mutters still covered under the slime of earlier.

"Ack!!!' Ash rolled forward into an open doorway to give Chiyo a clean shot. "Trap now and open fire!!!!"

Carmine moved towards the ghost. In a move practiced over fourteen years, he unhooked his trap with one hand, dropped it to the floor and kicked it out. It raced forward, to the end of it's line "trap out." He called, before stepped on a pedal as he brought his weapon to aim at the ghost. "Trap open!" He fired his weapon at the creature which was not inside the traps cone of light. A thick stream lashed out of the weapon, but he wasn't phased by the kick anymore. It connected with the ghost, which was trying to get away. As the ghost fought to escape, Carmine was swearing at it in Italian. This was his normal way. Swear at the creatures, as though he actually was hurting it with words as well as a proton pack.

Slowly pulling with all her strength the slimy creature into the white cone of light, Chiyo had difficulty holding the beam in place but her motivation to get this foul creature into it was more than her own strength that was for sure "Almost! We need another beam!" She yelled as three beams would indeed simplify the heavy-duty of it.

That third protron stream wrapped lazily about the other two, intermingling with a nonchalance that suggested experience. It wasn't any easier to hold together because of the multiple wrappings about the ugly little spud, but Ford was stubborn and his partners in busting were already holding the ghostly critter pretty steady. He had the easy job if he was honest, and he'd give them full credit when the story was told. With a touch of extra credit for Chiyo and Tim considering.

"Game over," Ford stated, as the slimer failed to beat the odds and was - finally - dragged down into the confines of the trap. "Just in time for lunch, I reckon," he added, as the trap slammed automatically shut behind it.

"Hate dose little blobs." Carmine said as he put the wand back in it's holder on the pack. Then he went to retrieve the trap. Small waves of static electricity danced on the outside of the trap. Carmine was used to this. He made loops in the cable, then hung it on his belt again. Ford had been at the other station in New York city. The two had crossed paths a few times. "Dey got New York style here?" He asked as he went to Ford.

"They do," Ford answered. "Let's get this feisty lil dude safely stowed." He looked to Tim and Chiyo. "Get ourselves cleaned up." He grinned. "While you guys handle that, I'll order us all some pizza. Good job, people. We got ourselves a new residence."

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