PLD Chapter 19

"CHAPTER 19: Seeking Closure, Mentor Reunion, and a Good Night From the Heart"

Sub-Entry 181: "Let's Go, Ghost-- Wait A Minute...":
...with an instantaneous flash, we materialized again.

"Huh? Where are we?"

"Outside of the city in a mostly abandoned spot. Reappearing too close to our destination will draw too much attention."

As a precaution I switched off the siren and flashers.

"Oh. Good idea."

Asriel was still getting use to his Unitrix-powered human disguise. I kept trying to place an image of him side by side with his Hybrid goat form; attempting to draw comparisons to what was different and what was eeirily the same.

"Now that we have a bit of time before we hit the populated areas...um..."

"Yeah. Maybe...we should talk a bit." Asriel looked down at the ghost trap.

I really didn't know how to start things off. Where should either of us begin?

"A...lot of life-changing things have happened in just a short amount of time."

"Uh-huh."

"Are you...doing alright?"

Asriel was kinda looking out the window, resting his jaw on the heel of his palm, wrapping his fingers around his cheek in a contemplative look.

"She's...really gone...isn't she?"

"Azzy..."

"I said I was ready to let go..." His eyes grew sadder. "But...it's not going to be as easy as I made it sound in the moment...is it?"

"Asriel..."

"It hurts. It really hurts inside. I know I...won't really lose her as long as I keep her in my heart but..."

"It's okay, Asriel. She's finding her afterlife in the Soul Society. She'll be at peace. Maybe some day...she'll be allowed to reincarnate again. Maybe into a better life than what she was born into."

"Mom...Dad...and I...we did the best we could for her. And it still wasn't enough."

"It was enough, Asriel. There were just...complications."

Asriel looked at the Ghost Trap.

"Yeah. Complications." He then looked up at me, and I could sense he was ready to change the subject before the tears started coming.

"Are...the others going to be okay? What about Miranda City? We left so suddenly. Do you think we're going to be in trouble when we get back home?"

"Well. You've got a lot of questions. And...well...I got a few answers. It's my understanding most of the Ultra Crew are at least in limited capacity for missions and daily life. Our allies are in good shape for the most part. De Midian lost a few undead but they gave it back to the Wraith's clones a lot, lot worse than she gave it to them.

Chameleon seemed to be...unusually chipper. But he was really coy around me as to why. He must find something amusing.

Prince James is okay. I last heard that his sister, Ivy, and her Nightwatch mercenary group are watching over him for a bit.

I haven't heard anything about Aiden but he must've recovered.

The city itself is under reconstruction. Violet's E.R.R.O.R. team is on the job. You haven't met them yet--General Catton, Floyd "Spritz" T. Cat, Meowsma O'Tool, and Charlie "Bat Cat" Airheart. They got plenty of equipment and hazard vehicles to get the job done plus the support of Hartford Industries and the Silver Guardians from Kaeleron."

I cleared my throat.

"As for getting in trouble...Bunnie should be softening any blows for us. Queen Brooke was...a bit perturbed...but I'm sure disposing of the Wraith will at least make things somewhat square. Don't worry. She won't be mad at you. And I only hope she isn't too mad at me."

Asriel sighed and rubbed his eyelids.

"I just feel really bad that all this happened because of--"

"No. Don't blame yourself. You've done too much of that, for too long. Even going all the way back to the Plan. You couldn't have known what would happen. And Chara was too much of a victim of the Wraith to stop herself. Things...just happened and snowballed from there. But we're cleaning the mess up now. Things have gotten better for you and things will get better for Chara's spirit.

So please, Asriel. It's a lesson both of us keep forgetting to learn. Nothing good comes from blaming yourself for something that isn't really your fault. It is what it is and you need to lean on friends and family to help you through the bad times. We make mistakes. We learn from them. We try again. And sometimes we end up making the same mistakes all over again until we get it right. That's what it means to be human or humanoid."

The drive continued onward until we slowly found our way into more populated setting. As we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, I felt the need to liven the mood a little.

"How about a little music?"

I switched on the radio and an instrumental song featuring a bit of subtle 80's guitar and keyboard came on...I swear I'd heard this one before. Hadn't heard music like this since that unfortunate morning that a certain skeptic of the Environmental Protection Agency arrived at HQ to order the containment grid shut down. Peter was right...that man was some kind of rodent. (Music Link)

Sub-Entry 182: "Who Answered the Call Back Then":
By this time Asriel had drifted out of his funk and was starting to come alive with wonder as he took in the surroundings. It was a similar setting as Neo Arcadia, quickly evolving from minimal civilization to urban setting to major metropolitan high-rises. Concrete, glass, and steel. Pavement packed with traffic.

"Volt, why is everyone dressed so...differently?"

"Well, we're on a world with a vastly different timeline. Here, it's like the 1980's of Earth Prime or similar worlds."

"Oh! You mean like Mitzi's era!"

"Something like that."

Asriel looked in wonder as we passed by the harbor and he could see Liberty Island in the distance.

"What's that?"

"They call it the Statue of Liberty. Did you know my mentors took it for a drive?"

"You can DRIVE a statue?"

"It's...complicated. A lot of mood slime to move something a lot bigger than a toaster, let me tell you."

"Wow."

"That's a pretty important landmark, Asriel. It was a gift from a neighboring country called France. It represents the freedom found in immigration. Give her the tired, the poor, the wretched and she shall lift her lamp beside the golden door.

It's kinda similar how you got to be part of our world, Azzy."

Asriel didn't answer. But I could see the sparkle in his starry eyes as he was just overcome with amazement.

Eventually we worked our way to the inner city and came to that location. At the corner of the intersection, the old Hook & Ladder 8 firehouse. Brick, three stories high with a basement facility. That classic shape. There was no mistaking it. This was a New York historical landmark. Despite being more than 30 years old. Maybe even older than that...it still looked...somewhat new-ish.

"We're here, Azzy. We've arrived."

Asriel looked up at the conspicuous "No Ghost" sign hanging jutting from overhead the red double doors. (Music Video Link)

"The home and business of some of my mentors. The Ghostbusters."

"Ghost...Busters?"

"On your world, ghosts were usually pretty nice. (I know a couple I've been glad to meet the acquaintance of). But not all ghosts in the universe are so nice. Some are downright mean...in many cases evil if not completely malevolent."

Asriel frowned at the Ghost Trap. "Case in point?"

"Case in point." I continued.

"My mentors made a business of professional paranormal investigation and elimination. While sometimes it can be as simple as solving decade-old mysteries or helping a spirit complete their unfinished buisness in life...in many cases...it's about capturing and imprisoning ghosts to keep the peace between the living and the dead. This is the indispensable defense science of the 20th century here."

"That sounds...really complicated and impressive. But if it's a science it must be cool!"

"Incredibly cool. I mean, where else do you run around chasing ghosts with lasers and putting them in muon-confinement?"

It had been some time after the Shandor case. The property next to the firehouse had gone up for sale so I had helped the guys purchase the extra property and with Kitty's help, I had the property lines legally amended to include the whole area, in order to expand the firehouse in order to house a secondary vehicle and additional laboratory and research facilities.

I remembered building the brick-way connector between the left side of HQ, linking the garages. With this setup it was now possible to have Ecto-1A and Ecto-1B to split the team into two groups should business be greater than a single call at a time.

I tapped the door opener and the garage door rolled up allowing me to park into the secondary garage.

We exited the car and I got my keys out for the adjoining doorway into the firehouse garage. I unlocked and opened the door.

"After you." I politely let the goat prince in ahead of me.

"Why thank you!" Asriel beamed.

I entered into the spacious garage area. It was empty so Ecto-1B must've been out on a call. I had to wonder how Winston found a second 1959 Cadillac Meteor ambulance to build into a second Ectomobile. One that resembled its original incarnation rather than the top-heavy Ecto 1A that Azzy and I had driven. It was technically the original Ectomobile, tuned up and modified some five years after the Gozer the Gozerian case. It came in handy leading up to the clash with Vigo the Carpathian. I'd have a lot of stories to tell if given the chance.

There were the row of four lockers to one side of the area. There was the garage tools and such to the opposite side. And yeah...that unmistakable fireman's pole. I'd have to let Asriel try it out, time permitting.

To be honest, I could never tell which incarnation the UltraVerse's GB world was. There were times I was sure it was "RGB". Sometimes I was convinced it was the "Columbia" incarnation. Sometimes I was even sure it was the "DreamWave" interpretation. Heck, even the "Activision" interpretation seemed likely what with the battle against Ivo Shandor. Even though things should have made it obvious--things like the color of Egon's hair and glasses--I was honestly never sure. How did that even work?

As we walked further in I could hear the rhytmic clack of a typewriter going followed by the occasional pop of what my nose confirmed to be flavored bubblegum.

"Dropping off or picking up?" Came the nasally Brooklyn accent I'd come to recognize.

In my moment of nostalgia I hesitated to give a response.

"Look, buddy, I don't have all day. Just state your business and--"

"Janine."

The computer chair swiveled slightly

"Volt? Volt Arcade?"

There she was. Red hair, green eyes, those style-ized glasses, that slightly snarky but no-nonsense attitude of the Ghostbusters' very capable, witty, and sassy receptionist, Janine Melnitz.

"Oh my god, it's been so long since you were here, last! What the heck have you been doing all this time?"

"Oh you know. Traveling through time, saving worlds...rescuing and befriending orphaned princes."

"I can't tell if you're telling the truth or being clever to get a rise out of me. You're at least better at the comedy than Peter."

"Well, you know me. Are you keeping my mentors out of trouble?"

"I swear some of them would lose their heads if they weren't bolted to their shoulders."

"So. After all this time in the business can you honestly say you've quit better jobs than this?"

Janine put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side. "If you can talk Peter Venkman into giving me a raise, then the answer's a definite no."

"You haven't changed a bit." I beamed and accepted a quick hug.

"So who's this little cutie?" Janine bent over, putting her hands on her knees, looking Asriel in the eyes.

"Go ahead. Introduce yourself, little guy."

"I'm Asriel. Asriel Tobias Dreemurr-Arcade."

Janine kinda gasped. "Oh my gods...did you and Lisa up and decide to adopt a kid?  You already have three daughters."

"Well...it's complicated. Asriel's...an orphan from a world that no longer exists."

"Oh my...that's so tragic. He's like a little Clark Kent, isn't he?"

"This world has Superman, too?"

"Adoreable."

Janine smiled.

"Listen, I've been around the block and I've seen a lot of things. You don't need to stay in that form for my sake. And I'm pretty sure, the kid's not human, either so. Out with it. Let your hair down and stay a while."

"Wellll, if you really insist. You weren't this low key about it when you saw it for the first time. Though I have to admit it was amusing hearing Ray and Egon explain it to you."

I took off my glasses and then I morphed.

"You too, Azzy."

Asriel switched off the Unitrix core.

"Well aren't you just a cutie? Like a little bunny rabbit."

"Goat actually." Asriel corrected.

"Janine, I'm I'm almost done with the tax forms. You know you really shouldn't--"

And then the unmistakable spilling of a large amount of paperwork.

"Gaaaaah!"

"Louis." I rolled my eyes.

"Darnit, Louis. It's just me. After how many years of this, how do I keep scaring the chicken soup out of you?"

"Oh it's you, Dr. Arcade. I thought you were a mon--"

"Don't. Say it. (Especially not in front of the kid.)"

"Is...he like the human version of Antoine?" Asriel whispered.

"Yes. But a lot more useful." I folded my arms. "And more likeable."

"Listen we got a lot of paperwork to square away. I know you didn't just come here just to say hi and introduce the kid. So what really brings you back to our time and place?"

Asriel handed me the trap before helping Louis pick up and sort his paperwork.

"Putting an end to a nightmare." I held the trap by the hand grip.

Sub-Entry 183: "Closure":
As soon as Louis was on his way back to the offices in back, Asriel joined me by my side.

"Volt, what are you doing catching ghosts all freelance on other worlds? You didn't really take Peter's advice to start a franchise in this Miranda City place, did you?"

"No. This was...something personal."

Asriel hugged me as I comforted him, rubbing his back.

"What kind of terrible beast haunts a poor little guy like this?"

Asriel sniffled. "My...sister."

Janine fell silent and I could see the sadness in her eyes. "Oh no..."

"You remember when our little spud got infected with the leakage from the ECU and he turned into that voracious beast whenever he fell asleep? Similar. But in this case his sister's soul was devoured by an extra-dimensional demon and...well...that's a looong story for another day."

"Then you had to--"

"Yeah. The whole 500 Gigahertz. She's resting in the Soul Society now. We have have the supernatural trash that was left over right here. The things it did would make Freddy Krueger and Jason Voohees both agree they took things too far. (Okay, I'm really exaggerating) And that's saying something. The sooner we dump this chump, the better it'll be for Asriel."

"By all means. It's exactly in the same place as always."

"Thanks, Janine. Come, Asriel. Let's...get this over with." I handed the trap back to him.

We then proceeded to head to the staircase leading to the basement. I opened the door and immediately Asriel and I were greeted by that distinct, unmistakable reverberating hum I knew like an old song.

We climbed down the staircase onto the metal grating floor and stood before it. Big, red, and metal itself.

"Is...this it?"

"It is. This is the Ecto Containment Unit, Asriel. It's self-contained dimensional prison for ghosts, so to speak. They're jailed inside a high-voltage laser containment grid. It's my mentors' legacy. It's genius. Absolute genius. "

I walked up to the the front panel.

"Just like I told you. You sure you got this?"

"Yeah...I...have to do this." He looked at the trap.

Asriel reached up and unlatched the door panel, pulling it open like a mailbox, the boxy socket sliding out from inside.

Asriel took a deep breath and slid the trap in. There was the sound like sludge and pockets of air being sucked through a pipe. He pulled the trap out, noting the meter in front had gone down to zero and the light stopped flashing.

Asriel pushed the door back closed, sliding the socket back in with it. The red light on the panel had lit up. Asriel clicked on the switches in front--setting his entry grid, and neutronizing his field. All that was left was to pull the lever to complete the process.

"I feel like...I should say a few things, first." He closed his eyes.

"You. You hate me. You hate all of us. Everything that's happened is because of you. I want to hate you. I want to hate you so much...but..."

Asriel sniffled and wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

"If I did that...I'd be the same as you. I'd become you. So, no. I don't hate you.  I won't hate you.  I refuse to.

Even though Chara is dead because of you. Even though you killed Mom...Dad...Undyne...everyone...even though you followed me to my new home and terrorized me and everyone in it. After everything...I forgive you.

I can't forgive the acts...but I will forgive the one who committed them. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is.

You need to be punished for your sins. There's nothing any of us can do...nothing that we can say that can ever fit the crimes you've committed.

So. I'm going to do the cruelest thing to you I can without tarnishing my own soul. I choose..."

Asriel grabbed the lever and tightened his grip then yanked down hard. There was the sound like a muffled explosion or air blast. The red light went out and the green one came on. And then nothing but the hum.

"...to FORGET you." Asriel turned his back to the machine, keeping his eyes closed. Streaming tears. He pulled Chara's locket out of his pocket and held it to his chest, letting it touch his own locket.

I wanted to say "Good speech". But I felt like that would ruin the moment. I dropped to one knee and hugged him tight.

"Like a bad dream...it's over and it can't hurt you anymore."

"Or anyone else."

I took in the ambience of the room...and then I heard it.

Sub-Entry 184: "Mentors":
Or rather...I heard him.

"I still find it rather disconcerting how many skeptics still use the word 'charalain' when confronted by irrefutable evidence of the paranormal. While times have changed, people still want to burn us at the stake as witches."

I responded, standing up and letting go of Asriel. "Typical. Like Peter said...they did this to Galileo."

"An ironic choice of consoling considering the astronomer, Phineus had his head staked to the town gate."

I smirked without turning around.

"And who says you don't have a sense of humor, my mentor..."

I turned around. "...Egon Spengler."

Yup. The grey-blue coveralls with the pink cuffs and lapels. The red framed spectacles. The blond hair. The piercing blue eyes.

Why did I have trouble telling if this was the RGB, Columbia, Activision, or IDW universe again?

As I may have described before. Intelligent well beyond the minimum requirements for genius level I.Q. Objective. Stoic. Level-headed and logical. Like Nikita but a bit more...if you'll pardon my humor...humanized. He at least had moments of a sense of humor and he had the patience to banter. At times I considered him a near-perfect scientist. I had a lot of respect for him from the time I first formally met his acquaintance.

"So. Old habits hard to break I see."

"You can take the Ghostbuster out of Ghostbusting. But you can't take the Ghostbusting out of the Ghostbuster." I said with a shrug.

"I can infer that your last job had complications? I notice you're not holding a ghost trap which means that we're the only ones dumping anything into the containment unit today. Judging from your words just now, I'm guessing the client didn't appreciate your business."

"Well observed. You always were a superior scientist, Volt."

"But you had the better mind for applying it."

"I could explain the...unintended, undesired issues with what HAPPENED...but I'd rather not."

"Hey, I said I was sorry! I mean...really! What are the odds of someone not keeping a cat out of the way on ANOTHER call?  It's not like the fur won't grow back or anything!"

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to Peter."

"History repeating, Ray?" I looked up at the doorway.

Tan jumpsuit. Looked kinda like the classic uniforms of the Gozerian days. Slightly orangish hair. A bit on the portly side. Yeah. That was Raymond Stantz. The big kid who never grew up. A  true friend. The naive, emotion-embracing, unintentionally funny guy. The heart of the Ghostbusters. We all gave him a hard time but that was just because we loved the guy and respected him. And his overly enthusiastic, hands-on, go-getter cowboy approach to everything tended to get us in trouble. A lot. We just couldn't hate him. Nor would we want to.

"Volt! Oh my gosh, this is incredible! I didn't know you'd be stopping by! What a surprise! What an unprecedented--"

"Yeah, Ray, don't oversell it. I'm just plain Volt Arcade. The guy who traveled abroad and dabbled in the phenomenology department next to your parapsychology department at the university while disguising himself as a human. By the way, did they ever clean the graffiti off of the door?"

"Oh! You mean the red writing that said Venkman burn in--"

"Not in front of the kid, Ray."

"Perhaps it is about time we addressed the elephant in the room."

"Uh...I'm actually a goat."

"Hmm. Genus bovadae. I thought I recognized the anatomic structure." Egon rubbed his chin.

"This is just like stepping back in time." Ray joined us in the storage facility room.

"I think you have the wrong movie, Ray." That one was for you, Violet.

"So...who is the kid. No pun intended?"

"Egon. Ray. This is Asriel Tobias Dreemurr-Arcade. Scott and Callista adopted him and he insisted on taking my family name."

"The other name." Egon corrected.

"Yeah...let's not go there and I won't bring up the former head of PCOC."

"Peacock?" Asriel questioned.

"Paranormal Contract Oversight Committe." Egon lowered any eyebrow.

"Hmm...hmm! Oh! You mean the man who--"

"Asriel." I warned.

"...is some kind of rodent?"

"Nevermind."

Ray stifled a chuckle.

"Hey, if you're done taking up Young Frankenstein's time, we have to discuss how we're going to make up for the bill I didn't get to write."

Peter Venkman. Brown hair done up with hair gel, square jaw, and an all the ascerbic wit of Violet. Dark brown coveralls with green lapels and cuffs. He didn't act like a scientist. He was more like a used car dealer.

Or maybe a game show host.

Peter Venkman always had a problem with authority. Much like Officer Carrey Mahoney of Police Academy. If you flexed your authority, he'd find a way to undermine it and insult you while doing it. Peter skirted the line between what was legal and fair (but still questionable) business practice and what constituted fraud. I guess it wasn't surprising when he had a hard time living down the fact that his father was an experienced con man. One whose scams had nearly dragged the Ghostbusters through the mud of fraud more than twice.

Still despite neither being the brains or the heart, the face (more like the mouth) of the Ghostbusters knew how to sell the service and rake in the cash. It wasn't that I had a problem with him...it was just a difference in personalities...and priorities.

When I lied to people it was for a greater good that I couldn't tell them. Even  When Peter lied to people it was usually to get undergrad girls to date him after he convinced them they had psychic powers and needed to be part of a study of the effects of negative reenforcement on E.S.P. ability.

"Come on! You can't still be mad at me!" Ray protested as he headed up the staircase.

As soon as the door closed behind...

"You said you were the only ones who had to empty a ghost trap." Egon caught on pretty quick.

Sub-Entry 185: "A Walk Down Memory Lane":
"Yeah, hang on." I said as I lead him and Asriel to the consoles of the length of computer systems off to the side.

I tapped away at one of the keyboards and brought up the recent disposal log.

"This one right here."

"Hmm. Class 8, nebulous, extra-planar, anomalous phantasm. Something not of recorded worlds?"

"I can see I've intrigued you already, mentor."

"Hmmm..."

"I'll try to find the entity in question." I zoomed the internal surveilance around the innards of the system. It was pretty desolate but I could sparcely see technology dotting the void as well as hundreds of clusters of what I could identify as floating rock islands.

"Is...that the inside of the containment unit?" Asriel asked.

"Correct. It's become more akin to the Netherworld than anything."

"Nether...world?" Asriel cocked his head.

"Kinda like that extra-dimensional portal you have the Terror Dog locked up in. I know it's not Mr. Tully, or Ms. Barret so...where did you get one of those?"

"Apparently they're common servators in other realms. We've had other incidents with trans-dimensional mishap involved. Zuul may very well be a species and not a name."

"Vins Clortho was definitely a name. I can only assume the Keymaster and Gatekeeper were sent back with Gozer when you closed the gate between worlds." I reasoned.

"You two are going to have a lot of stories to tell me some day." Asriel blinked. He looked at the monitors. "Are all those...ghosts? They look...really scary."

"In some cases that's the idea. Like that big ole, big nosed, big eared, oversized-head-having, hooved abomination."

I pointed to the creature in question. And I could swear I heard Egon gulp.

"Sorry." As I sweeped the camera feed past the Boogie Man.

As I continued I could make out other familiar denizens. Ole pumpkin-head himself, Sam Hain.

The grand ghoul, etherial master, and electric vampire, Killerwatt.

The renegade Sandman. (Music Links x 4)

And others which didn't seem from the RGB continiuum. I wondered how much of each universe was amalgamated in our UltraVerse AU.

Those were definitely Union and Confederate ghosts from the Activision continuum as well as Shandor's followers...and there was Elenor Twitty, the "Grey Lady" librarian.

"Bet Ray was glad to finally nab her." I mused. "She'll never shush you guys again."

And I could see the jogger ghost, the Scoleri Bros. and what I was certain were spirits from the Titanic.

I'm sure between Asriel and myself...at least one of us wanted to ask about this. Probably with different questions. I certainly wondered how and when some of these ended up in here.

However I didn't see any of the ghosts from the XGB continuum. I mean...why would I if the OGB's were still in operation. That would make as much sense if I saw ghosts from the GB 2016 universe.

"There." I zoomed in on the Chara-Wraith.

"Fascinating." Egon said, with all the emotion of Commander Spock.

"I think I may have stumbled upon something big. The spirit this one was parasite to mentioned something about others out there. Something about a wide-spread conspiracy that goes far into history."

"This is unsettling."

"Understate much, mentor?" I mused.

"Its readings are very strange."

"Never mind its readings. Its behavior is very strange. I figured it'd be raging and fuming like the rest of them. But it's strangely calm. You know what this reminds me of?"

"Our own embodiment of Halloween himself. Sam Hain."

"And that's usually the sign they're waiting for something or they have plan in the pipeline. If there are others then I may have sparked a war."

"Volt. We're already at war with them. We just didn't know it until the Wraith made it clear." Asriel bowed his head.

Egon and I looked at each other. That was a profound if not dark statement from a child...and also a very true and tragic thought.

"I don't know if this is the end or the beginning of things to come. Right now I want to bury this so deep.  But I'm also afraid to take my eyes off of it.  The moment we do it or its allies just might just strike while our guard is down."

"Perhaps some recreational time will provide some solace."

Asriel watched the view screen a bit before.

"Uh...?" He pointed at the entity that the camera feed had zeroed in on.

The Stay-Puft Marshamallow Man. Now how to explain how Gozer's Destructor form was now occupying the Ecto Containment Unit and seemingly having its own awareness? Ehhh...

"You'll explain later?"

"We'll explain later." I nodded.

"Hey, you guys joining us, or what?" Winston Zeddemore opened the door to check on us. African-American. Laid back but a realist when it came to the situation. He was the only one of them who wasn't a scientist. The son of a construction worker; Winston just didn't seem to fit into the family business. So he answered the want-ad right around the time the "some kind of rodent" paid a visit to the Firehouse.

What I knew about him was that he was good with a wrench when it came to maintenancing Ecto-1 and loved mystery novels; Sherlock Holmes being his favorite series. He and Ray connected pretty easily.

He had long since shaved the moustache of the Gozer days. Cornflower blue coveralls.

"Yeah, we'll be right there."

"...Howdy, Mr. Ghostbuster, sir!"

"I gotta lay off the caffeinated drinks. It's getting to be a real zoo in here."

Sub-Entry 186: "Funkedified YET Again!":
Upstairs...

"Can you stay for a bit? It'd be just like old times." Ray asked as everyone had gotten into their casuals and gotten comfy on the sofa and recliners.

"Ray. Need I remind you, relative to him, this timeline is considered past events. Any interaction may already be rewriting our futures in ways that could be detrimental to major life-changing events." Egon warned. "Even when we go off world to Volt's home realm, we run a slight risk of temporal contamination.  There is no telling what information may very well change the foundation of society.  Of history itself."

"Your TV is...different. Why isn't it flat and rectangular? It's all boxy and the screen is made of glass--"

"Asriel." I interrupted. It was kinda weird he brought that up when he helped me take apart a CRT television back in my shop. I guess he figured no one actually used TV sets that old. Then again he was kinda distracted with other thoughts that he had only just recently found closure on.

Ray and Winston looked at each other. "A TV that's flat and rectangular? What kind of crazy future world are we in for?"

Winston asked.

"Case in point." Egon folded his arms.

I should probably educate him before he asked about compact discs. Then again those were obsolute in our era by that point so...ugh.

I think it would be vital that Asriel and I NOT tell them about where telephone evolution was headed once it hit the 21st century.

"Hey, if I can still catch Johnny Carson and pay 1.29 for gas, I'm sold." Peter interjected.

"You're going to be disappointed." I muttered under my breath.

"So after all this time you drop in unannounced." Peter smirked.

Okay, I know what he said, but I could tell he was stepping on my tail just to spite me.

"Yeah. Nice to see you too, Peter." I crossed my arms. "How's Dana these days?"

A frown. Okay, that was unfair of me. Just because he was messing with me doesn't mean I have to go low.

But then he shrugged it off.

"Oh you know. Little Oscar don't need no Ghostbusters making his life weird, y'know? Uncle Pete's a wild stallion that gotta run free, y'know? I tell you, when you can't even be a single mother in this city without worrying about a Moldavian sorceror kidnapping your baby and making him the vessel to be reborn in, what's this world coming to, am I right? So really...I'm doing her great service by keeping them as far away from the nasty spooks, specters and ghosts."

Okay that was sweet of him to think of Dana Barret's kid. Though regarding his feelings for Dana, I had to admit this was one of his better lies. Now that I thought about it..there was something about him that reminded me of Sans.

Bringing up Dr. Ilyssa Selwin would be a low blow by this point. Bringing up Dana was pretty low as it was. As much as I liked to jab at Peter (and vice-versa) we still respected each other. Even though it often felt obvious, it was hard to know where the line actually was with Peter. I swear Bill Murray was the only other person with a sense of humor this quirky...

"You guys care for any refreshments?" Janine asked as she walked toward the kitchen.

"Oh! I'll help you out, Miss Melnitz!"

"Wait, Asriel--"

Too late. Goat son was already in the kitchen and opening up the refrigerator. Sometimes he was too helpful for his own good. Somehow at that moment he picked up one of Ray's bad habits.

"AAAAAAH!!!!"

And then he found himself on the floor...covered in green slime.

"Slimer!!!!" Janine snapped.

"What did that little spud--" Peter had made the mistake of darting right in front of Slimer's flight path.

* SPLAT *

And then all I could hear was Peter's angry screaming.

"Oh that's it, you little onionhead! You're TOAST! I'm gonna blast him! I mean it!"

"It's moments like these that I appreciate more than the steady paycheck." Winston mused.

"What...was...that?" Asriel blinked.

"Sorry, sorry! Are you okay?"

"I feel..."

"So funky?" Peter smoldered.

"Er...yes...I think that's the word?" I helped Asriel up.

"Someone's been a very NAUGHTY GHOST and might not be getting dinner if he misbehaves like this again. For shame, Slimer. For shame." Ray scolded.

"The Sedgewick ghost still mooching off you, eh, Peter?"

"If he weren't already dead, I'd--"

"Peter, we've been through this before. Slimer just can't help himself." Winston shrugged it off.

And sure enough the spud in question rose up through the floor now that the excitement had calmed down.

"Asriel, this is Slimer. A ghost."

Green. No legs. Very potato-shaped. Orange eyes.

"He looks a lot different than the ghosts in the Underground. But then again I've never actually met one...well, besides Chara. Just the pictures in the books in the library."

I wondered how long Napstablook, Mettaton, and Mad Dummy had been in the Underground. When did they first move in? If it was shorter than 100 years, then yeah. Asriel likely never met any of them. But if it was longer than that, how had he not crossed paths with at least one of them?

Somewhere I had heard that before he became Mettaton, he was once known as Hapstablook. I couldn't confirm this regardless of how many timelines I visited. But still...it matched his cousin so it was more than likely true.

Randomly, it crossed my mind that Asriel had to have at least known who Gerson was. After many observations of Undyne, I'd established a pretty big connection between the two. My research on him and Undyne was largely incomplete but I surmised that Gerson was  a pretty legendary warrior in the before times, during the war and that Undyne held him in very high regard;  I considered that maybe he was a surrogate father. But wasn't it Asgore who trained Undyne? So...how were the connections intertwined?

It was at this point I realized I was getting off track again.

I didn't have time to think more on it because Ray cut in at that moment.

"You can get photos of ghosts without special photography?" Ray asked.

"Well. Yeah."

"It's probably because it's more magic than science." I shrugged.

"He's friendly. Go on. Say hi!"

"Uh. Howdy. I'm Asriel."

Slimer extended his hand for a handshake.

* squish*

"Eww." Asriel looked at the goop on his hand.

"I guess the both of us need a shower, huh, little man. Tell you what. You clean up first." Peter mussed the goat's head fur a bit.

"Thank you, Mr. Venkman."

"It's doctor. I didn't spend all those years in college just to be called Mister, thank you very much."

"Here, it's this way, down the hall. Oh wait! You don't have a change of clothes, do you?" Janine led him to the bathroom.

"That's okay. I can just wear my karate uniform!" Asriel remembered he had it stowed away in his ITEM inventory.

And so we waited for Asriel to finish up while Janine took care of having his clothes cleaned.

"I better not find the drain stopped up with goat hair." Peter muttered, when he thought no one was listening.

I smirked briefly.

A bit later Asriel emerged in his karate gi.

Sub-Entry 187: "Origin Stories":
"I really should consider a session of meditation with your second in command and Master Yoshi. Research shows promising benefits to meditation. Mental acuity is something that should not be taken for granted."

"It's Splinter actually. Master Splinter. He's forsaken the Hamato name after...well. You understand."

Egon nodded.

"It's been rather eye-opening all these years, discovering that anthropomorphic intelligence exists out there."

"It began with Odie, didn't it? Your first endeavor off world."

"During my studies of nuclear science in college, I was given the opportunity to study aboard. That's how I met your first mentors and caretakers."

"And that's why you weren't that surprised to learn about my Lycan identity."

"It wasn't the only experience with lycanthropes we had."

I chuckled. "No one comes to Lupusville." I said with a shrug.

"I take it you're keeping the prototype technology under wraps."

"Yes. I've even managed to merge it with future technology but--"

"Agreed. Best not to examine advancements that aren't of this realm or time period."

"Suffice to say that things are well in hand."

"Wow. Other Ghostbusters in other planar existences within the UltraVerse." I could almost see the stars in Ray's eyes. In another lifetime he'd be quite the excitable blueberry. Mweh-heh-heh.

"Anyway. I'm sure Azzy's a little curious about--"

"How did you get into Ghostbusting?" He immediately spoke up.

"Well, little friend, I'm glad you asked." Peter said as he emerged, in clean clothes, drying his hair off with a towel and restyling it.

Ray and Egon looked at each other with an uneasiness.

"I'd prerfer we keep this tale unbiased."

"Egon, you knucklehead. Don't you trust me?"

"Remind me again how you passed your final exam for your degree?"

Egon, I owed you a candy bar later. You' ve...you've earned it.

"...right. Well it began back in the year of 1984 when we were professors at a prestigious college. We were in charge of the parapsychology department. I was conducting an experiment for valuable research that day--"

"He means he was flirting with a college student whom he convinced had psychic abilities while electrocuting the other human test subject." Ray whispered.

"I heard that." Peter wrinkled his nose in a pouting sneer.

"So Ray busts in in the middle of my research and tells me we've got a major sighting at the New York Public Library. So I generously agreed to accompany him to meet with Egon--"

"Ray had to drag him over." Egon cut in. "Also he never apologized for nearly deafening me while I was using my stethoscope.  Twice."

Heh. The first time at the library. The second time five years later while examine baby Oscar Barrett.

"Ahem. We interviewed the Librarian there, and investigated and found the usual weird stuff. Symmetrical book stacking, ectoplasmic residue, bookcases being tipped over."

"Sounds scary."

"Nah. Just typical stuff for scientists like us." Peter boasted.

Ray and Egon just looked at each other in slight disbelief.

"So we made contact with our first ghost. You probably saw her in the containment unit. Grey Lady. Librarian. Well, I of course decided to make contact."

Peter was talking about Elenor Twitty. The Ghostbusters' first case...before they actually became Ghostbusters.

Ray withheld a chortle.

"I hope your laughing because of what you did next." Peter slid his gaze to Ray with a dubious look.

"I admit I got a little over-excited." Ray rubbed the back of his head, turning a bit pink in the cheeks.

"You know what his big plan was?"

Asriel shook his head.

"Get her. That was his plan. 'Get her'."

"I think you know how it turned out, Asriel." I crossed my arms. Asriel nodded.

"So here we were with the scientific find of the century--"

"You said you floored them at the Regents' meeting." Ray reminded. The salt was real.

"I'm never going to be able to apologize enough, am I?" Peter put his knuckles to his hips.

"Not a chance." Egon countered, crossing his arms.

"You're not saying much, Mr. Zeddemore." Asriel looked to Winston.

"My part in the story comes much later."

I accepted the fruit drink that Janine offered. It was a miracle something was still in the kitchen that Slimer hadn't eaten or drank.

"I remember hearing Dean Jaeger's speech from my room next door. He really laid into you didn't he?"

"I...don't remember the exact context of the conversation." Peter looked off to the side.

"Ahem, quote: 'Your theories are the worst kind of unpopular tripe, your methods are sloppy, and your conclusions are highly questionable. You are a poor scientist, Doctor Venkman. And you have no place in this department...or this university.' End quote."

"Ouch." Asriel winced. "You all got...er..."

"The dangers of not having tenure." Egon frowned.

"So there we were. Out of a job and broke. So while consoling Ray I kept a stiff upper lip and saw an opportunity. I believed that we were bound for greater things and it was destiny that we got thrown out of that dump--"

"More like Madam Fate." I muttered.

"...to go into business for ourselves. So after Ray was nice enough to take a mortgage on his family house, we had the money to invest in our little humble abode here."

"Despite how much it should have been condemned? Let me know if I leave anything out, Egon. Serious metal fatigue in all the load-bearing members. Wiring was sub-standard--COMPLETELY inadequate for your power needs and the neighborhood was like a demilitarized zone?"

"All check." Egon confirmed, expression blank as a refrigerator.

"But wow. You just had to try that pole." Ray cut in. Asriel chortled in response.

"So we put in some elbow grease, got a company car, hired our minimal skeleton staff..."

"That hardly seems flattering, Dr. Venkman." Janine smoldered.

"And paid for our first TV commercial and got our first Ecto Containment Unit up and working as well as our equipment assembled."

"First?" Asriel cocked his head.

"You're getting ahead of them, again, Azzy." I looked on. "All the while I watched from behind the scenes. I knew my mentors were onto something big but...I didn't want to interfere. It's probably for the best that I didn't. They handled things."

A smirk from Peter. There was the moment of respect between us.

Sub-Entry 188: "Origin Stories, Continued":
"So then what happened?" Asriel took a sip from his glass of fruit juice.

"We may have overestimated our budget for getting our business off the ground--"

"WE, Peter?" Egon crossed his arms.

"You know we didn't HAVE to get some of those things you sprung for. Although the arcade machine and the pinball table were nice additions..." Ray seemed to miss the point of chastising.

"But we still got our first client. A nice young lady, name of Dana Barrett. I personally oversaw the investigation of her haunted apartment."

I crossed my arms. Asriel could immediately tell this was another case of flirting. He looked uneasy. Kid was still young. He'd have a while to learn about the chemistry of romance.

Then again...Peter wasn't the best person to teach him. Which begged the question how I was going to explain Frisk to him if he hadn't had the chance to meet them, yet. How embarassed would he be if I told him about how they had flirted with Toriel over the phone?

"That night we got our first call. It was to the Sedgewick Hotel."

"I'll never forget that night. We were in the middle of our *ahem* magnificent feast when Janine took the call." Ray explained.

I nodded to Janine, feeling the need to set this scene up.

"So out of nowhere, Janine hits the alarm bell and she shouts out--"

"WE GOT OOOOOONE!!!!" Janine suddenly hollered behind where Peter was seated on the couch, causing him to jump and stumble onto the floor, just missing the table. Asriel muffled his laughter with both hands.

"Janiiiiine! Don't do that!" He whined.

"Couldn't resist the nostalgia." Janine mused, filing her nails, nonchalantly.

"So we head over there and did an investigation and what should we run into, but this guy." Ray pointed to where Slimer was gorging himself on the remnants of the fridge.

"Hmm?" He pointed to himself with the same "Who, me?" Expression I gave Papyrus.

"Your first experience getting slimed, Peter!" Ray was taking it a little too well.

"So we trap this thing in the ballroom and we just go to town with our equipment, doing thousands of dollars worth of collateral damage until we finally wrangle this little spud face into a trap. Oh yeah. We came. We saw. We kicked its--"

"Finish that sentence and I'm going to make you pay into Asriel's swear jar. For the record it fills up fast around people back home." I turned to Egon. "How much did he take the hotel manager for again?"

Egon subtly held up five fingers. Exactly the same way he signaled Peter that night at the Sedgewick. I gave a loud whistle. "Five thousand dollars. That's a lot of money in this era."

"And it just snowballed from there."

I hadn't noticed but thinking about the old days had gradually started feeling less like a lengthy anecdote and more like a bunch of friends shooting the stuff, giving a spoiler review of a movie than a life's experience.

"Everyone I meet has such wonderful stories to tell about their past." Asriel seemed so absorbed in the story. He was enjoying it and that was good.

"So...what happened? There was a twist to it all, wasn't there?"

"Well after a while it got so busy that we had to hire more help."

"And that's where you came in, Mr. Zeddemore?"

"That's right, little man. I was an out of work construction worker. Kinda wanted to break away from my dad's plan for my future. It just wasn't my thing, y'know? So I see this ad in the paper and I go in for an interview. I get this verbal questionaire and a written one asking about whether I believed in all this ghost stuff. I told Janine that day...if there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say. So Ray and Peter just out of the blue tell me I'm hired and they show me the ropes."

"Seems like things just got better for you."

"Not all of it did. We got a visit from the E.P.A. That's Environmental Protection Agency. Some suit named Walter J. Peck. We'd learn to hate him pretty quick."

"Oh. The "some-kind-of-rodent"."

"That's...not exactly the words we used but I don't feel like paying into the swear jar."

"Oh."

"Our legal troubles were the least of our worries. It was getting crowded in our previous containment unit and all my data showed something big coming."

"Oh boy. The Twinkie Metaphor." Winston rolled his eyes.

It was a short explanation about a 35 foot long Twinkee that weighed about 600 lbs.

"That really IS a big Twinkie." Asriel nodded. A pause. "By the way...what is a Twinkie?"

As if on cue, Slimer offered a pack of said sponge cakes.

"Uh...no thanks."

More for the spud, anyway. Ugh. Ray's been teaching him to show his food again, hasn't he?

"A couple weeks go by and Peter continued investigating Miss Barrett's apartment. Ray investigated the Hall of Records for details on the building while I searched Toban's Spirit guide. The night before everything went wrong Peter was supposed to meet with her. A name had turned up in the research when investigating the word "Zuul". Gozer the Gozerian--a Sumerian God of Destruction." Egon continued.

"A god?" Asriel kinda shrunk back. The word had resonated badly with him from Chara's insistence on trying to make Asriel an Absolute God of Hyperdeath.

"A major paranormal event took place at the apartment complex. Two of Gozer's minions chose Miss Barrett and Mr. Tully as physical vessels. Her Gatekeeper and Keymaster." Ray explained.

"The next day Walter Peck returned with a court order to have us shut down.  They pulled the plug on the Power Grid and the Containment Unit exploded. And then everything just spiraled out of control." Egon crossed his arms and bowed his head, looking rather dismal.

I knew that day. I knew it with infamy. I watched from behind the scenes. I felt a tremendous guilt that I was spared arrest. All that hard work and all that equipment lost. And that was second compared to the MASSIVE amount of spiritual turbulence that had just flooded out of HQ and straight toward Shador's large, superconductive antenna at the time of Dana and Louis' apartment building.

"We were arrested while the city plunged into chaos." Winston looked just as displeased. "I mean I just work with this guys and I wasn't even there!"

"Way to show company loyalty, Winston."

"While in jail, Egon and I explained everything. What the whole thing was about. More than sixty years ago, a man obsessed with the paranormal named Ivo Shandor began a secret society. A cult that resurrected Gozer-worshipping. He had an elaborate plan for bringing about the end of the world. When he passed on he had close to a thousand followers. The rituals they preformed were designed to bring Gozer the Gozerian to our world as a last resort to destroy it." Ray continued.

"It sounds...a lot like what Chara-Wraith wanted to do." Asriel looked down.

"This world...all worlds. We don't have any right to end them before their time."

Janine gently rubbed Asriel's shoulder while wearing a patient smile.

"So we went to see the Mayor about it all. City Hall was in a panic over what was going on all over the city."

"It was a pretty nasty conversation with Peck trying to drive us into the ground. But you know...Lenny knows a good thing when he sees, it am I right?"

"Considering we must've sounded more like the mad men than he did."

I grinned. "Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky, rivers and seas boiling, forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanos. The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifices, dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria!"

"Uh...all of that sounds really, really scary!" Asriel wrapped his ears around his face and shuddered.

"Easy little guy. Tell him what happened next."

"Well. Being the heroes that we were, the Major did what he needed to do and let us kick some ghost." Peter grinned ear to ear, resting his head in the back of his palms, elbows outward.

"Not every day you get a police and army escort to spook central." Ray looked just as fired up.

I even thought I saw Egon crack a smile.

"Yeah!" Asriel was totally sold by this point.

"Well it seemed like the Goze' didn't want no Ghostbusters climbin' no building. So what's he do? He shakes us up with an earthquake and triers to drop us like a bad habit. I mean...only a Gozerian chooses NOW and picks NEW YORK. So the G-man wanted to play rough, huh? Well we could play rough, too!"

Oh jeeze, Peter. The face (or the mouth) of the Ghostbusters knew how to milk a crowd...or a lone fan.

"You gonna skip the part where we climbed 22 flights of stairs wearing heavy proton colliders or you just gonna keep showboating?" Winston asked.

"Hey come on, man. This is no way to shine in the spotlight." Peter whispered, holding the back of his hand to the side of his mouth, trying to stay discrete.

"Ahem. By the time we got to the top floor it was already too late. The gateway had been opened and our possessed human victims had already taken on their Terror Dog forms." Egon continued. "Through the gateway there was an other-dimensional structure akin to a pyramid. Crystalline in appearance. A long staircase leading up to it. The doors opened and Gozer made its appearance."

"You seemed pretty surprised that Gozer appeared as a woman, Ray. Winston" Peter jabbed.

"I...I didn't know. I mean how were any of us to know."

"So I thought Gozer was supposed to be a man. Sue me."

"Guys. The story?" I reminded.

"Here's a life's lesson, little goat bro. If someone asks you if you're a god. Do NOT say no. If someone...say a god asks you if YOU'RE a god? You say YES!" Winston gave Ray a glare. Asriel looked confused but he decided to roll with it.

Hard to imagine as it may be, I was not comfortable with Winston speaking so casually with Asriel about gods. Subject change before I start thinking about Hyperdeath....d'oh, too late.

"Eh-heh. (Oh boy. I'm marked for life.)"  Ray whimpered.

"We opened fire with full streams but she turned out to be quite nimble. When we fired again, we neutronized her. Complete particle reversal." Egon continued. "However..."

"Neutronized?"

"Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously as every molecule in your body explodes at the speed of light." I clarified for Asriel.

"It's wha's known as total protonic reversal." I added.

"Oh. That's bad, isn't it." He looked kinda pale from that.

"Unfortunately when you're dealing with a god, lack of a corporeal form is...trivial."

"That's...when we were given the choice." Peter looked at Ray. Then Winston. Then Egon. By that point all eyes were on him and Ray was kinda shrinking down in his seat. "The choice to pick Gozer's Destructor form which would destroy the world."

"What did you do, Mr. Stantz?"

Blunt, Asriel. Blunt...but deserved.

"You remember the giant marshmallow man in the containment unit I said we'd explain another time?"

"Yeah? ........ohhhhhhhhh."

Yet the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man in the containment unit was something somewhat unexplanable to me. It was what ultimately happened that left me wondering when and how they managed to put him in a ghost trap.

"Don't I get credit for trying to think of the most harmless thing I could imagine?   I mean it could have been so much worse like a giant robot made of tanks, fighter jets, and submarines made of nuclear missiles!"

That sound like something out of one of Violet's mangas. Or an episode of Johnny Test.

"So when you got a 100 foot marshmallow man stepping on churches and is bellowing fire from being ignited by your own proton beams, you're kind in a bad place. So what's a Ghostbuster or four to do? Egon, I'm sure you want to take it from here."

"There's...something I may have neglected to explain about our equipment. Has Dr. Arcade told you about the one rule to Ghostbusting?"

Asriel shook his head.

"Don't cross the streams."

"Because...Total Protonic Reversal?"

"Correct."

"So...you crossed the streams?"

"Mind like a steel trap this one." Peter mused. Has he been talking Raphael Hamato, one of Splinter's four students/sons (whichever continuity)?

"And that's how we blew the top floors of the New York high rise, closed an interdimensional gateway, dumped thousands of gallons of melted marshmallow on Walter J. Peck and saved the city! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!"

I still never got an explanation how that much melted marshmallow man ended up on Peck...and yet there was still something left to put in the trap. It was possible Gozer's presence had left his Destructor Form when the explosion slammed the gates shut on his dimension, leaving only an empty shell with a...living(?) presence. Seriously. What made the big guy his own person? What gave him his own sense of self?

But that question would remain unanswered as I snapped back to Peter's grandstanding from his "epic" story conclusion.

Peter was standing on the recliner in a "conquering" pose.

"Get down from there, Dr. Venkman." Janine scolded.

Sub-Entry 189: "A Little Sightseeing Before the Return Home":
Once Asriel's clothes were cleaned up and he made a switch out, we stayed just a bit longer for a bit of a tour of the city.

Asriel and I donned our human guises and let the guys conduct the tour.

Of land marks and locations of days past such as the New York Library, the Sedgewick Hotel, and the apartment highrise in Central Park West where Shandor's alter and gateway to Gozer's realm had once stood at the top.

"...and they still won't give you a library card, Peter."

"And yet they treat you like a celebrity, Egon."

"Reading books is its own reward. Some just recognize that more than others."

"So when do we get to visit your humble abode--"

Asriel's expression fell.

"Way to go, silver tongue." Peter scolded.

"Oh. I forgot. Sorry."

"It's okay, Dr. Stantz. I miss them all but...I don't know...maybe you could visit us back in Miranda City some day?"

"The City of De Midian seems like it would be an opportunity to study the undead and paranormal of a different world, Ray."

"Swell. I always wanted to be knee-deep in zombies." Winston folded his arms.

"There's more to it than just zombies, Mr. Zeddemore. And besides, it's not like they're all mindless."

"Egon, I'm trusting you to keep a close watch on the Chara-Wraith. I don't trust her...or it. I know there's no danger of her escaping as long as the Containment Unit remains powered but...I can't help but feel like there's an unseen danger we're not aware of."

"Your instincts have been right on target before, though they lack any scientific basis. Still. It's prudent to keep on guard."

We of course visited the Statue of Liberty.

"Do I want to know how you got clearance after the City almost bankrupted itself getting her back onto her pedestal again?"

"I have my ways." Peter was rather coy about it.

Egon eyed the graffiti on the wall.

'Venkman was here.' I let out a sigh.

"Just couldn't resist putting your name on a national landmark, could you?"

Further searching revealed a box with an NES Advantage joystick in it, modded with chips and wiring as well as a cassette recorder with a tape of Howard Huntsberry's remix of "Higher and Higher". (Music Link)

"Didn't anybody tell you to clear your old junk out of a monument after having gallons of mood slime, miles of audio cable, and hundreds of loudspeakers removed from it?" I shook my head.

"Wow." Asriel was too amazed by it all to pay heed to our conversation.

"This world is just as amazing as Fontraile. Are all worlds this incredible?"

"Well. Some more than others. Some less dangerous than others." I acknowledged.

"Chara would have loved to see all this. Maybe...this would have convinced her that humanity wasn't all bad."

"It's nice to think that there was always possibility."

"Where do we go from here?" Asriel asked.

"I don't know.  We have risen to some incredible heights, lately. In this case, literally." I said as I peered out over the city from the openings in the crown.

"This is what freedom feels like. Right?" Asriel closed his eyes as he took in the surroundings of the top of the statue. The smell of the air and the sounds of the slight wind.

"Right."

Eventually we returned to Ghostbusters HQ.

Sub-Entry 190: "Look Homeward, Asriel":
Thomas Wolfe forgive me for using the title of your book for this sub-entry. If you understand this reference, I congratulate you.

"It was good of you to drop by. If we don't see you again, we'll be thinking of you." Egon acknowledged.

"Goodbye, Dr. Spengler! Dr. Stantz! Dr. Venkman! Mr. Zeddemore! Miss Melnitz! Mr. Tully!"

And who should pop in but...

"And you too, Slimer! Sorry if I don't shake hands or hug, but mom will be mad if I come back in slime-covered clothes! So...just a bow?" Asriel bowed as he had been taught at the dojo.

"I'll give the others your best. I imagine I'll be dropping in on Emmett before long so..."

"If I don't see Dr. Brown at the next think tank session, pass on the usual message."

"Understood."

"Before we go...do you mind if I umm...try that fire pole?" Asriel asked, a little sheepishly.

"Go for it, little guy!"

Asriel ran up the steps to the third floor, took a deep breath and gave a battle cry yell, wrapped his arms around the pole and slid down with a slight spiraling motion.

"This is great!  Volt you gotta try this pole!"

"Already have." I said with a wink.

I waved one last time and gave one last goodbye.

"Well. See you all!"

"Aww come on. Get outta here, ya big goof." Peter chuckled.

I rolled up the window and started Ecto 1A up and pulled out of the adjoining garage.

"Volt? How are we going to get back home from here?"

"Don't worry. I got I got it covered."

I clicked on the beacon for Command.

"Welcome to Speedy Ant Black Market teleportation, time travel, and dimension crossing."

Now THAT was an obscure reference I did't think even Command would know. I doubt ANYONE would know this one.

"You already got the goods. You know where, when, and how to pick us up and where, when, and how to drop us off."

"Yes I do. By the way for future reference, it's Kommand with a "K". Like Mobile Armored Strike Kommand--"

"Ugh...you and your references."

"But that's my charm. Anyway. Keep my past self out of trouble, kay?"

"Past self?" Asriel cocked his head. "You're...!"

"Shhhhh. No spoilers. And don't ask don't tell. It's a secret to everybody!"

"I won't tell." Asriel smiled. "And...thanks."

"Thank you, Cinnamon Roll."

"But can you please stop calling me that?"

"No can do. I christened thee, so humor me."

"I guess I never really had a choice in the matter, huh?"

"Let's not go there."

"Agreed. The Wraith is put to rest. Let's just leave it in the past."

"Done and done."

We drove on. By the time we got to the appointed place it was already dusk. Nightfall was upon us very soon. Surprisingly we drew no attention, despite the Ecto 1A as our vehicle of choice.

"We're here."

It was a barren area, far from the city and far from civilization. I think by this point I had crossed into New Jersey. Yup. Sounded about right. I think Peter was starting to rub off on me when I was taking shots at New Jersey. Might be a habit to break in the future. Oh well.

"Now we wait."

It didn't take long before I noticed the glows pop up on the ground. And from them, the familiar O-ring gateways appeared.

"Our ride's here. Back to the X-Vault."

I revved the engine a bit and we both took a moment to drop our human guises.

"They were all really nice people. I hope we can visit them again some day."

"Some day. All things in moderation. There are still a lot of other worlds out there. But for now. Let's just go home and settle in."

"Right now, home feels like the only place I want to be right now." (Music Link)

We made sure our seat belts were secure before I peeled rubber and sent the car flying through the gateways as they lit up in sequence. Once the last one was traversed...

A flash.

And then instantly we found ourselves sailing down the track toward the X-Vault entrance.

The car came to a stop as the aircraft career type catapult snagged the tow hitch in back and slowed our speed before we barely tapped the spring-loaded bumper in the vehicle carousel. The track rotated and directed the Ectomobile down the chain-driven pulley system in the ground before it relocated us back to the spot we had originally came from. The carriage rotated 180 degrees and let us back up into the spot. Conky 2000 was waiting for us.

"Welcome b-b-back, Volt Arcade-de-de-de."

"Good to be back, Conky."

We got out and I pocketed the keys. Conky followed us back over to his spot by the lab tables.

"You look like you're ready for downtime. Ready to recharge?"

"R-R-Ready!"

"G'night, Conky."

"Goo-goo-goo-good night, Volt-t-t-t!"

I pulled his switch down and powered him off then yanked the power cord and plugged it into the wall.

I sighed.

"Keep that bracer with you at all times, Azzy. You probably won't need it around town or anywhere else on your world. But it keeps the time pretty well. Something I corrected from Asmyth's design." I said with a cocky smugness.

"Mmm-hmm." He nodded with a smile.

"So. Feel better now that...things have been taken care of."

"I feel...closure. I guess that's the right word?"

"That's the right word."

"Okay, Kommand. Beam us out of here."

"Got it, Commander."

And low and behold were were back at the garage. Violet was long gone and Rotor was trying his best to reassemble the Deloreon.

"Rotor, why don't you take the rest of the night off. This thing's not going anywhere. And it's not going to be fixed in a day. Maybe a couple but...y'know."

"Yeah. I guess so."

"Say howdy to Skeeter for me!"

"Will do, Asriel." And Rotor was off.

Asriel turned to head off for home.

"Wait. I'll drop you off at home. But first..."

"Hmm?"

"I thought it over...and I decided to give this to you a little early."

I opened the gull-wing door of the Deloreon and rooted around until I found the pink object bearing the Mattel logos and a rather flowery decor; obviously meant for little girls.

"You'll...probably want to have it painted and redecorated but...it's still functional. Marty's since...traded up for one more him."

"What...is it?"

"It's a hover board." I dropped it to the ground and it stopped inches above the pavement, just hovering there.

"Go on. Hop on. But don't get too carried away with it. I'm still going to need Gadget to teach you how to ride."

Asriel nervously stepped on and tried to balance.

"Wow...this is really...really..."

"Just say it."

"Really COOL!" His face lit up despite waving his arms around to maintain his balance.

"You'll get better at it. But once you do, I think you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of it. But first Violet will have to get you protective gear. Helmet, knee and elbow pads. That sort of thing."

Asriel giggled with a bright smile before hopping off and stowing it in his inventory.

"Thanks, Volt. You're so amazing!" He hugged me tightly.

"Well. Above average." I said modestly.

We headed over to my shop, hopped into the 57' Chevy and I drove him to Scott and Callie's place, dropping him off. I honked the horn a bit until I saw the light come on and the door open. Asriel waved to me before giving Callie and Scott hugs and kisses.

"This is what it's all about." I smiled. "I wish you could enjoy this, Chara. The real you, I mean."

I drove back to my shop, parked, closed the garage and went in, and collapsed on my cot.

Back at Scott and Callie's home...

Asriel finished brushing his teeth and getting his pajamas on before heading to his room. It was still pretty modest but it had furnishings and the first semblance of toys and electronics--a TV and game consoles and a DVR and such.

He however paid attention to none of it as he stopped immediately before his dresser where something new had been added. A holding display for a pair of heart-shaped lockets.

Asriel reached into his pocket and pulled out Chara's locket and placed it into the holder marked "Chara". And then he slipped his own locket off and fit it in place next to it in the holder marked "Asriel".

He kissed the display gently before placing it back on the dresser.

"Good night, Chara. I love you." He whispered before climbing into bed. He laid his head back, closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. (Music Link)

For the first time, he and I both had pleasant dreams. The nightmares had finally stopped. And the world seemed brighter from that moment on.

It wouldn't be the end of the adventures. Not by a long shot, in all likelihood. But for now we needed the peace more than ever.

Until next time...

Chapter 20

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