Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at 2:35 PM

Dr. Ray Stantz leaned back in his chair behind his massive oak desk at Ghostbusters International Headquarters in New York City. He hated the huge office and executive furnishings, Which is why he rarely spent time in the Times Square sky scrapper. He felt more at home in the crowed, cluttered surroundings of the Tribecca Firehouse which has been the home of the Original Ghostbusters office for the last 20 years. Today was something special though, and they needed a lot of room the turnout had been greater then expected.

Ray continued to mill through the case file on his laptop. He clicked on the image of a folder with the words “BACCARDIO FILES” written over it. The page switched to a image of handwritten notes from former Ghostbusters-New Jersey CEO, Bill Malkin. “What are we missing? Where does this Baccardio draw his strength from? And where is Mr. Malkin when we need him.” Ray thought out loud.

The door to ray’s office swung open and in the doorway stood the GBI Director of Ghostbusting Operations and newly appointed Field Commander of the Baccardio Mission, Rich Roy, in his sleek black special operations tactical flightsuit.

“Well?” asked Ray impatiently.

“I’ve left like 30 voicemails on Bill’s cell, nothing. Either he’s ignoring me or he just vanished. And I don’t think he’d ignore me.”

Ray and Rich arrived on the dais in the conference room. They glanced out and noticed a few familiar faces sitting in the front row. Dr. William Ketchum from the Maryland Ghostbusters, Dr. Greg Justis from the Detroit Division, Kevin Kemarly of the Onarga Ghostbusters, Dr. Kyle Peterson from North Carolina, and Dr. Andy Harness from Tennessee. Behind them sat some of there staffs and a few others busters from franchises that haven’t been in as close contact with GBI over the last few months. Rich smiled and thought that either they all realized this was a serious and imminent threat to the world or they were seeking some sort of fame and glamour.

Dr. Stantz tapped the mic behind the podium and began to address the crowd, “My Fellow Ghostbusters we are assembled today to discuss the our plan to stop Baccardio from destroying this world. We believe his agenda is to falsely cause the apocalypse and begin the war on the etheric plane which will bring about the rule of the underworld. We cannot let this happen! Ladies and gentlemen, Rich Roy.”

The massed crowd clapped and Rich took the podium. “I know many of you do not remember the NJ Ghostbusters Alliance formed between GBNJ and JZGB, but we had the world’s first para-forensics lab run briefly by Michael DiQuinzio, the world’s first para-chemist. Well I have asked Mike to examine the crystal ectoplasm found by Kevin Kemarly. It seems, according to, Mr. DiQuinzio that the substance when super heated to 1400 degrees within a vacuum, That the substance will become a liquid and remain that way when cooled to room temperature. Then when coated over an object it masks the PKE signature of the object and sends off the PKE signature of Baccardio’s minions. He thinks it will work like when hunters use deer urine to mask there smell.”

The drawbridge-like Oak conference room doors swing open, and the former GBNJ CEO, Bill Malkin, stormed to the stage. Bill was wearing his traditional khaki flightsuits.com filghtsuit with “MALKIN” emblazoned across the left breast and the “No-Ghost” symbol on the right arm. His light grey arm pads contrasted slightly with the black pistol belt adorned with the many gadgets of a ghostbuster. The only sound in the large conference room was the stiff leather of Bill’s paratrooper boots creaking as he strode up to Rich. Once he reached the base of the platform he salutes Rich and Dr. Stantz and turns toward the crowd. “Are we Ghostbusters?”

“What’s bugging ya Bill?” came the voice of Tennesse’s Dr. Andy Harness.

“Baccardio, Baccardio bugs me!” replied Bill heroicly.

Rich motions for Bill to take the microphone. Bill approached the mic. “Baccardio has made a critical error and the time for our attack is now. We can no longer stand by and let him lead us and grow more powerful. We know that the Four Horsemen are not complete. Death is missing. We can’t wait until he is at full strength with all four of the horsemen by his side. We must strike now!” The crowd swells around Bill’s words.

Dr. Greg Justis stands and raises his hand. Bill nods toward his colleague from Michigan. “Bill, What about the positive slime blowers? Can’t they break the hold Baccardio has?”

Bill replies, “Good point Greg, yes and no. The mood slime has reversing effects of slime of less Psychokenetic and psychomagnetheric properties. That is to say Baccardio’s crystallized ectoplasmic residue is more powerful then any before and does not seem to have any psychomagnetheric qualities. And to complicate matters further the GBI network PKE satellites we have noticed that there is a massive reading in the center of the Sickman’s Mill property. The waves of PKE appear to be emanating from one point, and PKE generator, if you will. If we can neutralize the source we can then use the positive slime to hose down the area.”

Kevin Kemarly stands, “Excuse me, Bill can we just charge in there and and find the source and destroy it, we seem to have enough troops?”

Bill with out hesitation responds. “Unfortunately no. The PKE generator is also producing a force field that only allows Baccardio’s minions to enter. This brings me to my next point. Our plan. I propose we get some Halloween costumes from Party City and use the liquid crystal ectoplasm to treat them and send a small three person stealth team to Sickman’s mills for 24 hours to find a way to neutralize the PKE generator, while the rest of troops prepare for our offensive 24 hours later. But we need to launch the undercover team by Friday, any later we lose our advantage.” Bill takes a deep breath. “We need some volunteers for the stealth mission. I will not lie, it will be vary dangerous. We can’t send you in with weapons, and we don’t know if the PKE mask will work. Any takers?”

Bills looks around as the crowd begins speaking amongst themselves, when Bill’s friend and former co-worker Rob Wurm stands up. “You know I’m always in for a good fight, but I don’t know much about investigating.”

At that point Pangelina Flowers of GBNJ’s investigation corps, stands. Pangelina looks up to Bill smiles and says, “We’re only gonna have one chance at this and I’m the best paranormal investigator you have.”

From the back of the room Dr. Mike DiQuinzio stands up. “I think I better tag along. As a chemist/pharmacist I might be able to unlock the molecular composition of the ectoplasm.”

Bill nods to Mike. “Good call.” He then turns to address the crowd. “Alright, now who wants help Rich and I get a piece of this Monty Python reject?”

Immediately the hands of Kyle Peterson, Kevin Kemarly, Andy Harness, and Will Ketchum shoot into the air. Bill nods toward them. Then the massive doors swing open and the shadows of 3 men in full ghostbusting gear walk in. The doors shut and cut off the super bright hallway lights. As everyone’s eyes adjust the forms of Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore emerge.

Venkman looks toward the podium and winks. “Yo Malkin, Did you really think I’d let you handle this Baccardi Rum guy all buy yourself? We have sort of a reputation when it comes to preventing the end of the world, ya know.”

“I guess we do this the hard way.” countered Ray. “Is the conference room ready?”

Friday, October 22, 2004 at 8:39 PM

Pangelina pulls her car, a 1993 Mercury Tracer sporting the trademarked green and blue colors of of her original paranormal job with Mystery Incorporated, on to Sandhill Road and stops.

“I don’t think we should drive all the way there. We don’t wanna ruin the plan.”

Mike nods in acknowledgement. He is busy studying his reports on the slime spray to make sure it is going to work. Pangelina takes a deep breath in through her nose to clear the passage a little. Over the last few days she felt herself starting to get sick and with the lack of flu shots available, she was praying it wasn’t the flu. Mike took notice and reached into his duffle and pulled out a bottle of Vicks Vapor Rub and handed to her. She took a little and rubbed it under her nose and already she could feel relief. Mike slipped the bottle back into his pack.

After the almost 3 mile hike to the bottom of Sandhill Rd., Pangelina, Rob, and Mike arrive at Sickman’s Mill. It was kinda hard to miss due to the intense green glowing force-field surrounding the area. Pangelina immediately noticed that the 3rd floor exterior door was open and a pulsating light was emanating from within.

“That must be the source of the field.” she noted pointing to the light. “We have to get in there.”

As she spoke those words Mike produced the halloween costumes from his bag and began spraying them with the refined Baccardio-Slime solution. He places a black robe with Scream mask to the side for himself, and gives Rob a similar black robe and a rubber skull mask. Then he slyly hands Pangelina the “Miniskirt Witch” costume, which not only contains a very short, very see-through skirt, but a small spider web print tube top. Pangelina looks at the costume then takes Mike’s robe and mask.

After they get into costume, the group of 2 Robed ghouls and a 25 year old Italian guy in a tube top and miniskirt approach the glowing field. The hole in the field begins to form and the miniskirt witch speaks, “See I told you this would work.”

“Good job Mike, let’s just hope you can find a way to stop it altogether.” replied Pangelina.

>> October 23, 2004