Chicago

[gone_byebye]

The door opens onto a construction scene as the sun is setting. "This is Navy Pier," says Ray. "The Robert Mackenzie was supposed to come in here back when it was still a serious commercial facility. We're kind of assuming that's where it's trying to come back to."

Comments

[gone_byebye]

Ray nods and hastens off down the corridor.

The glyphs are... how do we put this... mangled. The original enchantments laid when the door was first hung were well crafted, meant to last for centuries before needing renewal, but Peck was of the belief that the level of power he required for his plans could only be accessed by opening the door. He didn't try to reroute the ley lines, or shunt any of the energy anywhere. He just went about trying as brutally as he could to get that door open. Carlos is going to have to do some rerouting, unless he's capable of restoring what had previously existed.

[mago_sonriente]

He's not. He doesn't have the power for that. His strength lay in manipulation of more subtle energies, of using what he had with extraordinary skill for someone his age. Harry was a cannon, but he was a sniper and this was a sniper's job.

He pulls out some chalk and starts working.

[gone_byebye]

It's a bit like trying to grab hold of a garden hose that's been hooked up to a too-strong flow; there's a feel of thrashing to the energies here, a certain spasmodic sense of almost-direction to the flow. Fortunately, it's only a constant flow of power. It doesn't increase its strength or add to the fight as Carlos works. Picks up speed, maybe, since a good straight course will do that to any flow.

[mago_sonriente]

A good thing he's used to fighting, and that he's gotten used to wild and whacky magic flows from dealing with the trainees this summer. Plus, he's something of a water specialist.

His middle name is flow.

And Alejandro, but the point stands.

He has to clench his teeth a bit, pull out his unfinished gloves for a bit, use his staff and the sword for a few spots (redirect here, cut there... it's like surgery except without the high fees)--











"You can come out," he says, sounding a little weary. "I got it."

[gone_byebye]

Ray pokes his head out from behind the corner. "Are you okay?" he asks. "I had the PKE meter out and the readings plummeted all of a sudden."

That would be because the backscatter's gone, really.

[mago_sonriente]

"That's because things are back to how they should be," he explains as he shakes off some of the fatigue. "And I've put my 'guns' away, so to speak."

[gone_byebye]

"Oh good," Ray says. "Thank you. Can I get you anything? I mean, do you need a drink or something before we go back to the lake? You look like you could use it."

[mago_sonriente]

"When we get back to the bar, dos cervezas and a basket of nachos," he says, but he shakes his head for the moment.

"Just some water."

Water is good.

[gone_byebye]

"Not a problem," Ray says. "There's a soda machine back here-" He disappears another moment, then returns. "Catch," he says, and tosses Carlos two bottles of Dasani.

"I'll bother you about the details when everything's done."

[mago_sonriente]

He catches both bottles (though his staff has to go in the crook of his arm) and opens one before chucking it back at lightning speed. He only breathes once before going onto the next one.

And finishing it too.

[gone_byebye]

There'll be a third tossed his way before Ray leads the way back to the elevator and thence to street level. "That was incredible," he says. "I don't think I've ever seen anybody pull off that kind of PKE manipulation that quickly."

[mago_sonriente]

He gives Ray a grin.

"That's cause you've never worked with me. Or, you know, a Council-level wizard. You don't get to be a part of the club for collecting bottle caps, you know what I mean?"

[gone_byebye]

"No kidding," Ray says. "Man, we really could've used someone like one of you guys in that one universe where Ivo Shandor summoned both Namtar and Ereshkigal to try and wipe New York off the map. What a mess that was."

[mago_sonriente]

"That's a whole lot of Mesopotamian to be flinging at a guy who just did what I did," he points out.

[gone_byebye]

"I didn't say it was only going to be you," Ray answers. "I meant as backup. This was a universe where my colleagues and I had never lost our grant, so there were no Ghostbusters, so I had to get us some outside help in a hurry when things went to pot. And when I say 'in a hurry' I mean 'after getting thrown off the top of the building'. I'm just lucky there's a portal to Milliways off floor 23 of that building in all the universes I've been to so far- anyway."

[mago_sonriente]

Blink.

Blink blink blink.

"After the beer, man. After the beer."

[gone_byebye]

Ray nods. "All right," he says, and keeps on walking.

The darkness is drawing in close by the time they reach the pier again. "THERE you are," says Venkman. "We were beginning to wonder if you got eaten or something."

"No, no, we're fine," Ray assures the other Ghostbusters, and the slightly suspicious-looking Coast Guard types. "Just settling a few matters that were feeding into the Mackenzie's situation. Does everybody wanna introduce themselves?"

He figures, as Peter and Egon and Winston lean over to make introductions, that it's probably safest that way.

[mago_sonriente]

Carlos puts out his hand.

"I go by Ramirez," he says to all and sundry. "Hi."

[gone_byebye]

There's handshaking, and an introduction round of "Pete Venkman, Winston Zeddmore... Egon..." before Ray can warn Peter off giving full names. Then Egon steps forward. "We've got about half an hour left before the Mackenzie usually manifests," he says. "I've been monitoring the incoming psychokinetic energy flows, though. Ever since whatever it was you and Ray did at the Palmer House, the incoming energy's slowed to a trickle. I may be wrong, but it looks as if the ship isn't likely to make its appearance until significantly closer to the time of its original foundering."

He doesn't sound as if he's wrong.

"Whether or not it manifests, we were hoping to put the spirits of the Mackenzie's crew to rest once and for all," he continues. "If you have any advice on the matter, we'd be glad to hear it."

[mago_sonriente]

"I don't want to step over the bounds," he says. "If you guys know what you're doing dealing with the ghosts now that I've fixed the weird energy mess, I won't stick my nose in."

"Personally? I've never done an exorcism that big."

[gone_byebye]

"We don't normally deal in capturing sentient ghosts," Egon says. "When we encounter them we usually have to talk them into vacating the plane of the living."

"In fact, the only one of us here who's even come close to that kind of exorcism is standing right next to you," says Peter, nodding meaningfully at Ray. "In Paris, remember?"

"That hardly counts, Peter. A, we had the Eiffel Tower to work with, and B, the mechanics involved were mostly Egon's idea."

"Still. It's not like we've got Yuna here."

"Don't I know it," Ray says wearily. Then he turns to Ramirez. "Sorry. There's a young lady in the Bar whose particular specialty is the sending of bound or reluctant dead into the afterlife. She was there to help out last October when the Baron showed up- anyway, ignore the stuff about Paris. The situation's completely different here. As far as I can tell, this is a simple Chinese ghost dance writ extremely large. I honestly think that if we can work out a way to dispel the majority of the manifesting storm's strength, the Mackenzie should be able to break out of its loop and finish what it started all those years ago. Like it says in the song, if I don't come home tonight, I will make it home someday."

Winston's not commenting just yet. He's holding out one hand and looking up to the sky. "Rain's coming," he murmurs.

[mago_sonriente]

Carlos nods.

"I can feel it."

He feels the energy of the storm. The--

The energy of the storm. If he can loop the energy of the storm to stop the storm.

"And I think I can do it. If, uh, you guys don't mind."

[gone_byebye]

"By all means," says Venkman, backing up with an elaborate gesture of one arm. "Anything else you need from us for this?"

Ray is talking intently with one of the higher-ranking Coast Guard officers on the scene, a stout woman with iron-grey hair and blue eyes. It's a rare occasion when that kind of conversation from him doesn't leave the other person's eyes glazed over, but apparently the Coast Guard's people are made of sterner stuff than most.

[mago_sonriente]

Carlos looks at all of them for a moment before breathing in and wincing.

"Uh, either I can pull this off or I can't. That's about it."

[gone_byebye]

( Thirty-two men on a Great Lakes boat quit the pier at Thunder Bay
Twenty-eight thousand tons of coal on a cold November day )
"Okay, no problem," says Peter. "Spengs, there anything you think we need to be doing?"
( Eight hundred feet and ten more long, eighty feet across
Navy Pier Chicago, our destination through the frost )
"The best we can do right now is monitor, Peter," says Egon. "Ray?"
( At two AM on the second waves were runnin' up to forty feet
Winds were blowing sixty miles, our engines crankin' heat )
"Huh?" says Ray, looking over his shoulder. "Oh- sorry, Egon. Captain, are we set?"
( At 3:13 we took a wave, our wheelhouse left behind )
"I could use another radio operator, frankly," says the grey-haired woman. "We're a little short in that department right now."
( The radar slipped beneath the waves and we were runnin' blind )
"That'll be me," says Winston, stepping forward. "I wasn't a signal man in the Army, but I know my stuff all right."
( Hear me call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight )
As the Coast Guard captain leads Winston over to the nearest still-functioning radio she's got on hand, the skies begin to rumble.
( I will make it home some day )