(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

May 29, 2004
14 North Moore Street
Manhattan

The police of New York City's mounted division had long since learned to ignore their neighbors in the old Hook & Ladder No. 8 building on the side of North Moore. It just wasn't worth their while to pay attention to anything that didn't go far enough to frighten the horses.

New Yorkers are really, really good at ignoring things. Even when it's two men appearing on the sidewalk between one moment and the next.

"Well, here we are," Ray said, looking up at the familiar sign from the first movie. "Home sweet Firehall. You good, Venkman?"

Comments

[doc-venkman.livejournal.com]

Peter stared at everything. Yep, he was home. Ok, the cars looked different than they did in 1991, a bit sleeker in designs. But overall, it was home.

He knelt down on the sidewalk, half tempted to kiss the pavement. He laughed and whooped, "I love ya, New York! You're beautiful!"

And someone down the street, yells out their window, "Hey, shut the fuck up!"

Peter just grinned, and stood back up. Yep, it was New York alright.

He smiles back at Ray, "Damn good, Stantz."

[gone_byebye]

Ray grins. "Fantastic," he says. He briefly sets down his bags and trots over to a nearby newspaper machine, peering at the date on the front page of the Post. "Friday, May 28, 2004- looks like we're good all 'round. Wanna go in, or did you want to hit somewhere for lunch first?"

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Peter thought about it, but then his stomach reminded that he hadn't eaten yet.

"Uh, I'll say food first. Didn't get a chance to grab anything before we left, and better this way. Should be some good places close by in fact."

[gone_byebye]

"Of course there are. This is New York. There's always somewhere to eat... c'mon." Ray grabbed up his bags and started westward along Varick Street at a good, brisk pace. "Lo mein sound good to you? All I had for breakfast was cereal. I could do with renewing my old familiar acquaintance with the glutamate family of chemicals."

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He nods, "Yeah some Lo Mein and eggrolls would be good."

[gone_byebye]

Four blocks from the corner of Varick and North Moore, the graffiti gets very interesting, in the sense that you need a multilingual background in order to comprehend even the slightest bit of it. "I know just the place," Ray says as he leads the way. "The restaurants around here open and close at the drop of a hat, but Ming's opened last January, and they've been doing really well ever since. We order from them a lot- it's not like we have a lot of time to cook, you know? Busy as hell. The owner's a nice guy, though, does a great job on the pork fried rice..."

Nattering on as he is, Ray's glances north and south as they cross the streets are perfunctory at best. This is his New York, and it looks the same as it has for years, and there are no cars coming- that's all he needs to know, right? Right.

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Peter still can't help staring, and comparing to the New York he knows. As they're crossing, he glances southward. He looks north, and then south again. And remembers his bearings. Something... something's wrong. He hurries across the street, but something seems missing.

"Ray, something's wrong," he says, his voice sounding strangled. He's still staring in that direction while he's standing on the sidewalk. There seemed to be too much sky there. Like a hole. He mentally compared the view with that of the New York he knows.

"The Towers..."

[gone_byebye]

Ray looks up, alarmed- Pete is giving every impression of having another Incident. "Wrong how? What do you... oh. Oh, you saw. That, uh... that's been like that for a while. I didn't think you'd see until I had the chance to tell you..." Suddenly, Ray looks very, very tired.

"The Towers are gone. They've been gone for years. You're looking at the aftermath of the single worst aviation accident in history, Pete. I'm sorry."

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Peter stares at him, "What? What happened, Ray?" A plane? How could a plane crash take down the Towers? Oh God, there's thousands of people that work there every day. Both of them? The entire structure?

"Uh, I think I need to sit down," he quietly says, his eyes troubled.

[gone_byebye]

Ray nods. There aren't a lot of benches in this part of the city, since a bench would take up valuable space where a customer could possibly be walking or standing, but they're not far from a restaurant. It's not Ming's, but it's there, which is the important part. "This way," he says, leading his friend in by the elbow. He makes some vague 'bring us a menu' noises at the startled waitstaff and plunks Peter into one of the chairs before sitting down himself.
I've seen the lights go out on Broadway
I've watched the mighty skyline fall...
Rubbing at his face with one hand, Ray says, "There isn't any easy way to convey this information, and this place hasn't got a liquor license, either. Damn..."
The boats were waiting at the Battery
The union went on strike - they never sailed at all
He takes a deep breath. "I don't know how it is in your world, but here... On September the eleventh, 2001, Trans-Ocean flight 66 came home. It was supposed to have landed at Idlewild. It... never did."
They sent the carrier out from Norfolk
To pick the Yankees up for free...
"The plane hit Tower 2, the one with the radio mast, and caused such a massive electromagnetic disturbance that another plane, a 747 out of Newark bound for California, was knocked out of the sky as well. Eastern Airlines flight 841 hit Tower 1..."
They said that Queens could stay
They blew the Bronx away
And sank Manhattan out at sea...
"Trans-Ocean 66 hit at 8:57 AM. The Towers collapsed within the space of an hour. I'm sorry, Peter."

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Peter stared at nothing, and was silent for a long time. The names didn't match up. He never even heard of Trans-Ocean, and Eastern? Eastern lost too much money and folded. So, maybe that wouldn't have happened on his world. It didn't any sense. They were there. He remembered when they were built, and erected. Ugliest damn buildings you've ever seen, but they were so part of the skyline that you got used to them. Overshadowing everything like sentries on the Financial District.

But not anymore. It wasn't his world, but still, what if this laid in the future for his world, too? And that time of day, people were just getting for work. Thousands of people in there. And now... nothing.

[gone_byebye]

Ray watched Peter for a long while. "I thought of it when you said you wanted to see the skyline last night," he murmured. "I didn't dare tell you then. Not with you just heading to bed and all. Too many other things to deal with, you know? I'm... I couldn't put that on you last night."
Have you ever been close to tragedy, or been close to those who have? / Have you ever felt the pain so powerful, so heavy you'd collapse?
No? Well...
"We've been living in the shadow of no Towers since 2001. They've got the plans together for rebuilding- there's only going to be one Tower rebuilt, and the rest of the space is going to be dedicated as a memorial. They only just got the train station under the building reopened a month ago."
Never had to, knock on wood / But I know someone who has / Which makes me wonder if I could / It makes me wonder if I-
Never had to, knock on wood / And I'm glad I haven't yet / Because I'm sure it isn't good...
"It was... pretty horrible. We lost a lot of good people that day, but nobody's ever been able to explain the sheer number of people who were supposed to be in the Towers that day and weren't. A lot of New Yorkers count themselves the luckiest people alive, because they either found reasons not to go in that day, or got out before the collapse, or something similar. And the city saw its biggest surge in volunteers and blood donations ever, or at least since the Second World War. It was incredible. Brought out some of the best in people all over the city, even all over the world..."
That's the impression that I get...
"It was bad. But it could've been infinitely worse. And in a lot of ways we're better people for it."

[doc-venkman.livejournal.com]

Peter quietly listened to his friend's explaination. At one point, he glanced over at Ray as his friend's words echoed what he had said to Q last week about humanity.

I've seen people at their worst, and at their best. And it's been said that people are at their best when things are at their worst. And it's true. You just have to look for it, and it's right there.

He thoughtfully said, "Maybe that's true, but it's never worth the price." He wondered if maybe this trip was a bad idea. So much changed in an instant.

No, the headquarters will still be the same. He had to do this. It was too important. It wasn't just about his sanity. After what he had seen and learned, he owed it to himself, to his friends, and his family. All of them.

[gone_byebye]

Ray shook his head. "You're right," he said, "it isn't. But this is New York- we find a reason to go on. It's what the city does."

He paused, watching Peter's face for signs of the Milliways-born stress fracture.

"That's the only real horror I can think of that's happened to the city in general since 1991... unless you want to count an expansion team from Florida beating the pants off the Yankees in game 6 of last year's World Series. My God, that was humiliating."

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He nodded, completely agreeing with the sentiment. Didn't matter what happened in the city. They were New Yorkers, a tougher breed than most. Still it was going to take some time to adjust, and his mind still felt strained from the past couple of days. Hopefully nothing else too bad happened while he was here.

Venkman's mouth briefly tweaked upward.

"As bad as that is, I think I'll survive the Yanks getting spanked once in a while."

He added, "We should get to the firehouse when we're done here. You need to check in, and there's some things I want to take care of while I'm here."

[gone_byebye]

"Fine with me," said Ray. "Egon's gonna kill me for losing an entire proton pack, but I think he'll be a lot happier once I show him some of the research I've been doing. We've got some serious patent material there, if we can get it all to work here. Especially the security system I've been working on for the past several days, ever since, um, since, maybe we should order lunch before I tell you about what I did. Don't worry- nobody's been harmed," he hastened to assure Peter. "I just let my tinkering get a little out of hand. I'll fill you in on the details after we eat, okay?"

[doc-venkman.livejournal.com]

And someone comes by with menus, and Peter just stares at Ray dubiously while they order their food.

After the staff member leaves, Peter asks, in a low tone, "Exactly what kind of security system are we talking about? Not the kind where we'd get funny looks from government officials again, right?"

[gone_byebye]

"No! No, no, definitely not. Definitely, definitely not." Ray shifts in his seat a little. "No, the security system's just for permitting or denying access to my PDA and holocomputer. I don't want anyone getting at the information inside, so unless they can match my epithelial cell DNA, pulse rate, overall salivary stress hormone levels, lack of extraneous chemistry, and voice print identification for thirty seconds at a stretch, they're not going to be able to activate either machine once I build this and plug it in. Nobody's getting incinerated. Honest. Stop looking at me like that, you're scaring me."

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Peter listened intently, and dropped his expression.

"Sorry, Ray, it's just at times your gadgets scare me."

He sighed, "Overall, it sounds like a good idea. Better to be careful."

[gone_byebye]

"No, no, you have every right to be scared of some of the stuff I make... I mean, considering. Sorry, Pete. I promise you, the security system is harmless. As long as you don't mind licking the sensor pad to prove your identity, it should be one of the most effective forms of identity verification there is."

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"Why, is it cherry-flavored?" Peter quips back.

He wants to say something else, but unsure of what. A few moments later, their food arrives, and is served. He munches the lo mein. Pretty good actually. And the eggrolls were good.

[gone_byebye]

"No, no, I just wanted a method of getting DNA that would be really hard to fake. I mean, c'mon, for thumb prints you can just take off a guy's thumb and for a blood scan all you need is a baggie, but this requires you to present the right moisture level, body temperature, pulse and everything. The tongue's an organ of immense scientific value, Peter." Ray grins. "Oh, good, lunch..."

About halfway through his meal, something else strikes him. "Hey, question. In your world, what's going on with Louis Tully? Is he still doing product endorsements or what?"

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Peter stares at him, "Product endorsements? No, he took some night classes in law, helped us out get out of a restraining order so we could operate our business again."

He explained, "After Gozer, the good people of NYC thanked us for saving them by having their elected officials and courts hit us with several lawsuits, and a restraining order keeping us out of business for a couple of years. It was only after the situation leading up to Viggy that we got going again. And luckily, the city was a lot nicer this time, and we were able to stay in business."

"Anyway, Louis helped us, ended up meeting Janine, and when I left my world, they were currently engaged. He's been helping us out with our finances and keeping us legal."

[gone_byebye]

Ray blinks. "Oh. Huh. Wow, okay... because here, see, he's sort of a, er, he's a sex symbol at the moment. Remember the old Stay-Puft Marshmallow sign that was painted on the building across the street? Really faded? It's gone now. There's a sign up there for Keymaster Cologne instead. He was on the cover of GQ last month- 'geek chic' is the big thing now, apparently, and he's the big geek. When did your lawsuits start? If the newspaper out front was right, it's been seven months now since Gozer and we haven't seen hide nor hair of a lawsuit here." He frowns a little, thinking.

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Peter grimly replies as he finishes his food, "I think they had barely finished cleaning all of the melted marshmallow before they started issuing them to us. You wouldn't believe it. Mountains of paper, all about how we supposedly violated such and such state code, regulation, and EPA violations out the wazoo. Complete mess."

He stares at Ray, "Keymaster Cologne? You're shitting me, right?"

[gone_byebye]

"Wish I could say I was, Pete, but when we go back to the firehouse you'll see it for yourself. The ad's got a terror dog in it and everything." Ray gestures emphatically with his chopsticks. "It's worth mentioning that the local reality's you had exactly the same reaction when the campaign hit the press."

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He shakes his head. It doesn't seem right, actually it sounded disturbing to exploit it.

He grinned, "Well, glad to hear I have good sense in this world."

[gone_byebye]

Very disturbing. But you know how some people are.

"Hey, you're the only one of us other than Winston who ever did," Ray said. "Speaking of which, how do you want to go about the introductions when we get to the Firehall?"

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Peter sighed, "Let just get there, and worry about it there." He's trying not to show his weariness, and lack of focus. The days were taking their toll, but he had to get through this. Just another test.

[gone_byebye]

"All right."

It's lunchtime and the restaurant is getting pretty crowded, so there's every incentive in the world to finish up. Ray pays- not that it cost much to begin with, this being a small place- and gathers up the bags. On the way back to the Firehouse it's painfully clear that he was right: there's a really big ad for Keymaster Cologne on one of the nearby buildings. Ray makes a point of ignoring it as he fishes out his keys and unlocks the Firehouse door. "Janine," he calls, "it's me..."

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Peter turns around, and stares at it briefly. "Money-grubbing bastard." If he ever ran into this world's Louis, he was going to have some words with him, and they weren't going to be pleasent ones.

He then turns around again to follow Ray in. So far, looks familiar.

[gone_byebye]

Looks very familiar. Everything looks very, very much as if it's been in constant operation for a good year and a half, maybe two years- at least, until a glance at the floor. Then there's the huge area in the middle of the garage floor where the brick is newer than around the edges. And of course, there's the fact that Janine's desk has a really nice computer on it- and that Janine's glasses have the Olive Peepers design going on...

And that Janine is staring at Peter, with a few guarded glances to Ray. "Uh... hi, Doctor V," she says carefully. "Ray? Good to see you again so soon. You left what, around eleven last night?"

"Yeah. Romana's not involved this time, though."

"Then how-" The secretary made a surreptitious gesture with one hand, pointing towards the upstairs.

"It'd take a while to explain... Pete, you wanna handle this, or should I just wing it?"

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Peter just said, "It's me, Janine, or at least, I'm Peter Venkman. Just not the one you're used to. Uh.... shit. Ray, why don't you handle this? Even with your technospeak, you're better at explanations than me."

[gone_byebye]

"Okay..." Ray turned to face the baffled, if alarmed-looking, secretary. "Janine, the short version is that... well, remember how for a while you had a different me roaming around here?"

"Yeah, and he was in your body, and using your clothes! Dr. Venkman's already upstairs!" That last came out in an agitated whisper.

"That's because of the dimensional anomaly I tried to explain last time. In this particular case, there's two of Pete here because, well- I found this one and brought him with me, and that's the easiest way I can think of to explain it."

"Explain what?" came a familiar voice from the top of the nearby stairs.

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Venkman closed his eyes, recognizing the voice as well as his own, though there were minute differences to the timbre, *Here we go. And the test begins.*

"Hi Dr. Venkman," he smirks a bit as his self from this world descends the stairs two at a time.

"Who the hell are you?" Local Peter snarls at him, as he steps over to come face to face. From outsider's point of view, the two of them standing there has to be unsettling to say the least.

Venkman simply says, "I'm you from a different world." Before the other Peter could try anything, Venkman's hand lashed out, and grabbed on the other's earlobe. "C'mon, we need to talk."

"Hey! Ow! Wait a second, talk? The only thing we're doing is getting rid of you, evil twin guy. Ow, ow," Local Peter yelps as Venkman drags him away.

Venkman yells over his shoulder, "Here, I'll care of this one while you do what you need to do ok? We're going to be a while." And he continues dragging his other self back to an empty room nearby. The door slams shut behind them a moment later.

[gone_byebye]

"I don't know why he thinks that's his evil twin," Ray says absently, digging a bag of jelly babies out of his locker. "Everyone knows the evil twin has a goatee."

Janine stared at him.

"What? The evil twin always has a goatee. Or at least some kind of facial hair, and he shaved this morning."

"I don't think we watch the same television shows, Ray..."

"Oooh, you're right. Uh, tell you what- I don't wanna explain this three times. Could you get Egon and Winston in here so I can explain it to all of you at once?"

"Yeah," Janine said slowly. "Sure."

"Thanks."

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Janine yelps loudly, "Uh, Egon? Winston? You better get down here quick!" And there's a sound of hurried footsteps heading toward the stairs and down.

-------------

Meanwhile in the room, Venkman lets go of Peter's ear, and then has to avoid getting a right hook to the face.

"Hey, back off, buddy, I'm here to help you."

Peter stares at him, "You look like me, and you're here to help?"

"Of course, I'm always ready to help people." He smirks a little, "Even if they don't ask for it. No, especially when they don't."

"Yeah, right. How do I know you're not some supernatural creep out to get us?"

Venkman stares back at him, and Peter seems a little uneasy at the haunted expression in his other's eyes.

Venkman adds, "I can prove I am you. You remember Mom?"

He stares at him, "What does she have anything to do with this? She died years ago."

Venkman nods coolly, "Yes she did. You remember what happened when we were five? Her yelling, the bruises, the ghosts we saw"

Peter stares at him with horror as he remembers, "Who are you?"

"I told you, I'm you, and there's something you need to know."

[gone_byebye]

Ray pulls up a chair and indicates that the other two men should do the same. "Okay, guys, Janine," he says. "Let's take this from the top. I left New York City last night with Romana, to go out and tour as much of the galaxy as we could pull off in the space of a couple of months."

"Yeah, you told us that last night," Winston says. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around that, but I guess I can accept it. You were planning on coming back this morning, you said."

"Pretty much."

"So where's Romana?" Winston asks. Egon, who had been listening with his usual intent silence, leans over and murmurs something to Janine, whose eyes go wide.

"Ray? You're not tryin' to tell me that Pete's one of these 'Time Lord' people, are you?"

Ray nearly chokes on his jelly baby at that. "Good Lord, no! What would give you an idea like that?"

"Regeneration," says Egon coolly. "So Romana didn't regenerate into Peter's shape, then?"

"No! No, no, no. She dropped me off at Milliways instead of here at the end of our travels. I was going to gather some more information and ask her to bring me back here when we were both done. It's just that this time, something went different, and I didn't have time to flag her down."

"I'll say something went different," Janine said. "Where'd you get the extra Peter from?"

"Another timeline, apparently," Ray answered. "Remember how I told you about the timeline that most cosmetically resembled ours, but had us in operation in 1985?"

"Yeah..."

"Same idea. Slightly further down the timeline, though. This Peter is from 1991, and you won't believe what the City of New York put him through...."

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Peter stares, and then sits down, "Ok, I'm listening. What is it?"

Venkman sighs and says, "Alright, first of all, Mom wasn't crazy. The ghosts were real, that's first and foremost. You're going to have to get over this skeptic attitude. Keep the bullshit detector, but the rest isn't going to do you any good. Trust me on this. There are things in this universe beyond what anybody can comprehend. Ok, I spent the past couple of days taking a major mental vacation because I had come to terms with this the hard way. Don't do the same."

Peter asks, "But she was, Dad, and the doctors said so. And I didn't see anything."

"Alright, that bullshit detector I was talking about? It just went off, because we both know that what you said is just that. We saw and heard them. You know it, I know it. Let's move on."

Peter had a look of disbelief, but then he seemed thoughtful. And then his expression changed, "Wait, she had to be. She needed help."

"She needed help, but not from them. She needed us, and we let her down," Venkman placed a hand on his other's shoulder. "Now we need to make up for it. She wasn't crazy, and we're not crazy for believing. It doesn't work that way."

Peter sadly looks at him, "But how? How come she saw them, and I, we did?"

Venkman sighs and says, "Ok, I don't know all the details on that. But there's something else. I found out why we're ghost magnets."

[gone_byebye]

There was silence in the lobby of the Firehouse.

"But we saved the city," Winston pointed out. "I know there was property damage along the way, but-"

"Actually, it makes perfect sense," Egon mused. "New York has traditionally eaten its heroes alive. Nothing short of perfection, or ongoing rescue from ongoing threat, is enough to keep the people of this city happy. Between that and the fact that we had no real-time witnesses atop the Shandor BUilding, I'm a little surprised we weren't torn to pieces by the angry mobs ourselves."

"News helicopters," Ray said absently. "There were a couple of them still live despite Gozer's Force lightning."

"That wasn't the Force, Ray."

"I didn't exactly have my meter in front of me."

Egon shook his head. Janine was watching Ray with a look of mingled fascination and horror. "So what happened after that?"

"Well," Ray said, "we went out of business, like I said, and then came the bad years. Janine, you're going to want to sit down for this."

"I already am."

"Sit down some more, because I don't think you're going to like how it unfolds..."

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"But I'm not..." Peter starts to say, and then remembers the busts. The ghosts did go after him especially half the time. True he'll goad them on a bit, but even without that, they go right for him.

On the change of expression, Venkman nods grimly, "We are. This is why. Ray's got a really sensitive PKE meter with him. And I asked him to scan me, since I had an idea something might come up."

Peter slowly asks, "So what did he find?"

"Get this, it's minimal, but we're walking PKE generators. It's not much, just enough being thrown off from us for spooks to pick up on it." Venkman adds, "Speaking of which, I want to get that checked out more since there's more detection equipment either."

"So what does that mean? We're not human or something?"

Venkman shakes his head, "We're human as I know, just slightly freaky humans."

[gone_byebye]

"ENGAGED TO LOUIS TULLY?!?"

Ray flinched, hard. "THat's what he said.

"ENGAGED?"

"Yep."

"TO THAT LITTLE- to-" Janine appeared to have been struck speechless with rage. Apparently the only people in Manhattan who weren't smitten with the latest King of the Geeks were the ones who'd known him when. "You have GOT to be pullin' my leg!"

"I'm afraid not, Janine. That's what Pete told me. River of slime, judicial restraining order lifted, Vigo the Carpathian, Dana Barrett's baby, you and Louis."

"Bleeaagh!" Janine shuddered. "And you're sure he's not crazy?"

"Possibly he's simply from some kind of dystopian nightmare of a future," Egon said distantly. "Even if, chronologically, he appears to be from our past- the events you describe could still be positioned further along our time-stream."

"Like Hell they are!" Janine exclaimed, jumping out of her seat. "I am never going near that twerp! Have you seen him? He's exactly the same guy as he was when he was here sniffin' the popcorn jar and drinking the boiling water!"

"Actually, considering that he was possessed at the time-"

"You know what I mean, Egon!" she snapped. "You can say all you like about futures, but that part of this one ain't gonna happen. That is so not in my future. It isn't even funny."

"Uh- Janine-" Winston raised a hand. "I think we're all missing the really important part here."

"What?"

"We're still in business, and the city doesn't have it in for us." He nodded towards the company fireproof safe. "Matter of fact, I seem to recall that we just recently got fifty thousand dollars out of 'em. Is that the action of a city out to sue our pants off?"

"You know, you're right," Janine said after a bit. "Thank you, Winston, I feel lots better. So what else is there, Ray?"

"Well... most of the rest is about Peter. You'd better let him tell you himself."

"Which one of him?"

"Whichever one decides to tell you, I guess."

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The two Peters continued their conversation a bit longer, before finally emerging from the room.

"Oh ok, everybody's here." Venkman says.

Peter adds, and points to him, "Uh, yeah, he's the new guy, in case you're confused." The two trade a glance.

Venkman holds up his right hand, showing a simple magnetic looking bracelet, "And I have this to tell us apart. Oh, and we're going to need to use the detection equipment at some point. Anything, and everything you got."

Egon asks, "On who?"

Peter answers, "Both of us. Long story. We'll explain after the results are in."

[gone_byebye]

Ray jumps up. "This is gonna be great," he says happily, clearly far too thrilled at the prospect of scientifically picking the mystery apart for his own good. "C'mon, Pete. Both of you. Let's get this party started..."