(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

The door opens onto an alley in October, the sky overhead blue shading into evening grey. "This is the door I always come in from," Ray says. "Right this way."

He leads Tyler out of the alley and onto the sidewalk.

Views of the Firehouse can be had here.

Comments

[basic_powers]

Tyler looks up and around the firehouse and the surrounding buildings, ok, it looks fairly normal. ... Except for that advertisement for colonge. That's just wrong on so many levels. He shoulders up his duffel bag, which is at least as big as he is.

"Is that...?"

[gone_byebye]

"Louis Tully on the picture? Yeah, unfortunately," Ray says. "He got really popular about fifteen minutes after we came down off the Shandor Building."

[basic_powers]

"...There is something seriously wrong with that." Tyler says quietly following Ray. "Have you seen any signs of where the Ark's been?"

[gone_byebye]

"Mouse plagues," Ray says. "The first one appeared in Dotyville, Pennsylvania. The next one's in Taintor, about sixty miles east of there. According to the Biblical texts, which I admit I'm not very familiar with, massive invasions of mice and rats appeared in Philistine cities where the Ark was stored when it was captured and taken out of Israel. I'm led to understand there've also been runs on Preparation H in Dotyville-area pharmacies, which is consistent with the same texts given that one word for the other thing that the Philistines were stricken with is occasionally translated 'hemorrhoids'."

[basic_powers]

"....Ewww..." He's ten, and thus a severely disgusted face is called for. Tyler follows Ray in through the doors. "Is there anything in the Firehouse I gotta watch out for?"

[gone_byebye]

"FNERGLBLERZLBEHABLAH!" shouts a green blob about the size of Ray's torso, dropping out of the ceiling straight towards Tyler. Apparently, this is Class Five-speak for 'BANZAI!'.

"... that," Ray says, wincing. "Oooh. Um. Sorry- Slimer, down."

[basic_powers]

"AAAAAAH!" Screams Tyler clutching his bag as the green booger tries to get something out of it. That's ten-year-old mini-hero for 'AAAUGH!'

"Let go of my bag!"

[gone_byebye]

Ray hastily starts digging in his pockets and comes up with two packets labeled in Chinese. "Slimer!" he calls out. "Your favorite! Catch!"

Hopefully, hucking the packets at the flying booger will draw him away, but no guarantees.

[basic_powers]

There's a bright side to Slimer having a short attention span, as the spud zips off towards his favorite snacks in the whole world. Which leaves a lack of tension and a bewildered Tyler with a very slimy green duffel bag.

"...Does he attack anything that has food?"

[gone_byebye]

"Only if it's crap," says Ray, "and only if he hasn't eaten in the last ten minutes. I buy chocolate cereal in bulk at a big-box store in Brooklyn. It usually keeps him topped up without the refrigerator getting decimated. Do you want to see if any of that got out unscathed?"

[basic_powers]

Tyler unzipped the top of his duffel and dug around inside making a face, slimy inside...he was going to have to get them all washed. After a moment he pulled out a plastic shopping bag full of snack cakes and energybars looking inside. "Aw man...he got all my Mallomars and peanut butter cups."

And the energy bars are untouched, save for slime outside on the wrappers.

[gone_byebye]

"Sorry," Ray says. "If it helps at all, thanks to the spud there, Ecto and I've been forced to memorize the location of every candy and snack store in a five mile radius. There's one in Chinatown that does incredible things with marshmallow and fruit jelly."

Slimer attacked them about as Ray was reaching for the front door. When Ray opens the door, there's a flicker of blue light and a joyful call of, "Hi, Daddy!"

Ray beams. "Hi, Ecto," he says to the converted hearse. "Tyler? This is my daughter Ecto. Ecto? This is Tyler Marlocke."

"Hi, Tyler," says the car, sneaking out one robotic arm from underneath to wave. "Nice to meet you."

[basic_powers]

"Hi, Ecto." Tyler grins and waves back, to the talking car AI. That is just too cool. "Your dad told be a little bit about you. I don't think Slimer got into the comics I brought along if you'd want to read em. ...uh if that's alright with your dad if I bring em out."

He looks to Ray for approval. It is always best to ask permission.

[gone_byebye]

"Sure thing, Tyler," says Ray. "Ecto, if you think you can manage with the roof-"

"I think so, Daddy. I'll be careful."

"Tyler?" says Ray. "You might want to stand back. She's still a little new at this."

[basic_powers]

"Uh.. sure." He backs up a few feet and starts digging through his bag.

One pile becomes devoted to the clothes that were horribly slimed by the flying booger. Reasonable clothes and packages of gear set into another.

"What do you mean she's new at this?"

[gone_byebye]

"Ecto recently had some work done by some friends of mine who visit the Bar," Ray says. "Friends from the planet Cybertron."

There's a noise, one that should be fairly familiar, and the car suddenly writhes and begins rearranging all of its visible parts. It's an awkward process, since standing up isn't an option, but it ultimately results in a sprawled-out, twenty-three-foot-long robot.

"Hi," says Ecto again, a little shyly, waving.

(NB: Ecto is in fact altered according to the tech of the Movieverse!Transformers, and so looks much more like them than the picture. Her face is also marginally more feminine-looking.)

[basic_powers]

Give Tyler a moment to process this as he stares up at the large robot-girl where there was a converted hearse about oh...5 seconds ago.

He waves back out of sheer reflex politeness. "Hey...whoa. Yeh Ray kind of forgot to mention that you could do that."

Tyler picks up the bagged comic books. "Here.."

[gone_byebye]

"Yeah, he's funny that way," says Ecto fondly. But she reaches out to take the comics with the greatest of care. "Oooh! I haven't seen these yet!"

"You know," Ray says to Tyler, "if you want, I can take those clothes that got slimed upstairs and get them washed for you. We've got a special extra-strength washing powder for ectoplasm, and you two can hang out for a little bit."

[basic_powers]

"They're all from my world, we've got heroes by the dozen over there." He grins. "And a lot of them are real people."

He turned to Ray. "Thank you, you might have to air-dry my patrolling uniform though."

He is going to like this.

[gone_byebye]

"Not a problem. The spud won't bother it as long as it doesn't smell like cookies," Ray says, and starts upstairs.

Ecto, meanwhile, is turning the pages with surprising delicacy for a robot with fingers that large. "Seriously?" she says. "Wow. Dad's nephews're psychokinetic, but they're not superheroes or anything. I don't think we even have any real superheroes, and I've been looking."

[basic_powers]

"Seriously, I've even met a couple." Tyler points out to a page on the Emerald Guantlet. "Kevin's Dad came to his last Littler Supers League game. So did a bunch of others, I got to be scorekeepr then."

[gone_byebye]

Ecto peers thoughtfully at the Emerald Gauntlet. "He looks kind of like another universe's superhero that Dad met at Milliways," she says. "Except that Hal Jordan was a grown-up when he got his power ring. Do these guys play ball with their powers on, or do they have to not use them when they play?"

[basic_powers]

"Kevin was born with his gauntlet on his arm. And yeh, the kids on the field get to use their powers to play ball." Tyler explains. "And they all ahve powers, so the teams are pretty much even. We had to come up with special rules for outs and homeruns though. If the ball gets hit into any major bodies of water it's a ground rules out. It's a ground rules double if they can hit the ball into Canada."

[gone_byebye]

Ecto laughs, a surprisingly light sound for someone so big. "Alex and Joey are psychokinetics and a little bit precognitive," she says, "but it's not enough to kick the ball that far. Alex plays soccer," she adds. "Dad and Uncle Winston and Uncle Peter play softball with the cops across the street sometimes, when nobody's getting slimed. I kinda play a lot of video games since there's nobody else my size."

[basic_powers]

"When a kid my age can juggle three schoolbuses, it's kinda given he's going to belt the ball out of the park." Tyler shrugs, before directing the subject away from the kids at school. "What kind of games do you like playing, Ecto?"