(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

[gone_byebye]

"Okay," Ray answers. "I'm getting some books from the library up here."

Ecto sighs a little. "I have to use the dog to see what's going on upstairs," she says. Then she brightens. "Wanna meet him?"

[basic_powers]

"Sure! what kinda of dog is he?" Tyler says, smiling, he's decent enough with most animals...

[gone_byebye]

"Dad says he's a CANIUS unit from a dystopian future called Libria," Ecto says. "Francis! FRANCIS!"

"WHURF," comes the metallic voice from upstairs, and a few moments later a silvery metal critter the size of a Rhodesian Ridgeback comes clattering down the stairs. It trots across the room and stops in front of Tyler, sitting immediately and canting its head to one side.

[basic_powers]

Ok, so it's a big metal robotic dog.

"Nice boy?" Tyler reaches out a hand toward's Francis's 'head' for him to sniff at before reaching up and patting him. "Good dog. ...ray kind of forgot to mention you have a robotic dog..."

[gone_byebye]

"Dad forgets a lot of things," says Ecto matter-of-factly. "Mostly he forgets that other people don't think that the stuff he thinks is normal, is normal. Like the dinosaur skull."

She points up at the high ceiling overhead. There's a skull that probably matches a T-rex's in size and general shape hanging up there.

"That's not a fossil. Dad kinda got stuck in the Cretaceous period when he went to visit a friend through Milliways."

The dog sniffs, WHURFs again, and pushes his head against Tyler's hand happily. Except for his lack of fur, ears, tail, etc., he does an amazing job of acting exactly as one would expect a German shepherd to act.

[basic_powers]

"...Holy crud... I think that beats my 'blown into out space' story for weirdness and souveneirs." Tyler murmurs quietly petting the metallic head absently as he stares upward at the giant skull.

He ponders a bit thinking about how weird Ray's life must be. "Ecto... what did you mean when your Dad had to be rescued?"

[gone_byebye]

"The government kidnapped him last year," Ecto says quietly. "These black ops guys who used to keep track of all the technology in the world decided Dad was too dangerous, so they kidnapped him and said he could work for them or he could spend the rest of his life locked up somewhere, and then they stuck him in the middle of nowhere even though he really really sucks at wilderness stuff."

[basic_powers]

"...I hope somebody kicked their collective butts for doing that to Ray." He says quietly and a little sternly, even at age 10 this kid has a very well developed sense of justice. "They sound like the guys that the Flea spotted lurking around our school."

[gone_byebye]

"Matilda Wormwood and Agent K and KITT and Dr. Donighal and Master Kenobi and Andrew and Uncle Peter and Uncle Winston and three of Uncle Egon and Foxtrot X-Ray and Danny Phantom and Agatha Clay and Lieutenant Naraht and Johnny Destiny and Andrew Wells and Red, his raptor friend from the Cretaceous," Ecto answers promptly. "And Blond Uncle Egon's family dragon. And then the Justice Department."

Ecto's only regret is that she couldn't get in there to do a little butt kicking herself. In her defense, she had no arms or legs at the time, and had never encountered a Cybertronian except as cartoons.

[basic_powers]

"Three Egons in one place?" Tyler looks wary at just the mere thought of that. Then he thinks of the other three versions of him being in the same place and shivers. "Definitely creepy..."

He paused for a moment thinking. "Can you tell me anything about the guy that stole the Ark? I know he's a grade-f jerk....but does he have any weaknesses?"

[gone_byebye]

"Yeah. Which is weird, because Dad's been to other universes and there's never ever been two of him in one universe at one time," Ecto says.

"Oh, sure. Walter Peck's just a guy who learned magic from books, Dad says, and he didn't learn it from very good books. He hasn't got any super powers or strength or anything. He can just use magic from the kind of books you can get in the Barnes and Noble. He's also really easy to get angry 'cause he's got a horrible temper, and he takes insults really seriously."

[basic_powers]

"...Is he really easy to distract?" Tyler's trying to come up with some kind of contigency plan. Walter Peck now qualifies as a 3rd string villian. Mad as a hattuer, not too much on the bright side, determined, did we mention crazy, and psychotic. Also know for making a better lackey than villian.

[gone_byebye]

"I don't think so," Ecto admits. "Dad seemed to think that he paid attention to stuff too much, instead of not enough. You could get someone behind him if you were careful. That kind of thing."

[basic_powers]

"...I'm very, very good at sneaking up on people." Tyler smiles shyly, before remembering there was something Ray wanted Exto to have a look at. He digs through his bags for a moment. "I forgot! There was something ray said he wanted you to have a look at.."

He eventually prodcues what looks like a doctored and rebuilt Gamebuy and a stapled booklet with instructions for programing. That is if you programmed in 'Street Fighter Combo moves'.

[gone_byebye]

"Good, 'cause I'm not," says Ecto. Then she reaches down for the device and the booklet, peering at it thoughtfully. "Huh."

Another squint.

"Huh."

[basic_powers]

"They're supposed to be instructions for programming the stuff inside of these." He pulled out a dozen wrapped egg containers, each about the size of a small grapefruit with a USB port on top, and a pull pin along the raised seam in the middle. "My friend Angie, she's kind of a mad scientist kid, we had a school project together and we came up with this nearly indesctructable silly putty. And some other kids in the shop class, they made these little putty creatures that you could program to do things. So I kinda had this thought about combining them... sort of as a non-lethal means of restraint."

[gone_byebye]

"You could do that, yeah," says Ecto. "Can I play with this thing for a while? I think maybe I can get some sense out of it."

This is about the point when Ray comes down the stairs with an armload of books.

[basic_powers]

"No problem," Tyler handed over one of the eggs. "I know she listed five settings already."

"Hey Ray! Are those the books on ghosts and the Ark?"

[gone_byebye]

"'kay," says Ecto, already a little distracted. She can multitask with the best of them, but this is something new to play with, so most of her processing cycles are being allocated to the task at hand.

"Sure are," Ray says. "You can take your pick from any of them to get started- I tried to grab the ones that'd give you a decent overview without getting into excessively technical territory. Egon's still compiling the rabbinical and Islamic stories about the Ark and cross-referencing them with each other for safety's sake, since there hasn't been a whole lot of direct study on the subject."

[basic_powers]

"Thanks Ray, I'll get started" Tyler glances through the stack before pulling out a few of the thinner ones, before digging out a dictionary from his bag as well.

He's ten, and while he is fairly intelligent, that doesn't mean some of the larger words might stump him.

The inside of the putty egg sloshes around inside of it's container from time to time, nanites running through their programmed formations.

[gone_byebye]

Ray nods. "I might as well go through some of the others and mark off the relevant parts for-"

"Got it," Ecto announces, holding up the controller. "Daddy, hide the good books, okay? I don't wanna get 'em dirty or anything."

[basic_powers]

"Already?" Tyler looks up warily and puts a piece of notebook parer in to mark his place. Then he hurries over to get his helmet out of his duffel bag.

Ecto may have programmed this one, but Angie MADE all of them.

"Ready whenever you are, Ecto."

[gone_byebye]

"I had a lot of CPU cycles to spare," Ecto says, a little apologetically. Ray's busy moving books out of the way, himself. "And I can talk to the controller in binary to find out what I'm supposed to be doing if I get it wrong. Okay, everybody."

She'd be sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth if she had one, her expression is that intent. The putty egg sits for a moment, rocking gently on the firehouse floor. Then it moves, and we learn two things:

1. Ecto's programming of the stuff is not nearly as precise as she would like, but
2. It is nonetheless evident in the shape and design of the little skeletonlike things that form themselves out of the putty that Ecto is a big fan of Ray Harryhausen's work on Jason and the Argonauts.

[basic_powers]

Tyler watches as the little army of skeletons fight each other in mock silly-putty combat. He cautiously kneels down for a better look. "How did so many of them come out of that one egg?"

He's pretty sure that there wasn't that much putty fluid inside of one egg. "...That is so cool....Did you figure out what settings four and five did?"

[gone_byebye]

"They're hollow," Ecto says with some satisfaction. "They're all just really thin tubes. That way I can use all the stuff that was in the middle to make more skeletons with. I haven't gotten to four and five yet, but I'm really really close."

Ray is down on his stomach to watch, his torso propped up on his elbows. This is fascinating.