Poughkeepsie Attacks!!!: Team Big Blue

[gone_byebye]

The IBM Supercomputer Benchmarking Plant in Poughkeepsie lies at the center of an enormous corporate campus on the northern side of town. As far as Ray can tell, that's where the really hairy readings were coming from, although he could of course be wrong.

He's about to find out. Ecto pulls to a stop just outside the main entrance to the IBM property. "Are we good?" Ray asks.

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He nods to that before reaching over his shoulder and pulling out the Sword that hung there. The Orb is relatively pleased with him of late, so it deesn't ignite at his request.

It does, however, give a sort of hungry, amused gleam from the pommel.

[gone_byebye]

Ray eyes the Sword and says, very carefully, "The police around here get really twitchy about dead bodies. Try not to kill anybody unless they try to shoot you first, okay? I'm mostly planning on using the saber for blocking incoming gunfire, if I use it at all."

What he wouldn't give for the use of the Force right now.

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"As you prefer," he says, putting the sword back into it's sheath on his back. "I'll keep it to sorcery and my fists. It should keep things relatively non-lethal."

...though as Garion's grandfather would tell you, those fists can do enough damage.

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"That's all anybody can ask," Ray says. "Thank you."

He's a little distracted. Then again, so are the two ex-football players coming around the corner up ahead, muttering under their breath about Peck being more trouble than he's worth.

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Garion gives an almost imperceptible tilt of his head towards the ex-football players.

"Shall I?"

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"By all means," says Ray.

He'll jump in if he has to,b ut somehow he doesn't think he's going to have to.

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It's over relatively quickly. The first one gets a knock to the head that sends him straight to the floor. The second one actually swings.

Not that it does a great deal of good.

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Even knowing what these guys are and what they're doing, Ray still can't help but make the face in the icon. That had to hurt.

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The knock the second one gets is a little rougher, just because he had swung.

When he falls on top of his partner, Garion gives a satisfied little grunt before gesturing onward.

[gone_byebye]

"One day I'm gonna have to study boxing," Ray says. "Just on principle."

But he ducks forward hurriedly and duct-tapes their ankles together, just in case.

Yes, he has duct tape on him. SOMETHING has to take up all the extra pockets in his cargo pants.

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"I've never studied fisticuffs," he admits. "It's just a matter of hitting them hard and fast before they hit you. Most of fighting is like that."

He did watch Ray with the duct tape.

"That's another one of those things that have to get to my world, isn't it?"

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"Yeah, but I can't even throw a proper punch unless the other person is standing still," Ray says. "Having a form to work from is probably a good place to start."

There's been all of two people in his life that he's punched. One was Mike Draverhaven,a fter the second time the man tried to kill him. The other was Walter Peck, at Foliage Census.

"Yeah, it is. It's called duct tape. I'll tell you about it la- is that someone moving on the next rooftop over?"

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Garion nodded.

"Not much I can do with him," he admits. "Since I can't see him. It might be deadly otherwise."

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"Crud," says Ray, who has heard all the curse words out there but never really been very good with most of them. "I think I'm gonna have to call the others in. If he's seen us, they're all going to know."

Then he brightens. "At least we should have the element of surprise. Peck only knows about the two of us being here, right?"

Ecto, who's been listening via the headpiece all this time, just heaves a sigh and starts signaling the others.

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"I couldn't tell you without focusing a little more," he admits. "Aunt Pol's better at that sort of thing."

[gone_byebye]

"That's okay. Let's just get moving- if we get there we can keep him off balance until the others arrive, as opposed to letting him keep us on the run," Ray says. "Although if that's a stupid strategy you'd better fill me in, because it works okay against ghosts and things but I'm not that good with tactics against humans."

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"It sounds fine to me," he says with a shrug. "I could even create a few diversions if you like."

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"Could you? That would be-"

Ray stops mid-sentence and covers his face with one hand.

"Tyler's gonna kill me for forgetting."

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"What?"

Now he looks worried.

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"I have a few distractions of my own," Ray says, fishing through his other pockets and producing the egg-shaped capsules Tyler gave him before handing Garion a fistful of glowsticks. "Bend these double so that the capsules inside break, but don't break the outer tube until I've got all the eggs lined up, please?"

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He nods carefully before obeying Ray's request, carefully bending the sticks so as not to break them.

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Each capsule that breaks inside the tubes releases a flow of something. The least little motion mixes the two fluids, and the sticks start glowing brilliant green a moment later.

"Okay," Ray says, settling back into a crouch to get a good look at the putty eggs. "I think you can break those open now- I want to pour the glowing stuff into each of these. Wait until you see what these can do..."

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He snapped the first of them in half before doing as told, stepping back afterwards as he knows nothing of what might happen.

[gone_byebye]

One by one, the putty eggs begin to glow that same green- oh, not so brilliant perhaps, being diluted, but still quite bright. Ray reaches into his jacket pocket and extracts what looks like a video game controller. "Here goes nothing," he says, and starts punching buttons rapid-fire with both thumbs.

At first, nothing appears to be happening. Then, one by one, the contents of the eggs- the glowing green contents of the eggs- spill out, flow together, and begin to swell up to the size of some of the smaller cars that Garion's seen. Each one eventually resolves into a shapeless congerie of protoplasmic bubbles, greenly self-luminous, and with myriads of brighter eye-like bubbles forming and un-forming everywhere.

"Pretty, aren't they?" Ray comments cheerfully. "I almost got eaten by one of those once. I'm going to send them out after Peck's boys..."

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'...that's one word for it," he says weakly. "But I suppose it's pretty. In an odd sort of way."