PhantomBuster

Training

Egon checked the P.K.E meter in his hand. "Agreed. We need EMF measurement checks now." 

The woman who works in the front desk, Danny realized he never got her name, ran up the stairs the moment the psi energy went through the building. "I know the answer, but I'm gonna ask anyway.... is a level seven, uh, whatever.... bad? Or very bad?" 

Downstairs, Slimer finds a crack in the chamber. He smirked. Freedom awaits. 

"On a scale of one to ten, I would say...." Egon began to say before Peter interrupted him. 

"Let me guess. It's a seven." Peter muttered sarcastically. 

"Let's just say it's about to get real busy." 

In the chamber, Slimer breaks free unnoticed by the Ghostbusters upstairs. At least that's what he hoped. 

"And that is not the fun kind of getting busy --- is it, Ray?" Peter asks. 

That was when they heard a crash from the chamber unit downstairs. 

"Uh oh. Slimer's escaped again!" Ray shouted. "Let's move." 

Ray and Egon ran down the stairs. 

"No, wait. Come back." Peter said sarcastically. Something told Danny that Venkman did not like Slimer. He wondered why. 

Danny took the fire pole and followed Ray into the basement. He noticed that Slimer was looking at the containment grid. 

"There it is." Egon said. "It seems oddly drawn to the containment grid." 

"He's been fascinated with it ever since you added the viewer to the unit." Ray turned to Danny. "Okay. I'll talk you through this. Use the proton stream to get his attention." 

Danny shoots at Slimer. He missed and accidently hit the containment grid. He winced as a ghost escaped from the unit. 

"No! Not the containment grid. That's some highly sensitive equipment you're disintegrating there, kid!" Ray said. Danny felt bad. He didn't really mean to destroy the containment grid. Technically, it wasn't really his fault. If it was anything, it was Slimer's fault. 

"It's my fault." Egon said. "I was fine-tuning the interspatial gasket this afternoon. I'll fix it. You two gets those ghosts back." 

"Hey! This will work out great! Since you're already strapped into a pack, it's a perfect opportunity for some training!" Ray said happily as he and Danny ran down the basements into the sub-basement. " Taking the right precautions, Slimer's harmless. Uh, more or less. Not sure about the other guy, though. Okay, let's go get them, then. Oh, and don't sweat the containment unit. It's easy to get excited your first time out with the proton stream. Egon will fix it in no time." 

Ray and Danny go down the hall through another door. 

"Now, first and foremost, before things get out of hand. You want to get to know your proton pack. It can be your best friend out there in the field. Everything you need to know is displayed on the pack itself." Ray showed the two bars on the side of the pack. "This bar indicates your pack's heat level. When it gets to the top, you'll want to vent the pack and keep it from shorting out and resetting." 

Danny found the button to reset the pack on the side of his wand. 

"For the most part, capturing a ghost is pretty straight forward. We break it into three easy steps: Sap'em, Cap'em, and Trap'em. The first step is blasting a ghost to sap its energy." 

Danny quickly shot at Slimer. 

"You're a wicked shot, Danny!" Ray complemented. "See that overlay on the ghost? It indicates the current accumulation of the ghost's PKE. The more you disperse, the weaker it becomes." 

Danny continues to blast at Slimer, who eventually goes through a wall to escape. 

"Ooh. We lost Slimer." 

Danny's ghost sense went off. He quickly turned around to find an ugly looking ghost. The ghost's outfit seemed to be from the early 40s to late 30s. Danny was fine with that. It was the ghost itself that grossed him out. It was as if the ghost died by overeating at a Thanksgiving meal when he was alive. 

Ray seemed to agree with him. "Ugh. And I though Slimer was disgusting." 

Danny began to blast at the ghost, followed by Ray. After a while, Ray began to speak. "All right, you've got it good and winding. Next state. Cap'em! You can project a capture stream, or wrangler, by pressing the third button on the wand. On the other hand, the pack will detect when a ghost is sufficiently weakened and auto-select the capture stream setting. Get in there and throw a capture stream on the tub of goo!" 

Danny pressed the third button on his wand and immediately captured the ghost. 

"Fantastic! You got it!" 

Danny quickly laid the trap down on the ground. The trap immediately opened up. 

"Keep it centered in the cone and let the trap do its work." Ray explained. Danny did as he was told and soon enough, the ghost was in the trap. "And... there! Oh, yes! One escapee accounted for. Oh, and always remember to retrieve your trap." 

Ray's walkie-talkie went off on his belt. It was Egon. 

"Did you get them?" He asked. 

"We're batting .500. Slimer slipped out." Ray answered. "Danny bagged his first one though! A very nasty customer." He turned to Danny, his expression turning very serious. "Oh, and you 've got to be careful about crossing the streams. In a word: Don't do it."

Egon spoke through Ray's walkie-talkie. "Seriously." 

"Stings like the dickens too." 

------- Time Skip ------

The Ghostbusters regrouped on the main floor of the firehouse, near the footlockers. 

Ray and Egon were busy upgrading Danny's proton pack. He was the new Experimental Equipment Technician. 

"Hey, how come this mump gets all the new stuff?" Peter asked. 

"He's our new 'Experimental Equipment Technician.'" Egon replied. 

Peter gasped. "He gets a cool title, too?" 

Ray rolled his eyes. "It means he gets to carry around a bunch of untested, extremely dangerous hardware that if not handled correctly, could blow him into New Jersey." 

"Oh, this knucklehead lugs around our very dangerous hardware that could potentially blow us into New Jersey. Thanks! Keep the title, kid. It'll work hard for you." 

Danny sighed. "The reason I'm the tester is because of my blood. Well, because of what's in my blood. My mother was an ecto scientist. That means she was constantly around ectoplasm and such. I was exposed to it when she was pregnant with me. If something were to go wrong, I will most likely not be harmed an any way." 

Danny decided to tell a half-truth if Egon decided to test his blood and finds Ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Plus, it was the truth that his mom exposed him to ectoplasm when she was pregnant with him. 

"You learn something new every day." Peter muttered to himself as he headed towards Ecto-1.

Everyone surrounded Ecto-1. 

"Where to, Ray?" Peter asked Ray. 

"The Sedgewick Hotel. It's the first place the little spud will go." Ray answered. 

Egon nodded. "Right. Back to its initial manifestation point." 

"They got a real good buffet." 

"Never been there." Danny said. 

"It is a great one." Peter said." When Winston returns from the opera, extend an invitation to join us at our table at the Sedgewick." He told Janine. He then turned to Danny. "Hey, you! You're up, buddy. Training will be on the job tonight. Try not to destroy too many Manhattan landmarks.... that's our job."