....FINALLY SOME VACATION

[basic_powers]

It's Friday morning, and right now...

The bags are packed, the extra money is in a special pocket, there's no one invading anytime soon, he has no real training, so it's a little unusual for Tyler to be in this house.

It's not the usual routine and it's great, and because in a few minutes the 'family' car pulls up into the garage and Ray will be coming to visit.

"...6:56..." The hard part was not bouncing off the walls while staring down the clock. Ray had to come exactly at 7 am.

.

.

.

.

"Ray! it's 7!!" Tyler called through the open doorway, which had formerly been the broom closet. "Come on!"

Comments

[basic_powers]

No less than what one would expect from the father of a robot daughter.

"Thank you for selecting the Clay Industries Mark 5 auto-nav system with satellite and GPS. Would you like to input your destination on the screen?"

[gone_byebye]

"All right," says Ray, since that pretty much answers his question. He leans over to poke... hm. Where were the promising lunch sites...

"Let's try the nearest SuperSonic franchise installation, shall we?"

[basic_powers]

"Please fasten your seatbelt. Would you like to obey current local traffic laws?"

[gone_byebye]

"For the moment, yes," Ray says as he settles back to snap himself in. "I reserve the right to alter or reverse that decision should the necessary conditions arise."

[basic_powers]

"Route selected."

And thus the garage door pulls open to let the packed-up car out onto the road. You have to give whoever built this car and robot credit, not only is it a very good, safe driver, the suspension work is wonder.

Ofcourse, it's only about 10 minutes of driving time to get to the school and pull up along the curb. So Ray's a little early.

"You have arrived at your first destination."

[gone_byebye]

"Excellent," Ray says. "Let's wait until Tyler's joined us before continuing any further, shall we? I'm going to get out of the car and wait, if you don't mind."

[npc238.livejournal.com]

Since the robot in the car doesn't have enough of an AI to respond to that, it stays silent and keeps the motor running. Now that it's outside, it's clear that the windows are tinted so you can't see the inside, or rather the Driver too easily in full sunlight.

And it's a beautiful sunny day today, with the temperature right around 68. Standing in front of the huge old brick school it feels almost idyllic and qui- Nevermind there's a furious five-year-old in a floating egg chair that just appeared to Ray's left.

"-CKBERRIES!! The MONKEYWHIPPED navigation is still STIRRING up!"

[gone_byebye]

Blink. Blink.

He's almost sure he ought to know who this kid is.

[npc238.livejournal.com]

Doesn't look like the kid has noticed him yet.

"Why the SKITTLES do I keep getting pulled back here...alright. Resetting travel paradgrim and vortex size...initiating.."

...maybe Ray should have stepped back another foot or so, because it looks like that school and car is melting away in a swirling vortex. It's replaced with rocky uneven ground, a swirling purple not-sky-or-space filled with glowing stars and galaxies, and a castle that looks like the future revisited the past, and mixed the architecture with their current level of building plastics.

"FRUITLOOP TWIRLING ROSARYBEARERS! Not here again!"

[gone_byebye]

The first thought through Ray's head is oh, God, Romana is going to KILL me. He shakes himself before a second can arise and says, "This happens often around here?"

It looks kind of like the Netherworld, but only kind of. Best to start off with small questions.

[npc238.livejournal.com]

Small questions nothing. Doesn't look like Zodon noticed Ray until he spoke, and judging from the sharp glance and the sneer...

"Only for you."

And he's hovering away and disappearing in a portal faster than Ray could probably catch up to.

[gone_byebye]

"Oh, for the love of cookies-"

Yep. Romana's so going to kill him. Ray shakes his head ruefully and reaches for his PKE meter. It went kind of buggy in the Netherworld, from what he remembers, but it was a buggy he'd recognize if he saw it again.

[basic_powers]

Ray's going to be very disappointed to learn that the PKE meter is not acting the kind of buggy that he would recognize. Sure there's some strange signatures and the cybertronion gylphs are reading the same pattern over and over again....

That being said, it does have some wavelengths similar to Milliways. Seeing as this is obviously NOT that wonderful bar in any way, that must mean it's a place that is similar in nature.

[gone_byebye]

"Well, I suppose it's bad form to say it, but honestly, it could be worse," Ray mutters as he puts the meter away. It's not as if he's dropped his lightsaber, after all. And the castle implies at least some measure of humanlike intelligence being present, since unspeakable things with brain-melting comprehensions of geometry usually screw up the architecture a lot more than that.

In fact, he'll be checking out the castle shortly. He's just going to go and take a careful look over the edge first.

And then he's going to head for the castle because it is LARGE and it is SOLID and they will probably have a NICE SAFE PLACE where he can put his HEAD between his KNEES and hyperventilate for a while.

[basic_powers]

Large and solid and huge, and very oddly there isn't a front door, just a big open archway. Whoever built this doesn't seem to be too concerned about security.

Then again. LARGE AND SOLID AND NOT FLOATING so.

Security.

Security that has the hallways lined with armors from several different species, if the shapes are anything to go by, and tall paintings of places that are again, likely alien. It it weren't so empty, Ray could easily say this place almost looks grown.

[gone_byebye]

"Ah," Ray calls out at the threshold, looking around, "hello? Is there an owner or a representative of the ownership present? Anyone to whom I ought to be reporting before proceeding any further?"

Mysterious castles with no people in them have a tendency to turn into fairy tales, and fairy tales are a lot less nice than people give them credit for.

[basic_powers]

The sound doesn't seem to travel very far, but is some faint noise coming from further down another hallway to the left of the fountain. It's faint and almost sounds like someone talking, but from a very great and distorted distance.

[gone_byebye]

All right, that's worth investigating.

After he tries another PKE reading, and then draws the lightsaber, but doesn't ignite it yet.

[basic_powers]

PKE meter is still reading the same as before.

From the sounds of it, whoever's talking is moving away, further down that corrider, he might want to start running. He's almost past one hallway that's framed with mirrors before the sound of talking gets just loud enough to be heard..

"....holding party here..."

[gone_byebye]

The PKE meter gets stashed immediately. "Hello?" Ray calls out, and turns to dart after the source of the sound.

POssibly not the best move, tactically speaking, but eh. What're you gonna do.

[basic_powers]

Probably not touch one of the mirrors lining the hallway to make a quick directional turn towards the source of the sound?

...especially since the reflection in that mirror doesn't match what Ray is wearing at all.

Oops.

[gone_byebye]

It's not that Ray hasn't seen the outfit before, you understand. It's just that last time he saw it, he was in the Animated Continuum, and Venkman's father was wearing it. And now he's wearing it.

And there are completely unrecognizable people- kids, practically- running around with proton packs like he hasn't seen in a decade or more.

And he's almost certain that he's supposed to be at the car dealership about now....

[basic_powers]

Other rather, the other mind he's in really wishes he were at the car dealership right now. Thinks sort of like Ray, but not enough like the gentlemen of 2003's Gozer appearance, and right now the two thought trains are giving one a major headache.

The one not having the headache is the one listening to Egon explain how this mile wide -ohgod- entity is nothing but an adolescent trying to reach full maturity...as compared to the swarm of hiveeaters from before.

"Uh guys...you better come take a look at this." Winston says, opening up the door to the roof of the firehouse. It's Ray and Venkman who're sharing the looks with the otherKyliecreepyfangirl twoEduardoVenkmanLite kids while the other oneRoland stays down to go over the equipment with Egon.

The kid in the wheelchairGarrett is already up there and looking at a fog bank rolling in. "Check it out."

It's not a fogbank. It's the entity coming in for lunch.

[gone_byebye]

Nothing good is going to come of this. Nothing good ever comes of something like this.

There's going to be tentacles, aren't there? Ginormous building-ripping people-devouring not-nice-to-THIS IS A CHILDREN'S SHOW THERE WILL BE NO MENTION OF JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRLS, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, MIND THAT ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE tentacles. There's always tentacles.

[basic_powers]

"Either that's a whoooole lotta smog blowing in from Brooklyn," Garret was saying as Ray reached down to grab the binoculars. "Or we have got a MAJOR problem."

It doesn't even take everyone but five minutes to get downstairs and get everything into the car. All eight people's worth of traps and packs with Garret and Roland riding in the equipment area.

"Ok, I gotta stupid question?"

"As opposed to?" Kylie, this is not the time to be sniping at Eduardo.

"If these things," Thumb jerked towards the proton packs. "Didn't do squat before, how is this time gonna be any different?"

"LAST time," Oh god that's definitely Ray's voice sounding all proud of his gadgets and utterly cheerful. "We didn't have the fusion adaptors on, now we've got LOTS more firepower."

"It doesn't look like the entity has reached Liberty Island yet..we have GOT to stop it before it reaches the Mainland."

It is tentacles. It is a thing coming in with the fog that would make a shoggoth tuck in all it's eyeballs and run screaming for it's nice dry, cold mountain hibernation place.

It is also trying to eat Lady Liberty as the Ray fires at it with the pack... But it's useless and now part of is wishing he'd kept at the paranormal business and in shape for the last 16 years since the drop in activity as it just keeps eating...

And the other train of thought is drifting away and glad of it...