The Universe's Mixer

The day was crystal clear. Warm, even, considering what time of year it was. Kids were happily running around the park wearing their shorts and maybe a light sweater. Flowers had bloomed unseasonably. Bees and butterflies busied themselves while birds sang.

To top it all off, in a nice grassy area some picnic tables popped up. They were all covered in food and drink. A big banner unfurled across a nice space that could be seen from the road. It touted "Annual City Picnic" in bold black lettering.

Liz was bored. Not a lot had been going on with The Ghostbusters, and although Liz appreciated having the job, she wished there was more excitement.

She lit a cigarette as she stepped down the apartment stairs to head to work. She liked smoking while she walked, but to be perfectly honest, she liked to smoke while she did almost everything.

One thing that she had noticed was that her powers seemed to be more under control here in The City. Nothing seemed to make the fire want to burn, not unless she told her powers that it was time. She liked that. She felt like she had more freedom when her powers were under control.

She strolled down the street, not paying any attention to where she was going.

Snow was amazing stuff! Jeannie had not had a whole lot of experience with the frozen precipitation in the past, only having been exposed to it a few times previously. It simply did not snow where she had come from. And there really was not much snow in Florida either, unless she caused it. Well, it had been Christmas, and really, many people were wishing for it, not just her master.

But she had not had a chance then to play in it as she was doing now. Wrapped securely in a pink rabbit fur coat with little red tassels at the end of the hood ties, Jeannie dug her mittened hands into the drift next to her red boots. She packed a rather large wad of the semi-sticky stuff together, then began to roll it about, allowing gravity to make more snow stick. She rolled and rolled until she had a rather sizable ball, then she stood back to gauge her progress. Not quite big enough, she judged, so Jeannie went back to work.

When the ball had finally reached the height of her hip and she was reduced to blinking the huge and heavy snowball in order to make it roll over, Jeannie decided that might be big enough. She packed snow around the base of the ball, making sure that it would be secure and would not roll one way or another. A bit more snow was added here and there, evening the surface, creating a perfect sphere.

Pleased with the beginning of her project, Jeannie turned to create the next section. She had never before made a snowman, but it was a great deal of fun! She could, of course, blink a number of them into existence, but that would defeat the purpose. She wanted the experience, and thus far, she was enjoying it. She could hardly wait until she got to put the top hat on her new creation!

While most people celebrated their winter holiday of choice with family and friends, or at least with a TV or radio simulating that warmth, Lee worked on drinking herself blind at a bar. How could she not? The whole affair was like a perpetual reminder that she had been kicked out.

"Another one, and keep 'em coming," she told the bartender. He was only still serving her drinks because she had helped save his ass during that weird zombie attack, and even that gratefulness was wearing thin. She was drinking more than usual tonight, and no wonder. Where was her son? What was he doing right now, all these years after she had given him up? Did he hate the sappy-assed songs about snow and togetherness and all that crap as much as she did?

"You got any plans tonight, boss?" she mumbled skyward. She waited a minute, but no answer came. "Same to you," she said, turning her attention back to her drink and wishing for blessed unconsciousness.

God, she hated Christmas.

There's a room filled with 500 rare and expensive birds. They all need to be caged, individually, and carefully. No feather must be out of place. No bird harmed. Magic doesn't work on them. There are perches high in the room that the birds can get to easily, and the birds themselves have rather sharp beaks.

It had been over three weeks since the zombies had come.

And Liz Sherman was exhausted and alone. She’d been doing what she could to save people and at first she had found a few survivors, but in the past week, there had been none.

The few that were alive were terrified. There was little food left, and who knew when this was all going to end?

Liz walked down the empty street and lit a cigarette. She was too busy looking down to notice the shadow in the alley. And when the shadow came out, she had her eyes closed as she inhaled the nicotine into her lungs. By the time she noticed she was being attacked, it was too late. She had been bitten. She was able to throw the creature off of her and flame him, but she felt sick already.

She turned away from where she knew there were survivors and she walked. She walked as far and as fast as she could. And as she walked, waves of dizziness and nausa hit her. She knew that soon she would be one of the them.

She sat down heavily on a bench, terrified of what she could do as a zombie. And she sat there as the change happened and soon, there was no thinking except for that of eating flesh.

The zombies had taken over quickly.

So quickly in fact that she had had to protect herself using fire to make it to her work.

She knew that her boss, Dr. Venkman would be there. And she wanted to try and help any other innocents along the way. She'd found a couple of people cowering in an alleyway. They had made it through only by luck. But they weren't safe, so she brought them along.

There was a basement in the Ghostbuster building where there was only one entrance. It would be safe enough to hide out.

Her flame came in very handy when it came to flaming zombies.

It was amazing how quickly they went up in flames.

She opened the door to quickly, yelling, "Where are you Dr. Venkman? I have some people who need a place to hide out. Hello?? Dr. Venkman?"

It had been weeks of missed opportunities and schedule conflicts. The Ghostbusters were supposed to meet with this George girl who seemed to be a focal point for the victims of the killing spree. Unfortunately, every time they planned to meet, some other case came up. Vampire dregs, zombies, various harmless cryptids, and more often than not, they arrived at the scene to find someone had done their work for them with little more than stakes and shotguns. The vigilantes of the city didn't have red tape to navigate. They were off the books, and didn't have to fill out twelve forms every time they set foot in a haunted house.

Finally, an opening appeared in the schedule, and they arranged to meet George.

"Yeah, I know, Liz. So far, it's probably not as exciting as your last job," Dr. Venkman encouraged the glum-looking young woman in the passenger seat of the Ecto-1. "But it can't be the end of the world every week. That only happens every ... well, *once*, I guess. So, come on. Buck up, sunshine. We'll get to bust some ghosts pretty soon." He gave her shoulder a vigorous, paternal rub. "Hey, you wanna run the siren?"

It was one her days off (she was enjoying those), and as she smoked and wandered around the city park she thought about the things that she knew about the place she was in:
1. She was in The City.
2. The people who were here were not from her world.
3. She had a jobs and could keep up her smoking habit.

Actually, being on her own wasn't so bad. She did miss Red. And she missed her relationship with Abe.

She sighed as she walked, her thoughts in a totally different place than the park she was in.

Sure it was just down the street, but why not take the ECTO-1? She'd been collecting dust for the last few weeks. Time to open her up and tear around the City with the lights and sirens. Wake up the neighbors.

"Watch this," Peter said smugly to his new employee in the passenger seat. Already going at about forty miles per hour down city streets, he made a hard right turn at an intersection. When the heavy equipment atop the car might have ordinarily caused it to roll, the hydraulics automatically kicked in. Lifting the left side of the car on the outside of the turn, it countered the shifting mass, then set it down gently again as the car resumed a straight drive. Peter laughed in triumph. "Ha ha! Man, I love being a Ghostbuster!"

A block later they had arrived at their destination: some kind of head shop. Peter was used to these places - Ray and Egon owned one during their brief unemployment phase - but that didn't stop him from looking around with bemused fascination as he entered.

It had only recently become aware of the concept of monster movies. In this new body, this new form, it had taken to doing some more human things. One of them had to been to visit something called a video store, rent some videos and find some place to watch them. Since it was The City itself, it just made a house with everything it needed.

One of those videos happened to be Godzilla, featuring a giant angry lizard. It sat intrigued through the whole thing and bolted to it's feet at the end, fresh with a new idea.

There would be a zoo in The City. It would collect animals to put them on display. The City didn't currently have a zoo of it's own, which was sort of sad for the children. But they'd grown up here so they didn't really have a concept of what a zoo was. They would love this.

It would get Godzilla. The monster couldn't be that big, could it? After all, it had ransacked and Japan was a small place to begin with. Just an island. Sort of like The City, only ... different. Plus it had stayed mostly in Tokyo. One city.

After Godzilla, it would get some dinosaurs maybe. A unicorn. A phoenix. Dodo birds. Things that people would know but had never seen in their lives. It would be fantastic. Everybody would be filled with wonder. They would be pleased by what The City had given them.

Retrieving Godzilla as it had everybody else, The City suddenly realized that it had not only misjudged the creature's size, but also it's intelligence and determination. The cage that had been constructed turned out to be rather flimsy.

Just as one of the lesser writers for The City Voice was receiving information about the zoo for an article, Godzilla broke loose.

( OOC )

Peter Venkman strutted around on top of a folding table outside the huge doors of the old firehouse. He pulled a few silly dance moves and mock "rock-out" faces to the delight of the children, as Ray Parker Jr.'s (now official) anthem played on a vintage 1990 boombox.

"If there's somethin' strange," Venkman crooned into his micophone along with the music, "in your neighborhood ... who you gonna call?" He held out his microphone and the children answered him enthusiastically.

Beneath his feet, draped over the table, was a banner indicating an Open House. Stickers and temporary tattoos bearing the logo were stacked here and there, as were pamphlets about the services the company rendered (with no mention of price ranges).

He hopped off the table, strode over to one kid's attractive mom and put his hand on her shoulder. Microphone still in hand, he continued to follow the music. "Lemme tell you somethin' - bustin' makes me feel goo-ood!" Then, retreating to the table again, he spoke. "All right, you guys. That's all for Doctor Venkman right now. I'll be around signing autographs later. Remember, kids, you can pick up an official Ghostbusters T-shirt for twenty American dollars. Just ask your parents' permission. Sad puppy eyes - that's the key. Tug on those heartstrings, kids. All right, thanks! You've been a wonderful crowd! Good night, City!"

A bit breathlessly, Venkman trotted into the station. "Hey anybody see a ghost somewhere? Hi. How's it going. Enjoying yourself? Whoop! Watch it with that thing. I'm not wearin' my proton-proof vest." He proceeded to mingle, looking for anyone with a question.

Liz wandered the streets of the Fae Market. She’d been on a case for the B.P.R.D., but she couldn’t find Roger or Abe. That made no sense, the market wasn’t THAT large. She was getting frustrated. None of her equipment was working and she didn’t like the fact that she was no longer in touch with her team mates.

She tried to fiddle with her comm unit, but she got no response. Again.
“Dammit Abe, answer me.” She spoke into the non-responsive speaker.

No response.

She could feel the anger light the fire within her. Breathing slowly she leaned against the wall. She would not loose control.

She heard the footstep behind her, but she didn’t have time to turn around before she fell into unconsciousness and felt nothing more.

--------

When she woke up it was to a pounding headache and the smell of the outside.
Rising slowly she put her hand through her hair and felt the bump. She swore at the tenderness, and then focused on the fact that she was no longer underground.

She looked around, but she was just outside on a street.
No one was around. It was in the wee hours of the morning, she could tell that much.

Confused and with her head pounding she walked up the street a little. She didn’t recognize anything and she desperately wanted a cigarette.