milliways_bar | (no subject)

*Andrew's passing by on his way to the bar. He pauses by Ray's table, and peers over his shoulder at the little screen.*

It's currently on a map. There's a lot of red dots, and blue ones, and purple, and unwholesome green. There are also more healthy looking green areas scattered around, but those have angular sides. They look, in fact, like property borders.

There's very little overlap.

There are names, though- Stanford, Hobson, Moore, Neihart, Judith Gap.

Where's that?

Uh, also: hi.

"Montana," says Ray, looking up. "Red for military, blue for Department of the Interior, purple for Parks Department, the round green for corporately held, and the straight green for reasonably human-habitable property that changed hands in the last six months. Montana's a little too lumpy to build things on every square foot, so I had it draw a distinction between buildable and arable land and land that was bought or sold for mineral rights."

Oh.

*...wait.*

What's in Montana?

"This, for one thing-"

Ray zooms back out on the image until a region of angular grey lines appears, slanting across approximately five hundred square miles of the western part of the state. "Satellite interdict region. Egon says this is the area that disappeared off satellite view about two weeks ago. Something called Google Maps had to remove all their old data on the region, too. And then there's this-"

He zooms back in again. The angular green patches within the grey-line area appear. He draws a finger across the map- Dutton, Fairfield, Choteau- and stops on a largely empty portion. Empty, that is, save for an angular green region with glowing lettering on it:

Environmental Protection Agency Special Project: Foliage Census

...uh-huh.

And what's really there?

"K doesn't know," Ray says quietly. "He's never heard of the project. Neither have I."

He looks at the map with a faintly sour expression.

"All I know is, the Environmental Protection Agency's never been a friend to any world's Ghostbusters... and like I said, the satellite images went away two weeks ago. Right around the time the other me vanished. This is about as remote as you can get within the continental United States without involving the nuclear testing zones of the Nevada desert. There's no electrical lines running out that way, no water lines, no roads- that's the big thing. There's no roads at all leading to this Foliage Census project." He pushes the device away. "I'm pretty sure that's where they're holding the other me."

... right then.

*Andrew's gaze sharpens alarmingly.*

There a plan yet to bust him out of there?

"You'd have to talk to Egon," Ray says. "I got the information for him, and me and Agent K collated it all and got it in here so that it could be analyzed, but I haven't had the chance to talk to him about it. I'm afraid my part in the whole thing's over, except for the part where I go home."

He's been happier.

Oh. Right, because -- you wouldn't be able to travel to his world with him still there.

"Yeah," Ray says. "It's weird to have to sit on the sidelines. I mean, the guy's practically my brother and I can't help him. It really stinks."

Yeah, it does. Sorry.

...So who all's going?

Ray sighs. "Egon is," he says. "Both of him. Peter's going. Foxtrot X-Ray's going. I think Danny Phantom's going. I'm not sure who else is going, since this is just the rescue mission. They'll be going after the people responsible once they've got the names and addresses sorted out."

...both of huh?

"Oh, the Egon from my universe is here, and so is the Egon from Ray's universe," says Ray. "You can't miss him. Tall, skinny, glasses, real sober face, weird brown hair."

And they're both gonna try to make it into Ray's -- into the other Ray's universe?

Be interesting to see if that works.

"Well, there's been two Peters Venkman in the other me's universe at the same time," Ray says. "And there's been two Peters Venkman in my universe at the same time, too. And now there's two Egons in the Bar at the same time. It's like it's just me who doesn't get to double up."

Hardly seems fair.

"No kidding," Ray agrees. "On the other hand, it's probably for the best. I mean, think what Foxtrot X-Ray would be like if there were two of me in the Bar at once."

... Theologically confused, I guess.

"Or he'd start talking Trinity doctrine," says Ray.

*Andrew facepalms a bit.*

He might just.

"Right, so it's probably better for everybody that the doubling-up can't happen," Ray says. "Foxtrot's already a little weird."

Pyro walks by, and hears the word "foliage".

What? A pyrokinetic interested in things that burn?

Never... (and can't you just feel the sarcasm?)

In any case, Pyro is nearby, and fire is a good defoliant.

Ray glances up, maybe feeling the eyes on him. "Hello?" he says curiously. "Can I help you, sir?"

"Maybe. I heard the term 'Foliage Census Project'... is that some part of the government, wherever you come from?"

If there's a certain amount of derision on the word "government", it's because Pyro puts no trust in the US government in his own world... they're trying to take away his life.

Not kill him, mind you, just take away his life, and that might be worse.

Ray wrinkles his nose. "It's apparently part of the government where an alternate version of me comes from," he says. "We think it might be doing something really, really illegal with my alternate. I mean, we know something illegal is being done with my alternate- we just haven't got proof yet that it's them."

"An alternate you..." Pyro mutters. "Weird."

He doesn't question the bit about a faction of the government doing something illegal... happens everywhere, as far as he's concerned.

"What are you, anyway?" Pyro asks

He can see that the man in front of him is human (or at least humanoid), but he seems to be wearing a jumpsuit with a logo.

For some reason, this is stranger to him than the chick with scales.

"Yeah. There's at least six different dimensional alternates of me that I know of, not to mention my colleagues, but I seem to be the only one with the kind of spatiotemporal inertia that means there can only be one of me in any given universe at any given time." He shrugs. He's used to the idea by now.

"Hm? Oh, I'm a Ghostbuster." He fishes out an ID card from the State of New York and holds it out for inspection, along with a Ghostbusters, Inc. business card. The state ID is from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (Sanitation Division) and authorizes Raymond Stantz to hunt, trap, incarcerate, and remove any and all supernatural, paranormal, or extradimensional entities that pose an active threat to the health, livelihood, or well-being of the people of the five boroughs of New York City. "My name's Ray Stantz. Pleased to meet you, sir."

Pyro was lost somewhere around 'spaciotemporal'.

"Spacio...huh," he mutters.

Pyro looks at the ID and wonders if, in Ray's universe, he would be considered an extradimensional entity posing "an active threat to the health, livelihood, or well-being of the people of the five boroughs of New York City". Are alternate universes different dimensions?

"So there's more of you?" He asks as he finally wraps his mind around the general gist of the first statement.

Ray has that effect on people. A lot. No, seriously, there's a line of notches carved into his proton pack upstairs- one for every person whose eyes glazed over because he explained something to them.

It's a long line.

Ray puts the wallet away. "Three of us, yeah," he says. "Dr. Spengler, Dr. Venkman and I used to be parapsychology professors at Columbia University. We formed the business when our grant went away. Winston Zeddemore hired on after we'd been in operation a while and we needed more help."

"So there's more of you, and there's more of you?"

Alternate versions of one individual? That's like something out of that stupid early-90's sci-fi show... "Jumpers" or something. Then again, he's already met an alternate version of his boss.

"Name's Pyro. I burn things," he says by way of introduction. He may not be pleased to meet Ray Stantz, but he isn't displeased, either.

"Well- there are other Ghostbusters, but there's me, there's the me who usually comes here, there's the me who's from the universe of the Peter who usually comes here, there's the me from the universe where we never lost our grant, and there's the me who became one of the Men in Black instead. I can never remember where the last one is from."

For him this is perfectly normal conversation.

"Very pleased to meet you, Pyro," Ray says. "Considering what the local population of powered individuals is like, I'm guessing that's a reference to pyrokinesis?"

"Yes."

That's said with the arrogance of someone who thinks the person they're talking to should have already guessed.

Then Pyro realizes something; he hadn't told Ray he's a mutant.

"How'd you know?"

"That's exactly the kind of thing I used to study at Columbia before the ghosts became a viable income stream," Ray says happily. "All of the psychic powers, actually- psychokinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, pyro- and cryo-kinesis, prolepsis, catalyst telepathy- you name it. That's what parapsychologists do, or at least what we did."

"Oh."

Well. Pyro's not sure whether he's relieved that there are others with his abilites in non-XMen dimensions, or not.

"Well, what about the other Ray? And the government?"

Pyro knows about being chased by the government. It's kinda how he found his way to Milliways in the first place.

Ray sighs. "Well, the short version is that in pretty much every universe where we exist, Ray Stantz is a tech genius. I mean, I don't know about your world, but in mine nuclear accelerators were the size of entire university buildings- and between myself and Dr. Spengler we've made it possible to reduce them down to packs you can wear on your back. Apparently the Ray who usually comes here did so much with technology that somebody decided they wanted to speak to him alone for a really long time. He's been missing for several weeks now." He taps the screen on the little computer in front of him. "Though why they'd use the Environmental Protection Agency's project to do it I don't know, other than the fact that the EPA's always had it in for us."

"Do you always talk about yourself in the third person?" Pyro asks.

"And yeah, nuclear reactors... accelerators are reactors, right?... they're usually pretty big. Haven't ever seen one in person, though... haven't needed to blow one up."

He wrinkles his nose.

"What does that have to do with foliage?"

"Only when I'm talking about the other versions of me," Ray says. "It wouldn't be right to say 'I' when I'm talking about someone whose thoughts I'm not thinking, would it? He's him, I'm me, we're all Ray Stantz- well, except for Agent Rho, but he used to be. He's the Man in Black."

"A nuclear accelerator is an electrical device that generates charged particles, such as electrons, protons and ions, at high energy. Most of them are used for either scientific research or the production of computer parts or the occasional X-ray device for cancer treatment. It's a little different from a reactor, but it's still pretty dangerous. We wear them and use them to zap and trap ghosts."

"And it has nothing at all to do with foliage, but we think maybe the EPA's using the project to cover up the kidnapping."

"...oh."

Pyro is disappointed. No foliage means not so much burning.

Well, he could always burn the bar, but it's been awfully nice to him, all things considered.

"Guess I can't be much help, then."

"Well, there's going to be some righteous chastisement later," Ray says. "Once they've rescued the kidnap victim, Dr. Spengler says he wants to lay a serious smackdown on the guys who did it. That probably means a hardened installation somewhere with plenty of government people who could use a good kick in the pants."

I'm better with the burning than the kicking, personally," Pyro admits.

Plus, the door? He can see it, and he's probably going to wander out sometime soon, because Hello, new canon!

"But if I'm around..."

"Oh, I meant metaphorically. But sure- I'll tell Egon before I leave tomorrow, so he knows to look for you. Thank you."

"Hey, anything to screw over the government. Even if it is some other universe's version."

Pyro? Might be smirking.