Close Encounters of the Slimy Kind
A Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons/Ghostbusters
crossover
by
Birgit Stäbler, 1992
February, 2071
Captain
Scarlet climbed into the Spectrum saloon and reported to Colonel White. This
time there had been no Mysteron activity. They had only suspected it. There had
been no warning beforehand either, but Colonel White just wanted to be sure.
"Alright,
Captain Scarlet," said White via the helmet radio. "Come back to
Cloudbase."
"S.I.G.,
sir," confirmed Scarlet.
In
that moment his friend and partner Captain Adam ‘Blue’ Svenson got in.
"Recall?"
he asked briefly.
Scarlet
nodded.
"This
is the voice of the Mysterons," suddenly sounded out of the radio. Scarlet
and Blue looked at each other. Not again! "Spectrum’s time has run out. Our
vengeance will be carried out!" Then it was silent again.
"What
the devil is that supposed to mean?" asked Blue.
Scarlet
shrugged his shoulders with a ‘what are you asking me for?’ look. He had no
idea. In any case, they first had to return to Cloudbase. Perhaps they could
find out there what the target of the Mysterons was going to be this time.
***
Scarlet
and Blue stopped in front of the hotel in which they had stayed during their
time in New York. The hotel stood next to a small, rectangular building which
was protected as a historic monument – a fire station from the 20th
century. The building was now a museum for curiosities from the 20th
century. Scarlet stopped the car in the car park next to the museum and got
out. Blue followed him.
"I’ll
get our things," said Svenson. "Wait for me here."
"Okay,
if you like," said Scarlet and leaned against the wing of the red saloon.
Blue
disappeared into the hotel. He had only been gone five minutes when there was a
clanging noise. Scarlet looked up. He suddenly had a bad feeling in his stomach.
Not the usual Mysteron-feeling, something else. Some kind of forewarning. He
looked around. Between the museum and the hotel ran a narrow street. The noise
had come from there. The feeling became stronger. He went down the lane, his
gun ready. He saw nobody. Scarlet halted next to the back entrance of the
museum. The feeling had gone. Perhaps he had overreacted. He put his gun away. In
that moment he was blinded by a brilliant light which appeared directly in
front of him. An ear-piercing screaming could be heard. Something pulled and
tore at him and then everything was quiet.
Very
quiet.
No
sound could be heard.
Scarlet
blinked and looked around. He stood in some kind of large room. A vehicle was
parked in front of him. It was white with red stripes on the sides and a
strange apparatus on the top. On the trunk was a symbol that he didn’t
recognise. At the other end of the room there was a desk with a computer. Behind
it, a filing cabinet separated off the next section of the room. A steel pipe
came down from an opening in the ceiling and on the left side a staircase lead
to the upper floor. At the desk a red-haired young woman was sitting reading a
newspaper. She didn’t seem to have noticed how he got inside. Come to that… how
the devil HAD he got inside here? And where was ‘here’?
Somebody
came humming down the stairs. It was a corpulent man in his mid/late thirties. He
wore a light-brown overall and was reading a comic magazine. But that was not
what made Scarlet stiffen. By his side HOVERED a slimy green sphere with two
orange eyes. The sphere had two arms with four fingers, no legs, but a
particularly large mouth with a sparse set of teeth. The slimy sphere saw him
and uttered a bone-shattering cry. The woman at the desk looked up – and cried
out also when she saw the man with the weapon. Scarlet raised his weapon as the
thing careered around wildly and then disappeared THROUGH the wall. The man in
the overall looked up and his eyes widened. "What the…?"
***
Captain
Blue went back to the Spectrum-Saloon with two light travel-bags. He looked
around in surprise when he realised that Scarlet was not there.
"Captain
Scarlet?" he called questioningly.
He
did not get an answer. He frowned and began to search the surroundings. When
after half an hour he still had found no sign of Scarlet, he called Cloudbase.
"He
disappeared without trace?" asked White.
Blue
nodded, although he knew that the other could not see him. "Yes, Sir. I
have already searched the surrounding area. Nobody has seen him."
White
frowned and looked towards his Lieutenant. "Lieutenant Green, begin a
search! Try to localise Captain Scarlet!"
"S.I.G.,
Sir!" Green went to work.
"Captain
Blue, stay where you are. Lieutenant Green will contact you."
Blue
confirmed and the mic folded back again.
***
Captain
Scarlet was deeply confused and felt some fear. He still pointed his weapon at
the man who stood on the stairs as if rooted there.
"Who
the devil are you?" he then asked.
Scarlet
stared at the spot in the wall where the slimy sphere had disappeared. A slimy
fluid was spattered there, slowly dissolving.
"Ray?
What happened? Why did Janine yell?" someone asked from upstairs.
Then
another man appeared, in a blue-grey overall. He was blond, lean and wore
red-rimmed glasses. When he saw Scarlet he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Who
are you?" Ray asked again. Scarlet slowly lowered his weapon.
"My
name is Captain Scarlet. And who are you?"
The
man called Ray looked at his blond friend.
"My
name is Dr Ray Stantz and this is Dr Egon Spengler. May I ask what you are
doing here?"
"I
would love to know where ‘here’ is," murmured Scarlet and re-holstered his
weapon.
Then
the slimy sphere reappeared. Scarlet instinctively moved back several paces.
"What
is that?" he asked with an undertone of fear carrying in his voice.
The
green thing hovered towards him and its large orange eyes looked at him with
curiosity.
"Oh,
that is Slimer," explained Ray, who did not know why the stranger was so
afraid of the little ghost. "He is a ghost," he added.
Scarlet
paled visibly and his lips formed the word without uttering a sound.
"Ghost!?!"
he then gasped out. "Are you trying to pull my leg?"
A
third man appeared. He was dark-haired and wore a dark-brown overall. He held a
sandwich in his hand. The ghost suddenly looked very pleased, if one could call
it that. The man on the stairs three him a withering glance and stuffed the
remaining sandwich into his mouth. Slimer turned away in a huff. Then the man
saw Scarlet and like his colleague before him raised his eyebrows in astonishment.
"Are
we having an early Halloween party or something?" he asked with a full
mouth.
I
must be dreaming, thought Scarlet. He shook his head in confusion. This is all
just a DREAM!!
***
Captain
Blue was nervous. Sitting around without doing anything made him nervous. His
friend Paul Metcalfe was in trouble and nobody knew where he was. Lieutenant
Green had not been able to locate him yet either. Blue stood up and went down
the street a few paces. The old museum arose next to him. Suddenly he began to
feel strange. He heard a soft humming which grew louder and louder. He stopped
and the humming remained the same. He took one step forward and the humming
increased. Then he stepped back and the humming grew softer.
"Cloudbase,
this is Captain Blue."
Colonel
White responded.
"I
have discovered something strange, Sir," the Captain reported. "It
could be related to Scarlet’s disappearance but that is only a guess."
"Stay
at a safe distance, Captain Blue!" ordered White. "Lieutenant Shadow
is already on her way to you. I will send you further reinforcements. Give
Green the exact coordinates of your position. He will carry out a more detailed
investigation by satellite."
"S.I.G.!"
***
Captain
Scarlet sat in the lounge of the four men who lived in this house – which they
called their headquarters. The ‘ghostbusters’, as they called themselves. All
four of them sat around him and looked at him curiously. Egon Spengler had
pulled out a strange apparatus and was examining him.
"It
could be some kind of amnesia," Ray was suggesting. He looked at Scarlet
inquiringly. "Do you have any other gaps in your memory?"
Scarlet
shook his head. "I know exactly what I was doing before I suddenly
appeared here. There was also this bright light. Then I felt I was being pulled
away and when I could see again I was here."
Winston
Zeddemore frowned. "Bright light?"
Scarlet
nodded.
"Hm,"
murmured Egon.
Dr
Peter Venkman raised his head. "And now let’s have it for the uninitiated,
Egon…"
"Hm,"
Egon mused again and pushed his glasses higher up his nose. "Very
interesting. Around Captain Scarlet there is some kind of remaining aura of an
unknown type of energy. Unfortunately I cannot say what has caused it. At any
rate it is not normal for a human being."
If he knew that …., thought Scarlet, who was reminded of his alienness.
"Ah,"
said Peter.
Scarlet
threw a glance at the magazine lying on the table. News Magazine. He looked
closer, his eyes widened and he groaned.
All
four looked at him.
"It
can’t be!"
"What?"
asked Winston.
"20.02.1992."
"Of
course," said Ray, "that is the paper from last week. I haven’t got
the new one yet."
Scarlet
looked at him in horror. "You mean, this is 1992?" he asked
unbelievingly.
Ray
nodded. He looked at his friends. This guy was really strange. First he appeared
in the middle of their headquarters, then he didn’t even know how he had got
here and now this.
"I
can’t believe it." Scarlet shook his head.
"What’s
wrong with it," prodded Winston.
"About
80 years."
***
Lieutenant
Shadow pointed a scanner at the place indicated by Blue. The device hummed
softly and transferred its measurements via satellite directly to Cloudbase. She
frowned. Strange. She knew this device perfectly since she had designed it
together with Lieutenant Green. The measurements she was receiving were
completely wrong.
"Lieutenant
Green? Do you have the data?" she asked.
Green
confirmed. He would now carry out a few tests. Shadow put the valuable device
away again.
"And
now?
The
question was directed at Captain Blue. But he only shrugged his shoulders. Suddenly
they heard a noise. Blue squinted his eyes and tried to discern something in
the now murky street. Nothing. He drew his weapon.
"You
stay here and cover me! I will take a look."
Shadow
did not like this but he was the higher-ranking officer. So she just nodded.
Blue
went down the street. Strange, the humming had stopped. At that moment a
blinding white light appeared in front of him. A screaming filled the air. Blue
felt caught and torn away. He wanted to cry out but could not utter a sound.
Lieutenant
Shadow stared at the white light. She could not move. Then the light was gone. And
so was Captain Blue.
Silence…….
No
sound………
***
Four
perplexed ghostbusters looked at Captain Scarlet disbelievingly. "2070?"
croaked Peter. "This must be a bad joke!"
"I
wish it was," Scarlet said dejectedly. He was still wishing that this was
all just a dream but it had now turned out to be brutal reality.
Egon
was looking thoughtful again. "Very probably some kind of time tunnel. You
don’t happen to know what caused this phenomenon?"
He
looked at Scarlet questioningly.
He
could come up with a guess. Spectrum’s time has run out. That must have
been it. The Mysterons had struck again. And not too lightly. But how could he
explain about the aliens to these ghostbusters. Ghostbusters. That too was
really unbelievable. Scarlet did not believe in ghosts – at least up to this
point he had not. But he had seen Slimer who was in the vicinity of Peter and
still looked at him with curiosity. The small ghost also sensed the fear felt
by the stranger when he came closer. And the man had a strange aura.
"I
think I know who is responsible for this. But how they did it is a mystery to
me."
Then
again: what could he tell them? He came from the future. Would it change the
future if he told them about the danger of the Mysterons? Probably. One could
prevent the Mars expedition, or if not that, one could take a much more
cautious approach. Then he would never suffer this accident… No, he could not
change the future. There were so many unknown factors. But if he had been sent
by the Mysterons into such a ‘near’ past – would they not expect him to change
something? Or had something gone wrong…?
Egon
took out a calculator or something similar and began to put in some figures.
"You
cannot stay here, Captain Scarlet. That could have a detrimental influence on
both our and your time."
"In
what way?" He had been right!
"I
cannot tell you exactly. But you must go back."
"And
how is that supposed to work? I mean I don’t even know how I got here! And
neither why just here!"
"Hm,"
said Egon again and Scarlet saw how Peter pulled a face theatrically. "You
arrived at 13.56 hours. At that time I had just started an experiment with the
new banishing container system which is still going on at the moment. That
could be what brought you here. If that had not taken place you might still be
tumbling through time somewhere."
Scarlet
opened and shut his mouth. So that was it1 That had been the threat. He really
would have been lost in time! He had been damned lucky.
"So
you believe that you can repeat the procedure?" he asked hopefully.
Egon
weighed his head. "Stopping the experiment and restarting it does not take
a great effort. But I will have to carry out some tests. I will need an exact
description of the place where you were when the light appeared and exactly
where you got out."
Scarlet
nodded. Nothing simpler than that.
"Tell
me, Captain," asked Winston curiously, "how did you get your name? I
mean you do not look like someone from the Airforce. And you are called
‘Scarlet’ and wear red? Does that have a special meaning?"
Scarlet
smiled. The first smile the ghostbusters had seen on him. There could be no
harm in lifting this little "mystery".
"I
work for an organisation called Spectrum. All agents carry colour-codenames. Thus
the uniforms and the name."
Peter
grinned. "So for example, ‘Captain Lilac-Dotted’?" he was joking.
Scarlet
grinned as well. Slowly he started to thaw a little. "Something like
that."
At
that moment they heard another bloodcurdling scream from downstairs.
"Janine!"
called Ray and they all jumped up.
Downstairs,
exactly on the same spot where Scarlet had been standing, stood a man in a
uniform which was very similar to that of Scarlet. Only this one was blue. He
was tanned and blond and somewhat taller than Scarlet. He looked around in
confusion. When he discovered Scarlet he seemed relieved.
"Paul!"
"Let
me guess," murmured Peter. "Captain Blue."
***
"A
time tunnel??" Blue looked at his friend disbelievingly. "and
1992?" He shook his head. Man, what a story!
Scarlet
sighed. "Yes, unfortunately it is true. But Dr Spengler here already has
an idea how he might send us back."
Blue
looked at the lean man. He nodded slowly and pushed his glasses higher up the
nose again.
"It
is a theory. And I hope it works. But there is a catch…"
"And
that is?" asked Ray cautiously.
"We
can’t send the two captains back on their own. That would be too dangerous. The
energy emissions could injure them."
"Oh,"
said Blue.
"But
there is a possibility…"
***
Colonel
White was on site. That was unusual, for normally he always stayed on
Cloudbase. But this was something different. Two of his agents really had
disappeared without trace. No computer or satellite could locate their
position. Normally the position of a Captain or Lieutenant could be found with
the help of the transmitter in their helmet if they were anywhere on the
planet. But that was not the case.
And
then Green had published the results of the measurements which he and
Lieutenant Shadow had examined together: a very strong energy field existed
only a few metres in front of him in a small narrow street. The computer did
not know what kind of energy it was. It could only tell them that it was of a
very unusual type. White had arranged for the surrounding area to be evacuated.
The hotel was empty and all roads blocked. In a radius of 2 kilometres there
was, apart from the Spectrum agents, not a soul.
"Well,
Lieutenants?" asked White.
Shadow
and Green looked up from their devices. Neither looked as if they had just made
an immense discovery.
"Nothing
new, Sir."
And
then it started. First there was the noise again. It was a soft humming which
grew into a shrill scream. Then the light appeared again, in the middle of the
small street between the museum and the hotel. And then something came out of
the light. It was a car, or to be precise a white Caravan, and for those who
knew about car models, from the 20th century! On the roof there were
multi-coloured lamps, as on an ambulance, which flared up again and again. A
siren was screeching loudly. The car came out of the white light at an
incredible speed and shot down the road.
At
the end of the road stood an SPV….
***
Winston
saw a dark point appearing at the end of the light tunnel.
"That
is the exit," announced Egon calmly, as if this was a Sunday outing.
The
point quickly grew larger and then they were out. But that was only the
beginning of their problems.
"Watch
out!" Ray cried out in shock when he saw the squat thing approaching them.
Winston
wildly turned the steering wheel and stepped on the brakes. Ecto-1 lurched,
turned first to the right, then to the left, but did not slow down. Winston
trod the brakes as far as they would go. The wheels blocked and squealed. A
black tyre mark was left on the asphalt.
"Who
the devil parks his tank in the middle of the street?!?!" called Winston.
In
the back of the car Captain Scarlet gripped a support. Captain Blue sat
opposite him and was also fighting for support. Suddenly something small, green
and slimy came flying towards them. Slimer had flown to the back because of the
skidding.
"Aahhh!"
the little ghost gasped in fright.
Scarlet
saw the ghost coming towards him. Then it said ‘splat’ and he was slimed from
top to bottom. His whole uniform was covered in green goo. But Blue did not
escape unharmed either. Slimer hit him on the left side and then landed in
Peter’s lap. He pulled a face in disgust and tried to get rid of Slimer. Another
lurch of the car tore Slimer away from Peter – and through the windscreen. He
flew through the area directly towards an older man dressed in white… Winston’s
hands gripped the steering wheel as the giant vehicle came towards them. And then
Ecto-1 finally came to a stop. Winston sank back into his seat and gave a sigh
of relief. The others followed his example.
***
The
four Spectrum agents stared in amazement at the white Caravan, and with more
than amazement at Colonel White who had changed his uniform colour from white
to slimy green… Next to him a small sphere of the same slimy green with orange
goggle-eyes was hovering. A man disembarked from the vehicle. He wore a
dark-brown overall covered with the same green liquid as White’s uniform jacket
at his stomach and upper thighs. He was swaying a little.
"The
next time I do this, I’ll take a regular flight!" he groaned. "I will
never go with you again, Winston!"
Then
he looked around. Only a few centimetres from the front of Ecto-1 stood a kind
of tank. It was a vehicle with five wheels on each side and no windows. On the
surface there were three letters: SPV. And then he saw the four agents who
looked at him as if they had been struck by thunder, Slimer and Slimer’s
victim. Above him three jets were passing by. His face brightened and a grin
spread across his lips.
"It
worked, boys!" he called in delight.
Two
more men got out. One of them held a device in his hand and scanned the area. They
were followed by three others. Two of the men seemed familiar to the Spectrum
agents.
"Captain
Scarlet! Captain Blue!" gasped Captain Anthracite.
The
two looked exactly like the lower half of the overall of the first man. Only
worse – at least as far as Scarlet was concerned. He was covered with this
green substance from top to bottom. Captain Anthracite and Lieutenant Shadow
went towards the six people.
"Are
we glad to see you two again," said Anthracite relieved. "We thought
the Mysterons had got you."
Anthracite
looked at the four ghostbusters and the strange car. An oldtimer. And in damned
good shape.
"So
who are these four gentlemen here?" Shadow asked.
"And
what is that?" asked Anthracite and pointed at Slimer who had followed
them.
Blue
sighed. "That is a long story," he said.
***
Colonel
White leaned back in his chair. His uniform had been given a makeshift clean
after the encounter with Slimer. He, the four ghostbusters and the two Spectrum
Captains were sitting in the lounge of the now empty hotel. Somewhere the green
balloon was hovering about as well. Scarlet and Blue had just tried to explain,
with some help from the ghostbusters, especially Dr Egon Spengler, what had
happened in the last few days. And that was UNBELIEVABLE!
"So,"
White said slowly, "if I understand all this correctly, you, Captain
Scarlet and Captain Blue, were transferred into the past by an energy field
which was probably a work of the Mysterons. Into the year 1992."
"Something
like that, Sir," said Scarlet. "Only the plan of the Mysterons was to
send me through the timestream forever, without any chance to ever get free
again."
"But
thanks to Egon’s little experiment," added Dr Peter Venkman and gave his
colleague a friendly glance, "your Captain landed at our place. And his
colleague came just after him."
White
frowned. "And what will happen to you now?"
"Oh,"
said Dr Ray Stantz carelessly, "no worries, Colonel. We’ll go back the
same way we came. That is no problem. We just have to do it in time."
"What
do you mean, ‘in time’?" inquired White.
Egon
looked at his watch. "In about 3 hours the field will begin to close. After
that there will be no trace of it left."
White
nodded. This visit from the past was something unique. But for the four men it
was more dangerous than for Spectrum. Whatever they found out about the future
could change the past. Of course, there were fantastic possibilities concerning
the future. But they were playing with fire if they were to change anything. Nevertheless,
the temptation was great.
"Alright,
we will leave the whole area sealed off until then."
***
Barely
three hours later the four ghostbusters were standing in front of their
headquarters again – the headquarters of the year 2071.
"Man,"
murmured Winston, "how I would love to look around a bit more here."
Ray
nodded in agreement. But they could not stay and too much knowledge of the
future would only be harmful. So they held their curiosity in check. Especially
as far as these mysterious Mysterons were concerned that everyone was talking
about. Slimer was still hovering near Lieutenant Shadow and Captain Anthracite.
Ray called him and the ghost hovered towards him with a sullen expression.
"We’ll
be going now," said Ray.
"Ooh,
Ray," replied Slimer. He liked it here.
Ray
shook his head. Slimer trolled in the direction of the car. One after the other
the four ghostbusters got into their 1959 Caravan. Winston started the engine
and Egon activated the little generator that would carry out their time-jump. Then
he gave Winston a sign. He accelerated and the white car jumped forward. Peter
pressed the button that switched on the siren. Squealing, the car disappeared
in the blinding white light. Then everything was still.
***
"And
you are sure, Dr Striebeck?" asked Colonel White. The scientist nodded.
"The
field has completely disappeared. Based on its strength, the Mysterons need a
lot of energy to produce it. That is why it did not last very long. It broke
down as soon as the car disappeared in it."
If
one could trust the usual methods of proceeding the Mysterons would not use the
same tactic again. And yet, White was concerned that the Mysterons might have
the use of a time machine.
"Thank
you, Dr Striebeck," White dismissed the scientist.
Then
he turned to the report again. It was a book excerpt to be precise. About a
group of scientists from the 20th century who called themselves
ghostbusters…
***
In
the lounge there were three Captains and a Lieutenant who were all occupied
with the same historical data as Colonel White.
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