Slimed by Gozilla

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Glad you're enjoying this. I hope to post an update or two over the weekend.
Did you notice who's ghost Dr. O'Shay was 'haunted' by ?

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Cobalt slowly pushed the door to the apartment open, while holding the PKE meter at arm's length. “Venkman explained to me how to operate this thing,” he told Yuko, “so why don't you wait outside until I've checked the entire apartment.”

“Check the 'fridge too, Coby,” Yuko said.

“Hai,” Cobalt nodded, as he walked inside. He scanned about with the PKE meter, holding it like it was a Geiger counter. The device made a soft continuous clicking sound, but as far as Cobalt could tell, it was only giving a background reading. He pulled the door to the refrigerator open, and removed a container of very sour milk. Other than the spoiled cow juice, the appliance contained nothing threatening. Next he walked into the bedroom. The queen sized poster bed's sheets were pulled loose and sat in the middle of the bed rolled up into a ball, but other than needing to be made up, it too was normal. Kobaruto waved the PKE meter under the bed, but still only got the background reading. There were no monsters hiding under there.

“It looks safe in here to me,” he yelled.

Yuko slowly padded into the flat. “Arigatōgozaimashita, Kobaruto Kun,” she said. “Looks like I'll have to tidy up a bit before I can sleep here.”

“I'll help,” Cobalt replied.

The two of them quickly filled several 10 gallon trash bags with spoiled food, after Yuko restocked the refrigerator with some items that she'd brought over in a cooler chest. Cobalt vacuumed the carpet in the bedroom and swept the kitchen floor, while Yuko put clean sheets on her bed. A few squirts of Febreze put the finishing touches on their job.

“Boy, I could sure use a hot drink to relax me,” Yuko sighed.

Cobalt spotted a metal tin labeled 緑茶 in the pantry, and put a 300ml pyrex measuring cup filled with water in the microwave. He dropped a single teabag in a mug, and poured the boiling water into it.

“I made you some ryokucha,” he said, handing the mug to Yuko.

She grabbed the mug by the handle and took a sip of the green liquid.

“Arigatōgozaimashita,” she sighed, “I needed that.”

After rinsing the empty mug in the sink, and putting it into the dishwasher, Yuko walked into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. She undressed, and put on her nightgown. “I'm going to turn in now, Kobaruto Kun,” she said. “You can sleep on the sofa in the living room.”

“Leave your door open, Yuko Chan,” Cobalt told her. “I'll keep one eye open all night, just in case!”

[Kitty Lue]

Did you notice who's ghost Dr. O'Shay was 'haunted' by ?

Aha! made an appearance!

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Atlas made a gentle vertical descent in front of the hangar's lift gate door. Like the mythological god he was named for, he carried a huge object on his shoulders which he deposited on the hangar floor with a resounding thud. Venkman turned around quickly when he heard the noise.

“Hey, Egan, Ray!”, he yelled, “the containment device is here!”

“You know you could thank me,” Atlas huffed, “Me and the entire robot machine shop crew worked our asses off for two days straight getting this thing built to your ludicrously insane specifications!”

“ Arigatōgozaimashita,” Spengler replied, running towards Atlas, quickly inspecting the finished product. He examined the welds under an eye loupe, and then ran his fingers over the painted surface. “The workmanship is perfect, I've never seen such quality construction in my life.”

Atlas glared at Astro, “Well, I'm glad somebody appreciates my hard work.”

“Can you please give us a hand moving this closer to the power panel on that wall?”, Ray asked, pointing. “Or should I look for a forklift?”

“Well since you used the magic word,” Atlas grinned, “I'll do it.” The red and blue robot grabbed the heavy steel box, and lifting it over his head, set it down in the space that had already been marked out for it by a painted outline on the floor. He then connected the power cables, as indicated on the schematics attached to the device, and the panel.

“My god, you're strong,” Venkman gasped, “That thing weighs several tons!”

“Child's play,” Atlas boasted. “Well thanks to you my normal workload schedule has been shot to hell. I have no time to chat with you guys, and I need to get back to my usual grind before things get even more backed up. Have fun with your new toy!” With that he rocketed out of the building and flew away.

Ray pointed to the pile of traps lying in a heap in a corner of the building, their red warning lights blinking. “We need to empty those traps before they melt down, somebody give me a hand?”

The three ghostbusters each grabbed two traps, one in each hand, and carried them over to the containment device. Egan powered up the high voltage laser containment vessel and waited for the green ready light indication before opening the access door and shoving one of the traps inside. He closed the door, and threw the large transfer switch to open the field. The device made a loud electrical whine for several seconds while the status light glowed yellow. The noise then dissipated and the light turned green. Ray pulled the handle on the access door and removed the trap, which was no longer blinking red. “Trap is empty, but needs to be recharged,” he announced, tossing it onto the workbench.

One by one the traps were emptied, Astro and Reno also joined in the bucket brigade, carrying loaded traps over to the storage device to be emptied.

“Well that's all two dozen of them,” Venkman announced, as he plugged the last trap into the recharging rack. “We're ready for action.”


In my head canon, Atlas, while still a pain in Astro's rear, now works as the head of the Ministry's robotic machine shop. The one human who he is usually respectful to is Dr. O'Shay.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Dr. O'Shay got in early to find Yuko already at her desk, happily humming to herself. “You seem to be in a good mood,” he said.

“First good night of sleep I've had in nearly a week,” she replied. “With Cobalt keeping guard, I slept like a baby.”

“I'll have to ask him how his night went,” the professor laughed, as Astro entered the room.

“Heard you coming,” O'Shay said looking up.

“I know, my boots squeak,” Astro laughed.

“I hope things were quiet last night for the Ghostbusters,” the professor said, looking at his computer screen. “Oh dear, there seems to be an email from inspector Tawashi. He attached some items from the police blotter. Seems there were three incidents at onsens, two in a capsule hotel, and a spectral streaker in the subway.”

“I know,” Astro sighed. “I spent the night in the hanger, though I didn't go out with the guys.”

“You need some down time?”,O'Shay asked.

“I'll go check and see if Reno is in and can give me a hot oil bath and an ultrasonic degunking,” Astro answered on his way out.



'Bleeep Bleeep', O'Shay's video phone trilled. He pressed the answer button to see Egan Spengler's tired face on the monitor. “Can you see me, Hakase?”

“Hai,” the professor answered, “I think you got our video phone system figured out.”

“Good,” Ray answered. “Is Yuko Chan back in her apartment?”

“She slept there last night with Cobalt guarding her. Seems she had a quiet night.”

“That's good,” Egan replied. “I've been keeping track of the number and location of our calls. It seems we get most of them after sundown, but we did have two at high noon earlier in the week. Most of them have been in a 10 mile radius of Yuko's apartment building, though in the last 48 hours that circle has been growing smaller. If Yuko is going to remain in her apartment, and I really think she should move out until we get things more under control, I'll want Cobalt to maintain a constant monitor on PKE background readings during the night and get her the hell out of there if he notices any sudden increase in those readings Something is brewing, and I expect it to reach a crescendo anytime now.”


As soon as he hung up with Egan, the phone trilled again, this time it was the police inspector calling. “You get my email, O'Shay?”, Tawashi asked.

“Hai, I just read it,” the professor replied.

“Things seem to be getting worse, not better,” the inspector barked.

“I know,” O'Shay voiced. “I just got off the phone with Egan Spengler. The Ghostbusters think things are going to get worse, before they get a handle on it.”



Back at the hanger, the boys had set up some surplus army cots with futons as mattresses, and had zonked out. The lights in the huge room had been turned down, and except for the sound of snoring, the building was quiet. The intercom link to the police remained silent all day, and they actually got a good eight hours of shuteye. Peter Venkman was the first to stir, his stomach growling from hunger. He walked towards the closed overhead doors and looked out through the window slits, noticing that it was now twilight. “Hey you guys, anybody up?”, he asked. “Seems we've slept all day.”

Ray Stantz opened one eye, “Wow, it's been quiet all day,” he announced.

Egan Spengler got his feet on the floor and made his way over to the computer screen. “Nothing odd has been reported on the police blotter either,” he said, bringing up the status monitor for the containment vessel. “The level of psychic energy has remained constant,” he announced, “Something's wrong. We've been having a build up of PKE readings at an increasing rate over the last few days, why has it leveled off?”

“Maybe 'cause we've got the ring leaders trapped in there,” Peter said, pointing at the large red chamber near the wall.

“I don't think so,” Egan said I a worried voice. “Something's going to happen, and soon, If it remains quiet tonight, I'll really be scared.”


Yuko Kisaragi* shut down her computer and organized her desk. “I'll see you tomorrow, Hakase,” she said.

“Goodnight,” the professor replied, reaching for the intercom button. “But don't leave just yet, I want to make sure that Cobalt accompanies your again tonight.”

Kobaruto peeked into the office, “I'm here, Hakase.” he announced.

“Very well,” Yuko laughed. “Coming home with me, Coby?”

“Hai,” the lanky robot said, “'night Hakase!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

“Sumimasen Menyuu o onegaishimasu,” Egan yelled across the room, waving his hand.

A pretty young woman waved back, and hurried over, “Hai!”, she answered, dropping a large folded leaflet in front of each of the Ghostbusters seated at the circular table in the middle of the restaurant.

“Mizo, o onegaishimasu,” Egan asked, holding up an empty glass.

“Hai, shou omachi kudasai,” the waitress replied as she walked back to the kitchen. She returned a minute later holding a pitcher of ice water, and filled each of the glasses on the table.

“Doumo,” Egan replied, still running his finger up and down the menu.

“Can you understand any of this?”, Peter asked, pointing to the menu.

“Some,” Spengler replied. “I'm not very good with Kanji, but fortunately most of the important things are duplicated in kana, which I can read.”

“When did you learn Japanese?”, Ray asked.

“I taught myself just enough to read Manga at a 6th grade level,” Egan replied.

“Let me guess,” Peter dead panned, “Pokemon.”

“Sailor Moon, actually” Spengler replied.

With Egan's help, the three of them managed to order dinner. Stantz and Spengler managed to master the chopsticks, but Egan had to ask the waitress for a fork for Venkman. An hour later, after a leisurely dinner, they left the restaurant and walked back to where the truck was parked.

“Thanks for the recommendation, Sarge,” Ray said. “That was an excellent restaurant.”

“I told you I know this town,” the robot truck replied. “Now should I take you back to your hotel, or the hangar?” Egan hesitated before getting back in the truck. He looked skywards toward center of the city. “Look, you see the light against the sky?”, he asked, pointing to the top of a tall building.

“Oh no,” Peter replied, “Looks like deja-vu all over again”.

“I'm afraid so,” Ray sighed. “I think we'd better go back to the hangar, just in case. We might be needed tonight.”



Yuko's apartment was in the corner of the building on the topmost occupied floor. Above her apartment the building narrowed, and the top two floors contained utility rooms for air conditioner compressors, elevator host motors, electrical junction boxes, and water tanks. Along the tops of the facades surrounding the outside of the building were several grotesque statues. These gargoyles faced inward, and looked up towards the top of the building, where a chromed spire pointed upward at the sky from the tip of the roof. Lighting flashed between the clouds directly overhead, and the eyes of the concrete beasts glowed red.

Yuko tested the temperature of her bath water with her elbow. It was just a bit on the cold side, so she turned up the temperature control. Cobalt was sitting in front of the television set in the recliner chair. “Are you getting ready for bed, Yuko Chan?”, he asked.

“Hai, Kobaruto,” she replied, “I'm getting my bath water ready, I'm going to shower and then soak for awhile.”

“OK,” the lanky robot replied, “Just holler if you need me!”.

Yuko undressed in her room and then wrapped a towel around herself to walk into the bathroom. She knew she shouldn't feel uncomfortable appearing naked in front of Cobalt, he was, after all a robot, and couldn't feel lustful towards her. He was really like an innocent child and a knight in shinning armor rolled into one, just as Astro was. But his image was so perfectly human looking, and she was used to covering herself up with the towel anyway.

Once inside the bathroom she latched the door by force of habit, something she knew she didn't need to do, and maybe under the circumstances was a bad idea. With the bath water now at a comfortable temperature, Yuko hung up her towel and turned on the shower. She quickly lathered herself up, and rinsed off, twice, before lowering herself into the tub. The warm water felt good, and she lay back, leaning against the wall. Not quite as good as being at an onsen, she thought, but almost.

Cobalt heard the shower water run for a few minutes, followed by the splash of the tub water. Suddenly, a loud crash came from the kitchen. He got up out of the recliner chair and ran quickly towards the sound. The door of the refrigerator slammed open, and a voice growled “ZOUL!” as what looked like a cross between a bear and a bull ran towards him. Cobalt felt himself crashing through the apartment wall, and he was then thrown through the closed elevator doors in the hallway. He fell down the shaft, and was then knocked silly by the sudden stop at the bottom. Cobalt quickly came to his senses and pushed the doors open on the ground floor and climbed out, only to be chased out of the building by the monster that had tackled him upstairs in Yuko's apartment.

Yuko noticed that the bath water had seemed to have gotten warmer. She leaned over to turn down the temperature control, but the knob appeared to be stuck. Suddenly the water around her began to bubble and glow red. She jumped from the tub and tried to open the bathroom door, but the latch was stuck. A loud grow came from the tub, as a dark hairy beast with horns emerged from under the bath water and charged at her. She pounded on the door, trying to open it to no avail. She could smell the stench of the beast's hot breath on her face as she fainted and passed out.

[Kitty Lue]

Gah! Now I have to wait to see what happens to Cobalt and Yuko! D:
Hope to see another post soon, it's turning out great.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Police inspector Tawashi was sitting in his police car across the street from Yuko's apartment building, right in front of the glass walled dining area of a popular steak house. He'd called in for takeout, and was waiting for a text message on his cell phone informing him that the order was ready to be picked up. Suddenly a familiar figure dashed past the front of his car, followed by what looked like a savage beast. Kobaruto smashed through the glass door, creating a cloud of shards, the wild animal chasing him made an equally large hole in the wall right next to the door. The inspector quickly grabbed the police radio microphone hanging on the dashboard, and yelled into it his location and a description of the emergency, before charging into the melee.


The four concrete gargoyles surrounding the central structure on the roof of the building glowed fire red as their rock like skin crumbled away, revealing their inner beast. The hideous creatures dismounted from their concrete pedestals and made their way towards a large doorway in the central structure. There they waited, in anticipation of their master's appearance.


Dazed and confused, Yuko slipped into a loose, revealing dress she removed from the back of her closet. Her hair blew loose in the breeze as she exited from the front door of the apartment building and wandered towards the lights of the downtown area of the city. With a mindless expression on her face, she looked about the crowd of people out for the nightlife, looking for the special being. Standing in front of a shop selling popular manga, stood a number of fans, dressed in cosplay. Yuko's eyes lite up and she approached them. “Is one among you the keymaster?” she asked.


Cobalt picked himself up from the floor and dusted himself off. He made his way through the crowd of people that were running away from the beast that had decimated the dining area under the glass roof. He then bumped into the inspector, looked into his face, and asked, “Are you the gate keeper?”


Ray Stantz jumped quickly when the red phone that had been installed in the hangar trilled loudly. “Moshi Moshi”, he got out, and then heard the inspector's voice. “Right,” he replied, as the sound of Tawashi's police siren grew louder.

Cobalt was led, handcuffed to the inspector, into the hangar. Tawashi then sat him down in an available chair. “I found him dazed and discombobulated in the wreckage of a restaurant after he and a cougar or a bear ran amuck through the place,” he said, “What do you guys make of this?”

Egan held a PKE meter in front of Cobalt and watched as the LED's mounted on the motorized arms scanned up and down, blinking madly. “Where did this happen,” he asked the inspector.

“Right in front of that old landmark building they just converted into apartment housing,” Tawashi said.

“That's Yuko Kisaragi's place,” Peter yelled out.

Looking droopy, Cobalt reached towards Egan, and pulled a pen from his shirt pocket protector, and took a bite out of it. “Are you the gate keeper?” he asked.

“This is incredibly bad,” Egan voiced. “If he thinks he's the keymaster, and is looking for the gate keeper,”
“Then Yuko's in danger!”, Peter completed his sentence. “We've got to get over there in a hurry!”

“Yo, Sarge!”, Ray yelled. “Power up, we've got to get a move on!”

The ghostbusters quickly loaded up the truck and jumped on board.

“Wait you guys, what the hell should I do with Cobalt?”, Tawashi asked.

“Keep an eye on him!”, Egan yelled through Sarge's rear window, “Don't let him out of your sight!”

The robotic truck roared into life, and hauled ass out of the building.

Tawashi watched the truck turn the corner on three wheels as it speed away. In the distance he saw a huge bolt of lighting come down from the sky, striking the top of the very building that he'd just come from. The inspector turned to where Cobalt had been sitting, and his jaw almost fell to the floor. A moment ago, he'd had the lanky robot handcuffed to himself, but now that end of the manacle was locked to the chair he'd left the android sitting in. “Oh crap,” he sighed.


Cobalt jogged away from the ministry, heading in the direction that Sarge had taken. He followed behind the robotic truck, his glassed over eyes seeing the world in a spectrum of colors shifted towards the blue.

Yuko wandered the streets in a large circle surrounding the apartment building, with only one thought in her mind, she must find the keymaster. A block from where she had started her aimless wandering, she spotted Kobaruto. “Are you the keymaster?” she asked him.

“Hai!, are you the gatekeeper?”, Cobalt replied.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Sarge roared through the streets taking every shortcut he knew. At one busy intersection, he blew his horns loudly, as he took a sharp turn over the sidewalk, parting the throng of pedestrians like Moses did the Reed Sea. The robotic truck took the final turn on three wheels and jolted it's passengers as it screeched to a rapid stop in front of a tall building.

Ray Stantz was the first of the ghostbusters to emerge from the truck. He ran around towards the back and pulled the rack containing the proton backpacks towards him, and quickly strapped on of them one. He was immediately joined by Peter and Egan. The three of them looked upwards towards the roof line of the building, at the spectral light show that illuminated the sky above.

Suddenly the ground shook, as seismic warning sirens sounded. The ground shook as several large pieces of concrete fell from the roof of the building, and crashed down on the street. The asphalt cracked and a large sinkhole opened up underneath where Sarge had parked. The robotic truck started to fall into the hole in the street, and the three ghostbusters also lost their footing and tumbled down into the opening. Sarge quickly fired rocket driven grappling hook which wrapped itself around the steel work of the facade of a building across the street. His frame mounted cable wrench hauled him out of the crevasse, along with Egan, Peter, and Ray, who had managed to grab hold of the trucks door handles.

“Here we go again,” Peter moaned. “Let's get up there and kick Gozer in the ass once more.”

They entered the building as people in the street cheered them on. It was a long climb up the central staircase to the roof. Once on top of the building, Ray studied the layout. It was clearly the same setup they had faced a few years ago on Central Park West. In the center of the roof, a structure capped by a chromium dome and illuminated by spot lights set in each corner of the building glowed with a blinding brilliance. Standing in front of the structure, stood Yuko and Cobalt, their hands locked together, bowing before the large doors of the structure. They were flanked on either side by demonic looking creatures, the gargoyles that had come to life and had been waiting for their arrival. The large door opened to reveal the altar of a temple. It glowed in a golden light, and a slender being dressed in white with a hideous face glared down at them.

“It's the personification of Gozer,” Egan replied.

“Now Choose!”, the being in the temple demanded. “The destructor is coming! Choose his form!”

“I know,” Ray said to Peter. “I'm clearing my mind.”

“My mind is also a blank,” Egan added.

The ground shook from heavy footsteps in the distance. Then came the sound of a reverberating cry that echoed between the buildings. A dark bipedal figure over eighty feet tall with large scales and a long tail dragging on the ground behind it, stomped towards them from the distance. It shot flames from its mouth, igniting the downtown area in flames.

“My bad this time,” Peter sighed. “I couldn't sleep on the flight over here from New York, and there was a Godzilla movie marathon running as the in flight entertainment. He just popped into my head.”

The ghostbusters grabbed for their proton guns in unison. “Aim for the temple and cross the streams!”, Egan said.

Gozer's hand reached out, and extended three beams of light that encircled the crew. Before they could fire their proton weapons, they were zapped by a wall of pure energy. “I'm prepared for you this time!Your toys have been made inert!” the higher dimensional being laughed. “Now await the end of your world!”
The ghostbusters tried to move, but they had been encased in some kind of force field.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Reno picked up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks and held it up in front of his face for a long moment before putting it into his mouth. Astro, sitting across from him in the shopping mall's food court looked upward while dangling the pointy edge of a large slice of pepperoni pizza over his mouth. He took a large bite and chewed it.

“What's eating you?”, he asked Reno while still chewing.

“Didn't anyone ever tell you it's not polite to talk with food in your mouth?”, Reno asked.

“I'm sure Uran did several times,” Astro replied swallowing a mouthful. “So again, what's bothering you?”.

“I've been reading Egan Spengler's blog archives,” Reno replied. “It seems that what happened in NYC a few years ago is repeating itself here, right now, possibly with greater intensity.”

“Well the ghostbusters seem to have a handle on it,” Astro replied.

“I hope so,” Reno answered. “But I've been monitoring the police blotter, as well as the internet chatter, and I've been taking my own readings.”

“Readings?” Astro asked.

“Egan's design documents for his PKE meter, and other instruments are on line,” the boy explained, “and with help from the Ministry's fabrication shops, I was able to duplicate, even improve upon his devices.”

“Well Sarge has been keeping me in the loop,” Astro added, “and his reports have been rather positive.”

“I know you like him, Astro,” Reno countered, “but Sarge isn't very tech savy. His AI was based on the police bot models.”

“Maybe, but he has a good sense of observation. No detail gets by him.”

“Yeah, but he's only seeing things from street level,” Reno pointed out.


At that instant, the red warning lights in the mall started to flash, as klaxons began to wail.

“WTF”, Reno asked, “That's the earthquake disaster evacuation warning system, but we didn't feel any seismic shocks.”

Suddenly, Astro's heads up display popped into active view, and he saw a message from Sarge appear. Astro held up a finger to Reno to indicate his attention was momentarily elsewhere.

“I've got to get over there,” he cried out, quickly jumping to his feet and running towards the mall exit.

Reno ran after him, “Over where?”, he yelled.

Astro looked over his shoulder, “Sarge just told me that he saw Godzilla rampaging through downtown not far from Yuko's apartment. That's where he took the ghostbusters.”

“Wait a minute!” Reno yelled. “We got to get back to the hangar first!”

“Why?”, Astro yelled back.

“Just get us there ASAP,” Reno demanded, “I'll explain!”

Astro grabbed Reno around his waist and rocketed upwards. He smashed through the sky light roof of the mall while Reno buried his face in his buddy's chest to protect his eyes from the breaking glass. Thirty seconds later, they were inside the hangar to find Inspector Tawashi cursing at the chair that he was handcuffed to. Relieved to see Astro, he shouted, “Get these damn things off me! Your stupid brother stole my keys and locked me to this chair.”

“Cobalt wouldn't do that,” Astro barked, cutting the cuffs off with his index finger laser.

“He wasn't in his right mind,” the inspector barked back, rubbing his wrist to get the circulation going again, “kept muttering that he was the keymaster and was looking for the gatekeeper.”

“That means I was right, ” Reno quickly said. “Same thing happened in NYC before, the gate has opened and Gozer has entered our dimension. If Cobalt was taken over, then I'd bet Yuko was too. If the two of them found each other, then it's likely that the destructor has also come though from the other dimension as well, I bet in the form of Godzilla.”

“I've got to get there and stop it!,” Astro said.

Before he could move, Reno grabbed him by the arm. “You're not going to be able to do anything,” Reno yelled. “We're dealing with the supernatural here. You're not strong enough to fight it!” The boy grabbed a proton pack from the equipment rack and tossed it to Astro, and then quickly donned the jumpsuit with his name on it. “We've got to use their equipment to close the portal, that's the only way!”

Astro nodded. He quickly put his own ghostbusters overalls on, and then buckled a proton pack on. “OK, let's get over there!” Astro nodded. With one arm around Reno's waist, he once again took to the sky.