Ghostbusters: Regeneration

Prologue

Manhattan, New York City

2016

Ray Stantz was sat in the back of a taxi, riding south through Tribeca in the mid-morning. He had chosen to sit directly behind the driver's seat to attempt to hide the whirring and blinking of his PKE meter from its occupier. Beside him was a large black briefcase containing equipment vital to the urgent job at hand.

The driver, who had been mostly silent in the few minutes they had been on their journey, called back to his sole passenger.

'You know, people normally tell me where they wanna go, then I take 'em there. It makes things simpler that way.'

The smart-mouthed cabbie, who was older and more portly than Dr Stantz, spoke in a well-worn voice that seemed to reflect his age and world-weariness.

'Just keep going straight for now please.' Ray said flatly, not letting slip a single detail of his mission.

Holding the PKE meter between his knees, he monitored the powerful signal that the vehicle was slowly closing in on. Because he was trying to keep the device out of visual range of the cabbie's rear view mirror, Ray's range of movement with the meter was greatly limited. This would make finessing his search both more difficult and more time consuming.

He soon realised that his attempts to keep the lively PKE meter a secret had failed, as less than a minute later the cabbie piped up with the question:

'What is that thing anyway?' He asked, trying to get a good look at the gadget in his rear view.

Realising he was rumbled, Ray sat back in a more relaxed position.

'It's my cell phone.' He responded with a slightly sheepish smile on his face. 'I'm trying to get a decent signal. As you can see, it's a bit of an old brick.'

'You can say that again. That thing looks decades old!' The cabbie replied, seemingly buying Ray's explanation.

'Yeah.' Ray replied with a knowing chuckle, beginning to freely sweep the device around. 'But as I always say, if it ain't broke!'

'I hear ya.' The cabbie responded, his eyes refocusing on the road. 'My grandson keeps sayin' he's gonna buy me one of those new-fangled iPhones. Y'know, with the touchscreens. But my current one suits me just fine. It might be low-tech, but it does tha' job.'

After taking a few more glances at Ray moving around the handheld device in his rear view, the cabbie spoke up again.

'Ah. I know what you're doin'.' He said, apparently having come to a realisation.

'You do?' Ray replied guardedly, not looking up from the PKE meter's green scanner scope.

'Yeah, you're playing that Pokeyman game! Seems like everyone and their mutha is into that right now.'

Ray let out a small relieved chuckle.

'Yeah, ya caught me!' He said, acting mildly embarrassed. 'I just can't get enough of catching those little varmints! I'm tracking a real big one right now.'

'That's some dedication to the game.' The driver commented, apparently now convinced that this ride was all in service of catching a digital monster. 'Maybe I should be capitalising on this whole Pokeyman phenomenon. Letting people know I could be drivin' 'em around to look for those critters.'

'Yeah, maybe you should.' Ray said, still focused on the PKE meter. 'Take the next left please.'

The cabbie obliged his passenger's request at the next available turn, taking the vehicle down a quiet side street. After a few seconds of travelling down this road, the PKE meter's wings fully extended and its whirring, blinking lights jumped to their highest intensity, indicating that the cab was practically in the centre of the signal.