Ghostbusters: Regeneration

Chapter Eighteen

For the next few days, the team's focus was the preparation for their big mission. Ray, Egon, and Hiroko worked tirelessly on constructing the tech crucial to the operation. Melissa and the others were left to handle the standard day-to-day ghost-busting operations, but were occasionally tasked with assisting the build team when extra help was needed. Janine played an important role too, coordinating all of the logistical details of the plan, and liaising with City officials and the volunteers from Phantasm.

On Tuesday, the entire team was at the Guggenheim, preparing the site for the next day. That morning, it finally dawned on Melissa just how large-scale their operation truly was. The Hamano Device was so huge that it had to be pieced together in a street besides the museum, then lowered by crane inside the building's famous rotunda. A section of this chamber's domed skylight had to be removed not only to accommodate the lure device's base but also its telescopic antennae that would extend out above the building.

While Ray and Egon oversaw the installation of the lure and the forcefield devices, Hiroko was left in charge of setting up the control centre. With permission and help from the Guggenheim's security staff, live footage from a pair of the museum's cameras would be sent to a set of monitors in the main command console, giving Ray and Egon remote coverage of the mission area. At all times they would be able to see one view of the chamber from the concourse floor facing up to the roof, and another from the roof facing down toward the ground. This second shot also gave them a good view of the area where their Phantasm volunteers would be located while they played their part in the operation.

Besides all the gadgetry that had to be set up, there were other smaller tasks that had to be carried out. Museum staff had to remove all the artworks for safekeeping, the block the building was on had to be cordoned off from the public, and lots of other little measures had to be taken to make sure the mission went as smoothly as possible. Ray and Janine had several meetings throughout the day with City officials and what appeared to be senior museum staff, in which he likely had to inform them about the details of their plan and promise to keep collateral damage to a minimum.

When it came time for a lunch break, Peter emerged with a small team pushing serving trolleys lined with food. It turns out he had secretly hired a local deli to make a huge assortment of subs, providing more than enough food to feed not just the Ghostbusters but everyone on-site. The gesture helped lighten the fairly serious mood, even causing the uptight City and museum representatives to loosen up a little.

Everyone tucked into the large sandwiches, with most of the Ghostbusters seating themselves on a curved bench on the ground floor of the rotunda. Melissa joined Hiroko at one end of the bench and proceeded to bite into her pastrami sub. As she chewed on the mouth-wateringly meaty sandwich, she stared up at the metallic Hamano Device which now dominated the museum's white interior, becoming lost in thought.

The entire team were well aware of what would happen if their operation was successful and seemed fully onboard with the plan. However, Melissa had detected a rising undercurrent of wistfulness within the group as the day of the mission drew closer. While defeating Az'dor was the only way to save the lives of all those he had made soul-pacts with, it also meant the end of his influence on the world. Without his alterations, there would be no ghosts. Without ghosts there would once again be no need for Ghostbusters.

After swallowing a sufficiently masticated chunk of sandwich, Melissa paused then spoke to Hiroko.

'It's weird, thinking all this could be over by this time tomorrow.' She said.

Her best friend, her mouth currently full, only hummed in agreement. Once she had ingested her morsel of food, she gave her full reply.

'I'm not gonna lie, there's a tiny part of me that wouldn't mind if we failed tomorrow. As selfish as that sounds.' She said before taking a somewhat subdued bite into her sub.