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Frank stares up at the large red and white sign outside of the old firehouse. He’s dressed in his best suit and he’s got his hair combed back as neatly as it would allow. He’s a long way from home and his stomach is twisting like crazy, and he’d love more than anything to just turn and run, but he’s going to do this.
Frank takes a deep breath and reaches for the handle, pushing the red door open. He steps inside and the first thing he notices is the smell. The place stinks of bleach, and Frank can’t help but screw up his nose a little.
“Sorry about the smell!” A voice calls, and Frank tries to locate the source. There’s a large white car in the way, and Frank thinks it looks dangerously like his grandfather’s old Cadillac. Passed the car there’s a reception, and Frank can see a small, red haired woman waving a hand in his direction. Frank nods and gives a small wave before he quickly walks down.
There’s a messy looking reception in front of a bunch of office styled cubicles, all equally as messy looking.
“Hi!” The woman squeaks, and she holds out her hand. “You must be Mr. Iero.”
Frank nods and fights the urge to bite on his bottom lip. He’s still not used to the missing lip ring.
“Doctor Toro will be with you in a moment, he’s a little pre--”
There’s a loud bang that cuts the receptionist off and Frank jumps back a little. His heart starts racing when hear hears a door bang open and suddenly there’s smoke escaping from a corridor to the side of the reception.
“I’m okay!” A coked voice calls. “I’m fine Janine, don’t panic!”
Frank looks at the receptionist who does indeed look stricken.
The smoke starts to clear a little and a man with curly hair and goggles appears.
“Oh!” He says when he sees Frank. “I didn’t realise we had a customer, I’m terribly--”
“This is Mr. Iero,” Janine says, and picks a folder up off her desk and holds it out. “He’s here for the interview.”
“Oh!” The man says, and he rushes around to where Frank is standing. “Doctor Ray Toro,” he says, and he grabs Frank hand and shakes it excitedly. “So sorry to have kept you waiting!”
Frank swallows and tries his best to smile. “It’s no trouble, sir.”
“Call me Ray,” Ray says, and he pulls his goggles off and throws them onto Janine’s desk. “Right this way.”
Frank follows Ray past the reception towards the little cubicles.
“Sorry about the mess,” he apologises. “We’ve been a little busy lately, haven’t had a chance to get a cleaner in…isn’t really safe to have unqualified people in the area, you know?”
Frank nods, and he lifts a pile of papers from the chair opposite Ray’s desk then sits down. He folds his hands together in the best way to hide his tattoos, a trick he’s learned from so many failed job interviews.
Ray takes a few minutes before he settles down in his own seat, then a few more as he rifles around, moving books and stuff from his desk onto the floor. He makes an apologetic face, and Frank can’t help but smile.
“So!” Ray says at last. “Mr. Frank Iero!” He’s holding up Frank’s resume, eyes scanning it quickly.
Frank sucks in his bottom lip, then quickly quits it because he looks enough like a five year old playing dress up without adding to it.
“You have a pretty awesome resume,” Ray says. “Degrees in Psychology and parapsychology?”
Frank nods. “I focused mainly within the studies of extrasensory perception.”
“ESP? Nice,” Ray smiles and nods. “That would come in handy.” He reads a little more before then says, “You’re from Jersey?”
Frank nods. “Kearny.”
“Really? Belleview,” Ray smiles, and Frank smiles back. “What brings you to New York?”
Frank takes a small breath then says, “I’m interested in expanding my studies, to be honest with you. I’ve been working at Columbia, but they don’t seem to hold the same interest in the paranormal as I do…” Frank trails off when he notices Ray is smirking.
“I think we might have something to do with that,” Ray shakes his head, curls moving like a living being. He doesn’t say anything else, and Frank doesn’t ask.
“Well, Frank,” Ray says, and he drops Frank’s resume onto his desk. “I think I’ll save some time here and just tell you you’re hired.”
Frank feels like the world stops for a few seconds. “Huh?”
Ray smiles. “You’re hired. Of course you’ll be on a four week trial, but other than that, I don’t see any reason why not to bring you aboard.”
Frank swallows and just stares at Ray. “But you’ve barely interviewed me!”
Ray shakes his head and gets to his feet, “I don’t need to interview you -- you have the right qualifications and I’ve already ran my own background check on you.”
Frank raises both his eyebrows -- he doesn’t know if he’s insulted or impressed.
“We need a guy like you on this team,” Ray says, and he walks around his desk. “And you can continue your studies within our facilities -- no one’s going to laugh at them in here, believe me.” He gives a little chuckle. “You have a decent amount of experience with the paranormal, and you’re street smart.” He gives a shrug. “That’s what we need.”
Frank frowns. “How do you know I’m street smart?”
“You were arrested but not charged after an altercation at a Bouncing Souls gig,” Ray says it like it’s practised.
“How do you…you read my police files?!” Frank almost chokes.
Ray shrugs and holds out his hand. “Are you in?”
Frank stares at Ray’s hand for a few seconds, then gets to his feet. As he takes Ray’s hand and shakes it slowly, he says, “Yeah. Yes. I mean…thank you.”
Ray grins then turns his head and hollers, “Janine! Can you show Frank around?” He turns back to Frank and says, “The Ways are out investigating the local library,” he rolls his eyes. “Like I’m gonna believe the graphic novel section is haunted.”
As Ray starts to walk away, Frank says, “But I don’t believe in ghosts.”
He knows he’s probably going to lose the job now, but he has to be honest. It’s his mom’s number one rule.
Ray just stops and gives Frank a small smile. “You will.”
*
Janine’s just finished showing Frank the bedroom when there’s a sound of voices at the reception. As Frank follows Janine out of the staircase (he doesn’t think it would be very professional to use the fire pole in his first five minutes of employment, but he is so getting a shot of that), he sees two men standing at the reception bickering.
“Boys,” Janine says sternly, and both men look up. Frank stops a few feet away from Janine’s desk. One of the men has windswept blond hair and sunglasses, and he kinda makes Frank think of vampires for some reason, all wrapped up in a big black woollen coat. The other has bright red hair, and he’s wearing a khaki army jacket that clashes horribly with his hair -- but it works on him, Frank thinks. “Stop fighting, I’m pretending to the new guy that we’re a normal business.”
The red head bites his lip as the blond takes his sunglasses off. “Iero?”
Frank nods and waves a hand, lamely.
The blond guy nods and walks over. “Mikey Way,” he says and extends his hand. “And this is my brother, Gerard.” As Frank shakes Mikey’s hand, Gerard returns Frank’s lame wave.
“One of you can show him the containment unit,” Janine says as she moves behind her desk. “I hate going down there.”
Mikey rolls his eyes. “One time, J, one time…”
“One time’s enough, Michael,” Janine scowls, then she disappears behind an issue of Vogue.
Frank blinks at her for a few seconds before Mikey says, “Well! Let’s go see where the ghosts live!”
*
Frank just stares at the large red containment grid. He’s not too sure what to make of it, and Mikey’s just staring at him.
“It’s, uh,” Frank struggles. “Big.”
Mikey rolls his eyes. “It holds over three thousand entities to date,” he says with a slight smugness in his voice. “Toro is a fucking genius with this shit.”
Frank raises an eyebrow at how casually Mikey is speaking.
“What?” Mikey says.
Frank shakes his head. “Nothing, you just…”
“I just what?” Mikey folds his arms.
Frank can’t help but chuckle lightly. “Man, you’re just not…you guys, you don’t come across as the professional type, you know?”
Mikey looks offended. “We are professional!”
Frank holds up both hands. “No, I know, I just…you don’t act like the other professors and whatever…”
Mikey raises an eyebrow this time. “And having tattooed hands is more professional?”
“Touché,” Frank says, and Mikey just smirks.
“I’m not a professor though,” Mikey says, and he starts to make his way up the metal stairs. “Gee and Ray have all sorts of degrees and shit though.”
“Oh?” Frank says, and it kind of throws him -- he’d expected them all to have about ten degrees each.
“Yeah,” Mikey says. “Gerard kinda roped me in.”
They reach the foyer again and Janine is still behind her desk reading her magazine.
“Have you seen the bedroom?” Mikey asks, and he jerks his head at the fire pole.
“Yeah,” Frank says. “Uh, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to--”
“Well, you still live in Jersey, right?”
Frank nods.
“Saves you having to travel,” Mikey shrugs. “I know it’s a bit stupid, a bunch of grown men sharing a dorm, but it’s easier if we get called out at ass o’clock in the morning, you know?”
Frank gives a tiny nod, even though he doesn’t know.
“Well, that’s it, I think!” Mikey claps his hands together. “Oh! This is Ecto-1,” he waves his hand at the white car parked near the entrance. From behind, Frank can see the same logo on the back as is hanging outside the building. “Don’t even ask me what kind of car she is, ‘cause she’s a bit of everything…but we love her.“
Frank smiles and shakes his head. “You’se are all nuts.”
Mikey actually smiles at that. “Welcome aboard!”
***
The next day, Frank is back at the old firehouse with a suitcase in one hand and his backpack over his shoulder. Janine had warned him not bring too many expensive clothes because they’d just get ruined (she’d then thrown a dirty look in Mikey’s direction), so he’s mostly packed jeans and sweatpants.
As soon as Frank steps in the door he gets hit with the smell of bleach again, only stronger than yesterday.
“Whoa,” he says and blinks a little. The fumes sting and his eyes are watering a little.
“Sorry!” A voice calls, and through his wet eyes Frank can see a tall red head waving at him. It’s a little too tall to be Janine, so Frank figures it’s the older Way brother. “It’s the only thing I can use to get rid of this!”
“Get rid of what?” Frank asks, and he carefully walks down to Janine’s desk. Gerard has a bleach spray bottle in one and hand a sponge in the other. He’s scrubbing at some green goo on the side of Janine’s desk and Frank squints at it as he sets his suitcase and backpack down.
“Slimer’s ooze,” Gerard sighs, and when he doesn’t get a response he looks up at Frank with wide eyes. “Oh! No one’s told you about Slimer!”
Frank cocks an eyebrow as Gerard starts to wring the sponge in both hands. “Slimer?”
“Uh,” Gerard swallows, and he looks a little worried. “I’ll explain later…I’ll help you with your things!”
Frank recognises the change in subject, but he allows Gerard to take his suitcase and follows after him upstairs to the dorm room.
“Is this okay?” Gerard asks as he sits Frank’s suitcase on the one empty bed. It’s near the window, and there’s a locker beside. On the Locker door, someone’s written Iero with a Sharpie, and drawn a little brain next to it.
Frank raises his eyebrows and smiles a little, before he looks back at Gerard.
“Uh, you do the brain stuff, so I thought it’d be…uh,” Gerard chews on his bottom lip, and Frank can’t help but find him adorable right now.
“It’s cute,” Frank says, then sits his backpack down. “And yeah, this is fine. I’ve never have a live-in job before.”
Gerard nods and folds his arms across his chest. “It’s a kinda of twenty-four-seven job, so we kinda have to, you know?”
Frank purses his lips, because he really doesn’t see how it is that kind of job, but he just nods anyway.
“We get days off though, if we need them,” Gerard says, and Frank notes how Gerard says need instead of want.
“Well, that’s good,” Frank says, for lack of anything else to say.
There’s an uncomfortable silence as the both just stand there, and Frank starts to rock on his heels a little.
“Halloween?” Gerard pipes up suddenly, and Frank frowns before it dawns on him.
“Oh!” He says, and raises his hands to rub his knuckles. “Yeah, uh, it’s my birthday.”
“Really?” Gerard says, and his eyes go wide.
“Yeah…” Frank says slowly.
“That’s so awesome!” Gerard practically squeals, and he bounces forward to take Frank’s hands in his own. Frank’s a little surprised at the way his stomach flips at the touch, and he just stares at Gerard as he runs his rough fingertips over Frank’s finger tattoos. “I love Halloween…or, well, I used to, it gets a bit crazy nowadays, but I still like it, even if I do almost die every year.” He looks up at Frank with a friendly smile and Frank’s stomach flips again.
Suddenly a shrill bell starts to ring wildly, and Frank’s hands fly to cover his ears.
“Whoa! What the fuck?!” He cries, and he twists to stare at the old bell in the corner of the room, right by the fire pole. When he turns back to Gerard, he gets a lump in his throat at the way Gerard is grinning.
*
Frank’s sitting in the back of Ecto-1 next to Gerard and he doesn’t think he’s ever been as nervous in his life. He’s pretty sure he should have had some training before being taken out on a job, but when he voiced this to Mikey, the younger Way had just waved a hand dismissively as he pulled his suit on and said, “This can be your training.”
So Frank’s sitting in the back as the large car zooms through the streets of New York feeling like an idiot. Ray is babbling to Mikey, and whilst it’s all stuff Frank can normally make sense of, right now he has no idea what is going on. He has a suit on that’s a little big for him, and it doesn’t have his name on it like the other guys. He was told he can use the spare Proton Pack, but he doesn’t even know what the hell that means.
“Where are we going?” Frank finally asks, just because he needs someone to speak to him.
“There’s reports of a class three Poltergeist at the Sedgewick,” Ray says, and Gerard groans.
“There’s always gonna be poltergeists in that damn place until the let us close the fucking portal.”
Ray sighs. “I know, but they’re not gonna let us blow the ballroom away. Again.”
Gerard grumbles and folds his arms as Frank just stares to and from him and Ray.
“A poltergeist?” Frank asks, and when Ray nods as he swerves a corner quickly, Frank tries not to scoff. Whilst he believes in the paranormal, he’s not about to believe they’re on their way to fight a fucking poltergeist.
*
The room is destroyed by the time Frank gets there. The curtains and bed sheets of the hotel room are shredded, and the furniture is smashed to pieces. Frank hoists the straps of the heavy Proton Pack up a little higher on his back and tries not to groan under the weight. He looks over at Ray who’s talking with the manager of the hotel like he knows him well -- which, by Mikey and Gerard’s smirking faces, he does.
“He hates us,” Mikey whispers at Frank. “We trashed the kitchen once, getting rid of a class four, and he hates it whenever he has to call us in.” Gerard sniggers and Ray appears by their side. “What’s the damage?”
Frank almost says, “Have you seen this room?”, but he holds it back as Ray starts talking.
“They’ve had some activity for about two weeks now, but it’s only started getting violent in the past few hours.”
Frank listens with his face screwed up. He knows he’s now a part of this team, but really, he didn’t think it would be this much of a farce.
“What’s the reading?” Gerard asks, and he nods at a metal looking hand held object that Ray’s pulled out.
“The PKE readings are off the scale,” he frowns, and the little machine makes a beeping sound. Ray starts to aim the meter around the room, and Frank almost laughs as little antennas straighten out as the beeping gets faster and louder.
Frank’s just about to ask Mikey what the fuck is going on here, when there’s a loud, haunting laughter that fills the room.
Frank’s blood runs cold and he looks at each of his team mates. “What was that?”
“That,” Gerard says, and he reaches back to pull the Neutrona Wand (as Gerard had called it when he’d fitted Frank’s pack) out. “Would be our poltergeist.”
Frank makes a face, but as he looks at Ray and Mikey, they’re pulling the wands from their packs as well. Frank pauses for a few seconds before he does the same. It feels weird in his hands, all metal and heavy, and he tries to think back to the whole five minutes Gerard took trying to explain how the damn thing works. As he hears the other’s zing to life, Frank fiddles around with his.
“Fuck,” Frank mutters, then suddenly there’s a hand on his and he looks up. Gerard is smiling at him softly, and he flicks a switch that makes Frank’s wand come to life. “Thanks,” Frank says softly, and Gerard just wriggles his nose at him, which makes Frank’s stomach twist.
Suddenly, the room feels very cold, and Frank frowns as he looks up. It feels darker, but he knows it’s not, and he’s feeling a little confused. There’s a rumbling sound and Frank looks back at Gerard who’s staring at the far wall. The door slams closed behind them and Frank spins around.
“What the fuck?” He says.
“It’s coming,” Mikey mutters, and at some point he’s pulled a pair of strange goggles on.
“What’s coming?” Frank asks, then suddenly he’s being blown off his feet and goes crashing to the floor. He’s not even sure if he makes a sound as the Proton Pack makes his back crack uncomfortable, but he does hear Mikey say, “I thought it was coming from the other direction! Shit! Sorry!”
Frank doesn’t get to ask what?! before Gerard is dragging him to his feet. “What the fuck?!” Frank cries, then he freezes as he stares towards a large replica of the Mona Lisa on the wall above the bed. Only, it’s not the painting that Frank’s looking at.
Floating, actually floating above the bed, Frank can see…well, a person. Only, it isn’t a person. They’re transparent, and the shape of the body is distorted -- it’s wide in places it shouldn’t be, and it’s eyes are much larger than that of a humans.
Frank starts to stammer, but he doesn’t know what he’s trying to say. The spectre in front of them starts to laugh loudly, and it’s almost deafening. Frank wants to throw his hands over his ears, but he’s too scared to let go of the wand. He turns to look at the rest of the guys, but they don’t seem to be as perplexed as he is.
Mikey is aiming his wand just as a gust of wind comes out of nowhere and he squints as he tries to hold still. Ray is doing the same, taking a few steps closer, but Gerard isn’t moving any closer to the ghost -- he’s stepping up next to Frank.
“You just hit the button once you’re aimed,” Gerard yells over the wind that seems to be filling the room. Frank can see some of the broken furniture in the room starting to rise into the air.
“AND DON’T CROSS THE STREAMS!” Ray hollers as his wand and pack come to life. Frank’s eyes widen as he watches beams of light come shooting from the wand in Ray’s hand, straight at the spectre. Mikey follows Ray and Frank watches in awe as the beams of light seem to wrap around the ghost.
“What happens if you cross the streams?” Frank asks, and Gerard just smirks.
“You don’t wanna know…ready?”
Frank swallows and nods. He takes aim at the same time as Gerard, and he sucks in a harsh breath as he hit’s the button. The force of the wand almost sends Frank flying backwards, but he holds his spot as strongly as he can.
“Whoa!” Frank actually yells as he watches his stream reach the ghost and wrap around it.
The spectre starts to screech, and it hurts Frank’s ears. He screws up his face and he follows as Gerard, Mikey and Ray all take a step forward.
“The trap!” Ray yells.
“Got it!” Gerard hollers, and Frank can see from the corner of his eye as Gerard throws a heavy, metal box to the ground. It has a cable attached to it with what looks like a guitar pedal on the end.
“Wanna do the honors, newbie?” Mikey says, and Frank drags his eyes away to stare at Gerard.
“What?”
“Just step on it!” Gerard yells, and he starts to press forward again, and the ghost shrieks. A table leg goes flying past Frank’s head and he almost drops the wand, but he holds tight and turns his focus to the pedal.
“Okay,” Frank says to himself, and he moves forward a little, hands still gripping the wand tightly. He gets to the pedal, and without a moment’s thought, he brings his heel down on it.
Frank’s convinced his eyes must look as stupid as the poltergeist’s when he watches as the trap opens and light shines out of it. The ghost starts to scream and it pierces through Frank’s brain, but he keeps his hold on the wand in his hand and he looks to his right to see Gerard’s face straining as he seems to pull the ghost down towards the trap. Frank turns back to the floating poltergeist and he tries to copy Gerard and starts to drag the beam from his wand down towards the trap.
The ghost keeps shrieking and screaming, and more and more broken pieces of furniture go flying around the room. At one point Frank feels a vase slam against his thigh but he ignores it and just keeps dragging the beam down.
As soon as the spectre is almost touching the trap, the light seems to encase it and drags it inside, the trap slapping closed.
Frank quickly hits the button to kill the power of the Proton Pack, and when he looks up, all three members of his team are beaming at him.
“What?” Frank asks, and he hopes his voice isn’t shaking as much as his hands are.
“You okay, kid?” Ray asks, and Mikey sniggers.
“You did good, Frankie,” Gerard smiles warmly, and he reaches out to put a hand on Frank’s arm. Frank decides that Gerard is most definitely his favourite person right now -- he doesn’t even flinch at the way Frank’s arm his shaking under his touch.
Frank swallows and nods, before there’s a banging on the door and the hotel manager’s angry voice fills the air.
*
“You okay?”
Frank looks up from where he’s sitting on his bed. Gerard is standing in the door way by the pinball machine. His hair is wet and his shirt has red droplets of hair dye staining it.
“Mhhm.” Frank says.
“I guess it’s a lot to take on your first day, huh?”
Frank lets out a shaky laugh. “Just a bit, yeah.”
Gerard smiles and walks over to sit on his own bed, facing Frank. “You did good though, considering you had no idea what you were doing.”
“Thanks,” Frank says, and rolls his head on his shoulders. “This is just…nuts.”
Gerard nods. “Ray says you don’t believe in ghosts.”
Frank lets out a laugh. “That was yesterday.”
Gerard smiles. Frank looks up and as he meets Gerard’s eyes, he gets a warm glow in his stomach. He knows what that means but he tries to shove it aside -- he can’t be dealing with that right now, not when he’s still trying to wrap his head around tonight.
“Can I ask you something?” Gerard says, and Frank snaps out of it.
“Sure,” Frank nods, and he pulls his legs up underneath him.
“How can you study parapsychology, but not believe in the paranormal?”
Frank chuckles. “You don’t need to believe in something to study it. Like…you don’t need to believe in god to read the bible, right?”
Gerard bunches his mouth up. “But you have a degree and shit…and you don’t believe in it?”
“I didn’t believe in it,” Frank says. “Right now…I’m not sure what I believe.”
Gerard smiles. “Sleep on it?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Frank says.
Gerard nods and gets to his feet. Frank does the same and heads to the locker with his name on it. As he’s pulling the door open and grabbing a shirt to sleep in, he realises Gerard is hovering around behind him. Frank turns his head and raises his eyebrows. “You okay?”
Gerard bites on his bottom lip, then says, “I just wanted…” He stops and raises a hand to run through his wet hair. “I just wanted to say…welcome, I guess.”
Frank turns to face Gerard, and he can’t help the smile on his face. “Thanks, Gerard.”
Gerard nods, and he looks like he’s about to turn and leave, then he leaps forward and pulls Frank into a bone crushing hug. Frank’s surprised at first, but he smiles and wraps his arms around Gerard and hugs him back.
“I’m a Ghostbuster,” Frank chuckles into Gerard’s shoulder.
“You’re an awesome Ghostbuster,” Gerard says quietly.