2015-

Mark Hadron looked out the window of the building he was thinking about buying.

San Francisco’s prices were sky high, but if he set up a headquarters, he needed it to

be around people to feed the defenses from monsters and ghosts his employees would

be facing. He didn’t like the thought that he might be sending more people to their

deaths.

“Dr. Hadron?” Patty Page peered through the open door, but didn’t come into the

room. “The place looks fine, I suppose. Are you sure you want to buy it?”

“Janie is insistent that you should be a functioning branch of the organization.”

Hadron didn’t turn away from the window. “Come in and sit down.”

Patty sat down on the floor near the door. She had insisted that her group of friends

should track Hadron down and get him to help them. This taciturn person was not the

same as the man wanting to send them to their doom, or the man she had listened to

after his group had done something no one understood.

“This place is almost perfect for a home base.” Hadron tapped the glass in front of

him. “Once we install a major lantern, the city will power it until something happens

to the alignment. That should be years down the road.”

He turned to face her. His one eye glared at the room in general. The empty socket of

his other eye made her wish he wore a patch over it. He sat down across from her.

“You guys will need a place to stay away from your homes in case of troubles. You’ll

need a place to work on your equipment. You’ll need a home base that will provide

a shield against some of the things you’ll be facing.” Hadron clasped his hands

together so she couldn’t see the hole in one of them. “I’m going to show you how to

track down Crenshaw, but then you’ll have to monitor the city on your own. This

place has to be robust enough to let you do that without a problem.”

“You’re not going to stay?” Patty didn’t like that. She doubted she could hold her

friends together in the face of mortal danger.

“New York is facing a rip.” Hadron didn’t put on a pleasant face to smooth things

over. “Janie is putting a group together while I’m out here. If things keep climbing,

we might lose Manhattan.”

“What do you mean by losing Manhattan?” Patty hoped he wasn’t talking about the

center of New York City sinking into the ocean.

“The energy scales are going up.” Hadron made a gesture to indicate the normal

versus what was going on. “Once it gets in the 80's, an extradimensional rip is in the

offing. Something is trying to open a door from another place to here.”

Patty frowned. She hadn’t expected that. She had hoped to handle one ghost for the

excitement. Now she was going to have to worry about the world ending when she

had asked to defend it.

“I still have time to deal with that.” Hadron smiled. “I’m going to buy this building.

Equipment is going to be sent here. I’m going to need you to help me set up

everything. Case books will be assembled so you guys will have some grounding.

Then I’m going to show you how to build and use the weapons that you’re going to

need, as well as the lamps. The big lamp will be the worse because it will have to

protect the whole building from attack.”

“Crenshaw?” Patty wondered how the ghost pirate would take his old enemy being

in the same city with him.

“We’re going to track him down as soon as the parts and equipment get here.” Hadron

nodded. “I was hoping to do a solo run, maybe call in some help from a couple of

guys I know. Now I have you trainees to act as my meat shields. It will be a great way

for you to get your feet wet.”

“I don’t think I like being described as a meat shield,” said Patty.

“No one does.” Hadron smiled. It didn’t make his face look more open. “Just

remember to keep your guys covered. They don’t run off on their own when you are

looking into something. They don’t do anything without thinking about it. Once you

guys are set up, it will be up to you to make sure they don’t make the same mistake

we did.”

“I can’t lead anybody.” Patty held up her hands. “Why can’t you stay?”

“I have to head back to New York as soon as you guys get through your training

period.” Hadron smiled again. “It will be up to you to hold the line here until things

settle down.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“All right.” Patty bent her head. Meeting Hadron in person had shattered her dream

of following a new Lamplighter team from afar. She hadn’t expected to be a member

of a new Lamplighter team.

“Don’t look so down,” said Hadron. “It’s obvious the other women think of you as

their leader. All you have to do is make sure you don’t get them killed. You can do

that.”

Patty put on a smile at the encouragement. She didn’t think things would go as

smooth as Hadron implied.

“Let’s have our first staff meeting.” Hadron stood. He moved creakily like a much

older man. He extended his unwounded hand to help Patty to her feet. “That way we

can hammer out some of the starter problems and get the mission objective out of the

way.”

“Is this how the original Lamplighters started?” Patty brushed off her pants.

“I built the original lamp.” Hadron walked from the room. “Milton got us the money.

Dyson and Harry helped with the machinery we needed to operate. We set up the

company charter over pizza and beers.”

“And then you started selling your services?” Patty remembered stories that had hit

the papers that been unconfirmed until the Mark had paused long enough to tell a

reporter that the Lamplighters had saved the day.

“It took a while before people realized we were serious about what we were doing.”

Hadron started down the steps to where an open lobby had been almost put together

before the place shut down.

The other three women waited in various spots. They didn’t seem eager to start a new

career of chasing monsters and ghosts. He didn’t blame them.

“I am going to buy this building for your franchise, ladies.” Hadron put his hands in

his pockets. “Equipment will be ordered and installed. I’m going to install a big lamp

upstairs to help with security from the local ghosts. There will be a small amount of

training so you can fix the batteries, or weapons, in case of trouble.

“The Lamplighters didn’t have a training set up. We learned on the job. This is going

to be new for me also. One rule that will go in effect is no one goes off alone on an

investigation. You will buddy up and watch each other’s back. Radio and cell

communication suffers in high energy situations, but I expect you to keep them on so

warnings can be passed back and forth when possible.”

“You’re not going to send us after this ghost pirate right away?” Lin Qu smiled.

“That’s a relief.”

“I think you should at least read the casebooks that will be coming,” said Hadron.

“Then you can make your own decision about whether you want to quit, or not. What

the Lamplighters did was a lot more dangerous than ghostbusting. I will understand

if you want to quit. A small dorm will be set up here for you so you can live out of

here instead of having to commute during emergencies once we get started. I want

you guys to walk the building to get used to it as it is, so when we start changing it

around, you’ll know how you want to change it.”

“You’re only doing this because your secretary said so.” Jean Lopez glared at him

with her dark eyes. Her denim jacket hung over a shoulder.

“You’re right about that,” said Hadron. “I’m only doing this because my only friend

in the world said it was necessary.”

His single eye was a glaring cube of ice in his face. He blinked and the mask was

back in place before he did something he regretted.

“I’m going to take a walk.” Hadron checked his watch. “Go ahead and look things

over. If this is going to be a base of operations, it should be as much of a home for

you as it can be.”

“What about exercise equipment?” Kathy Baker wore a green tracksuit. Her

fingernails glittered as her hands moved.

“Sort it out.” Hadron shrugged. “You’re adults. You can do it.”

“Enjoy your walk, Dr. Hadron.” Patty waved a hand at the other three women. “We’ll

have a list of things by the time you get back.”

Hadron nodded. He headed out of the building, pushing on the glass and metal door

with a shoulder. He turned at the sidewalk and headed out of sight.

“Is he serious about buying the building for us?” Lin went to the door. “That’s crazy.”

“Yes, he’s serious.” Patty nodded at her friends. “He already has a room picked out

for a lamp to help protect the building. He said the original Lamplighters didn’t have

any training in what they did. We’re the replacements and a test case. If we do well,

we might spark more Lamplighters across the country. Also we have a problem that

you should know about before we go any further.”

“What kind of problem?,” said Jean. She rubbed the palm of her hand on her leg.

“Once we get set up, we’re on our own.” Patty pursed her lip. “New York City is in

danger, and we’re going to have to hold things down here, or be ready to head out to

the East Coast to join in.”

“What do you mean New York City is in danger?” Jean looked at Kathy and Lin.

They shared her expression of disbelief.

“I don’t know.” Patty shrugged. “He said the ambient energy is climbing. It indicates

an invasion of some sort. We have to be ready in case we’re needed to stop it.”

“This is getting out of hand, Patty.” Lin fiddled with the fake buttons on her suit

jacket. “We can’t stop anything like an invasion.”

“We can’t do anything without the lamps and guns we need.” Kathy shrugged. “We

have to do well with them before we can be considered good enough to blow

monsters away.”

“Let’s get our list together.” Jean waved at the others. “We can’t sit here gawking at

an empty place if we want to be heroes.”

“Do we want to be heroes?” Lin frowned at her friends. “What are we getting into

here?”

“This Crenshaw is going to keep attacking,” said Patty. “No one else can stop him.

We have to do it. I understand if you all want to leave, but I’m not. I am going to hunt

that monster down and take him out. He’ll never hurt anyone else.”

“Let’s get our list together.” Jean waved at the others to go ahead. “Baby steps.”

Patty covered her face with a hand. She hadn’t meant to let that out in the air. She

should have kept it in.

She followed her friends as they examined their headquarters and made plans.