Ghost Smashers

## History

In 2010, Ron Alexander, a failed engineering student and handyman extraordinaire, applied to be a Ghostbuster. Well, he showed up at the Firehouse in response to a want ad in the paper. Only he slept in and showed up several minutes after Winston Zeddemore and found the position had already been filled.

When he saw the fourth Ghostbusters on the television, Ron kept telling all his barfly friends that it could have been him. Most of his friends dismissed his bitter rants, but that only made Ron more upset that he had been slighted by the Ghostbusters (at least, that's how he saw it). He became determined to show them what they were missing.

One day, Ron sent the Ghostbusters out on a false field call. While they were responding, he cut the phone lines and then posed as a field technician for the phone company. He conned his way past Janine and got access to their workshop. While Janine was busy dealing with some paperwork, Ron snapped pictures of a proton pack prototype Egon was working on and also schematics and notes Egon had lying around his workspace.

Using those ill-gotten details, Ron went to work trying to recreate his own proton pack from what he could understand. He took shortcuts along the way due to limited resources or lack of familiarity with certain principles, and also tried to "improve" the design wherever possible. Once Ron had what he thought was a working model, he realized he forgot to get the details on the trap. Still, he went out looking for ghosts to test his contraption without the trap. Ron's plan for compensating for the lack of trap was to reverse the polarity and crank up the power discharge. When he found a ghost, Ron found his invention expelled a stream that destroyed the ghosts outright, causing them to forcibly disperse after a few seconds of exposure.

Ron found a few more ghosts, dialed in his weapon's specifics. Once he was comfortable with his build, Ron paid a visit to his old college girlfriend, Jenny Moran. She was working at a venture capital firm and Ron was hoping she might give him a loan to start a business. At the time, Jenny was at a turning point in her career where she realized she hated her job. When Jenny saw the potential to help people with the business, something her current job didn't let her do, she agreed to stake Ron's company if she could be part of his team.

After Jenny signed on, Ron recruited an Olympic archer and local celebrity, Dani Shpak, for both her name recognition and her accuracy; and then recruited a model and aspiring actress Lou Kamaka to be used in the company's advertising. After three months of prep work and secret training, the Ghost Smashers debuted as direct competition to the Ghostbusters.

After months of intense rivalry that threatened the Ghostbusters' longevity (since most clients seemed to favor the idea of the Smashers' obliteration in opposition to the Busters' capturing), the Ghost Smashers' business plan came back to haunt them... literally. The "obliteration" approach didn't actually take. The ghosts had only been dispersed and came back angrier and usually with violent intentions for the Smashers.

When their shop was besieged by angry ghosts, Jenny Moran knew who to call. When the Ghostbusters saved the day, the Ghost Smashers were done for. Jenny landed a job at Ray's Occult Books while Dani and Lou enrolled in the Ghostbusters 101 program and Ron went to jail after a judge found him criminally responsible for an extensive amount of property damage and injuries in the wake of the angry ghost rampage.

When Hell on Earth came to Star City, the Ghostbusters were without their home and workshop. There were also only so many Ghostbusters and Star City needed all the particle throwing paranormal exterminators it could get. The decision was made to deputize Janine and the students of the Ghostbusters 101 class to help with the downtown area and open a second branch for the work across Orchid Bay.

There was one hitch, though. The Ghostbusters didn't have enough proton packs. Their workshop had been destroyed when Vinz Clortho destroyed the containment unit. To help the Ghostbusters rectify that problem, Egon suggesting retrofitting Ron's proton packs. However, the Ghost Smashers were shut down and Ron wasn't willing to tell anyone where he stashed the proton packs before he went to prison. Mayor Queen pulled some strings and Ron was released from prison if he agreed to give over his proton packs and as part of his parole agreement, he was assigned to work off his debt to society as a Ghostbuster.

## Trivia and Notes

### Notes

* The Ghost Smashers are a team from the *Ghostbusters* by IDW and its related media.
* "Ghost Smashers" was the original title of the 1984 *Ghostbusters* film.
* In the comics the group consisted only of Ron, Jenny, Lou, and Dani.

## Links and References

* Appearances of the Ghost Smashers
* Team Gallery: Ghost Smashers
* Membership of the Ghost Smashers

1. ↑ Ghostbusters Beyond