January 2, 1989
Nicolas and Gordon were welcomed to the San Francisco Presidio, the West Coast main base for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. They met the commanding officer, Col. Rudolph Flint, and were shown a 1950's style "Welcome to the BPRD!" basic orientation film. While waiting for their intake officer, Choopy dropped by to meet the new guys.
"Are you our intake officer?" asked Gordon.
"Yes, yes I am. Let's go!" replied Choopy.
Choopy led them on took a tour of the base. It has three main buildings: Residence and Admin, Research and Labs, and Hospital. Then he took them to the lunch room, explained why there was a big hole in the floor, covered with a tarp (the base was invaded by time-traveling killer robots). They also passed by posters in the halls, with Choopy or a raccoon ("His name's Crunch," says Choopy), shooting a 30 caliber machine gun mounted in the back of a jeep, being swung around wildly by the recoil, with a caption, "Hang In There Baby!". Choopy eventually took them back to the meeting room, where their real intake officer was sweating bullets. Choopy completed assessment reports on Nic and Gordon, in crayon, complimenting their can-do attitudes and table manners. Top marks, lads!
Nic was assigned a forge and workshop, and provided with all the tools and raw materials that he wanted.
Nic and Gordon began to get training in whatever skills they desired, while waiting for a "rather low risk" mission to come along. That training montage lasted 8 weeks.