Chapter One
The sky was a dark yellow-orange colour, it looked like it was on fire. The ghost looked towards the horizon, partially blocked by the two grey, rotting towers. The steel skeleton of the towers' support beams showing through the areas where the tower's skin had fallen off like the rib cage of some dead giant. The ghost looked down, a wide assortment of ruined buildings, rusting cars and human corpses littered the dead city below.
The ghost swooped lower, looped around the twin towers and descended to a level matching the height of a ten-story building. It could see the streets better now, the rusted cars weren't just in random positions, neither were the corpses and skeletons lying around. They had fallen and rusted in positions that showed they were in a rush hour. The pavements literally jammed with the dead. The ghost was passing by the North tower of the now abandoned World Trade Center. Most of the centre's windows had been blow out during the ghost army's attack.
The ghost was moving North towards the wasteland of Central Park, it passed over empty offices, smashed department stores and ruined Subway stations.
The three-story building came into view. It had been designated a no-go area even after the city had fallen and the last few humans were rounded up, "if there was no danger of human contact then why are we not permitted to enter it?" the thought passed through the ghost's ethereal mind. It lowered itself again, now hovering at a height of five stories so it could get a better look at the building. Most of the roof had collapsed into the building, taking most of the floors with it. A large section of the outside wall had also collapsed. The windows were all broken and for all purposes it looked like every other building in the city.
He could see it, just hovering above the front of the building, of course he had the advantage, with the small section of roof remaining overhead he could easily hide in the shadows. He aimed carefully, pointing the tip of the gun towards the ghost. "Three.... two....one...."
The ghost heard a humming noise from below and started moving forward to investigate. "That can't be electricity." it though "We wiped out all power sources." it hovered closer to the building.
"Fire!" a beam of yellow energy with blue lightning snaked across the sky.
"No!" The ghost tried to float away, knowing too well that if it were caught in the energy it wouldn't be able to escape. But it was to late, the energy wrapped itself around the ghost, it screamed in pain. The figure kicked a box using his free leg, the box slid across the debris strewn floor and stopped when the cord was at it's full length.
The ghost recognized the box and what it represented, he had to tell the Leader otherwise they would be in severe danger, however it never got the chance to fly away.
The box opened releasing an inverted pyramid of white light, the ghost screamed more and more but to no avail, and the powerful vortex of energy eventually sucked the spirit into the box. Battered yellow and black doors closing down on the spirit. The red indicator light flickered showing the trap's age.
He smiled to himself, he picked up the trap, disconnected the cable and placed it in a cardboard box labeled "full". Turning towards a machine covered by an old tarp he couldn't help thinking how much it would change the world if it worked.
"Only one way to find out." He removed the tarp and stood in awe, he hadn't know if he'd be able to build it with what was left, most of the equipment had been destroyed in the blast, but he'd been able to salvage some. And with the help he'd received the device was now finished. He tapped a red button on the side, for a couple of seconds it looked like nothing was going to happen. Then a fountain of sparks erupted out of the side of the machine, and a ghostly glow appeared to his right.
"Welcome, I've been expecting you."
The wind swept up, causing the cape and hood to move, the wind revealed two things, the smile on the figure's face. But what was more important was that the wind had also exposed the figure's right arm, showing a dirtied and torn green uniform, with a dirtied no-ghost logo attached to the upper part of the arm.
Chapter Two
"I'm going to sleep for a week when we get home." Peter yawned from the backseat of Ecto-1.
"Then we'd be able to get a rest from your mouth Peter." replied Winston from the driver's seat. Peter stuck out his tongue at Winston's head, then he turned to rest his legs on the seat.
Egon was tapping away at his pocket held computer, he suddenly frowned and shook the computer a few times.
"Problem Egon?" Ray had noticed the physicist's angry movements.
"The batteries have run down." Egon replied without hiding his annoyance.
"Just make sure he doesn't throttle the thing." Peter's voice drifted up from behind the seat.
"Well it's not the only thing with run down batteries." Winston's grave voice drifted into the rear of the car.
"What do you mean by that?" The light inside of the car started to dim.
"What the?" Ray looked at the dimming ceiling light.
"I'm gonna check something." Peter got up and stood on the seat.
"What are you doing?" Ray asked as Peter's head disappeared into the ceiling.
"I believe he's checking something on the roof." Ray shifted over his seat to speak to Peter.
"See anything Peter?"
"Not yet, hold on the rear siren lights have gone out, I think I can make out HQ. Ray tell Winston to turn off everything but the engine."
"But what if a policeman is passing by and sees us?"
"Would you rather push Ecto home?"
"You're the boss." Even though Winston didn't have any confidence in Peter's plan. From outside the car started to shut down. The remaining siren lights went out, followed by the red light on the forward siren lights. The spotlights followed, then the siren died out. The headlights flickered out, followed by the taillights and finally the cabin lights.
"Ok we're just a block away..." SMASH! The car rocked sideways and settled down again. The three other Ghostbusters looked at Peter's head as his face went red and he hid it above the roof.
Winston opened the driver's door and stepped out into the dark street. Ray and Egon stepped out of the rear passenger door. Peter observed the carnage overhead.
"Oh hi Officer, fancy meeting you here."
A very angry looking NYPD officer stood next to the crumpled bonnet of his squad car. The three other Ghostbusters could only sigh and close their eyes as the verbal barrage between the police officer and Peter Venkman began.
*****
Ecto passed through the station doors and came to a stop in it's regular place in the Garage. Winston and Ray got out and went around to the rear of the car to inspect the damage.
"Oh man!" Winston exclaimed with good reason. The rear wing was a crumpled mess, the red tail lights on that side had been smashed, the reverse lamp smashed, the window above was cracked badly, the paint work on the wing was flaking and the rear wheel felt like it had developed a wobble. Both Winston and Ray turned angry faces towards Peter. "That is the last time I listen to one of your plans when it concerns Ecto."
Janine, having heard the crash and the heated argument next to Ecto had come to investigate. She had found a very angry looking Ray and Winston as well as a pretty shaken Peter.
"Ouch." Four sets of eyes turned to her, three of which softened a little, this wasn't her fault.
"Okay Peter, from now on until I say so the only contact you will be having with Ecto apart for being in the garage is when you help repair the damage, completely." Janine was a little shocked at the angry tone in Winston's voice, normally he kept a cool head. Dr.Venkman must have done something to cause the crumpled rear wing.
Peter turned to look at the crumpled wreckage that was the rear left wing of Ecto-1. Winston walked over to the rear of the car and pulled on the handle connected to the rear door. CREAK, the door didn't budge, he pulled again and still no luck. Ray moved over and they both pulled the door handle, after a few seconds the door shot open and they were on the floor. Winston stared in horror at the disconnected door handle in his hand. His face crumpled in a scowl and he tossed the useless handle at Peter, which struck Peter in the chest. Having enacted a small part of his long and painful revenge towards Venkman he started to unload the packs and traps.
Ray who had calmed down a bit walked over to Peter. "I know you can't be fully blamed for this, but for your sake Peter you'd better not make a fuss about it. Tomorrow I'll give you a list of places where you can get spare parts, as to a list of what's damaged you're gonna have to find the car construction manual and put together the list yourself. But you'll do that tomorrow, Winston might make you fix Ecto 'til the end of time, but he'd want you to get a good sleep so you don't mess it up." With his part done for now, Ray headed towards the staircase to have a sleep.
Winston and Egon followed suit, however Peter just stood there staring at the car. The main garage lights went out. Egon paused on the middle landing of the staircase, turning to see the car he couldn't help but feel sorry for Peter. Sure Peter was to blame for the idea of driving without lights, but Winston had been unfair in handling the situation.
"Peter, Peter? Are you ok?"
Egon was surprised with how Peter answered his question. Instead of following the guys upstairs, Peter walked over to Ecto's side door opened it and slid onto the rear seat. He then closed the door and just sat there.
Egon started up the stairs again when the sound of metal and glass smacking the garage floor made him jump, Egon turned and looked back at Ecto, the rear spotlight had fallen off of the roof.
"Add the spotlight to the long list of damaged parts." Egon thought.
Chapter Three
"Geez I don't know what came over me." Winston sat up in his bed.
"Winston don't worry, Peter knows that you were upset, he'll realize in time that you were saying those things in the heat of the moment."
"Where is Peter anyway?" Winston looked over to Egon.
"For some reason Peter has decided to spend the night sleeping in Ecto." Egon frowned at Peter's reaction to the verbal battle he'd had with the Police officer and the verbal barrage he'd received from Winston. Thinking about it now Peter hadn't said a word after they had piled back into Ecto- 1.
Winston blinked for a moment trying to decipher Peter's actions, deciding that he had to do something Winston put on his dressing gown and was slipping on his slippers.
"Where are you going?" Ray looked confused.
"To talk some sense into Peter, don't wait up, I don't want to cause everyone to lose sleep over this incident." Ray and Egon exchanged glances.
"We'll go to sleep, in obvious protest. But if there's a problem then wake us." Egon said , followed by Ray's nod of agreement.
"Okay, but let's hope it doesn't come to that." The room darkened and Winston's outline was visible between the door and frame. "Have a good night guys". That was Egon and Ray's cue to settle down and catch some sleep.
*****
"Grey" Peter stared at Ecto's roof. "Of all colours that have been painted onto this car they had to choose grey for the interior." muttered Peter out loud.
Click, clunk.
"Are you going to sit there all night or am I going to have to kick your ass up those stairs." Peter raised his head, once realizing he hadn't imagined it he dropped his head back again.
"Look Peter I'm sorry about what happened earlier, it was a combination of my love of this car, the stress from that recent bust, not being able to vent my frustration in front of the Police officer and the stupidity of the situation. You weren't to blame, I shouldn't have listened to the plan and besides, I'm sure that cop was driving without his lights either because I'm sure I saw them light up after I got out of my door.
"Well, I'm glad to know that I wasn't totally to blame." Venkman grinned at Winston.
"You know what Peter? You sure are one hell of a asshole when you put your mind to it." A trace of humour in his voice. His face became stern for a few moments. "Though I still want you to help out fixing the car, advised of course."
"Consider it done Cap'n." Peter's mocking tone returned.
"With that part of business done I need to get to the second and final part. Are you going to get upstairs and get some sleep?" Winston's face then changed to evil grin. "Or am I going to have to get Slimer to slime you upstairs."
"Don't you dare threaten Peter Venkman!" Peter reached behind him and picked up the spare blanket. "I hope that you can still dodge things as good when you're tired out as when you're playing basketball." Peter flung the sheet at Winston, which caught him in the chest. Being caught off guard by the attack Winston collapsed to the floor. Janine who had been finishing her paperwork when Winston had come downstairs broke into laughter at the mock attack. Her laughter was joined by both Peter's and Winston's as Peter helped the collapsed man get up.
"Now...now get upstairs or face the consequences." Peter saluted Winston and marched towards the first floor.
"Everything okay now?" Janine asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine for now."
"Can you trust him with working on Ecto?"
"He'll be careful, otherwise he'll have both me and Ray to answer to."
"Well I'm going now, I'll see you guys in the morning."
"Have a good night Janine." The redhead strode over to the main doors and stepped through the smaller portal in one of the doors.
Chapter Four.
At first Egon couldn't see properly, then his surrounding became clearer as they solidified, though it wasn't much of a difference, the destruction was the same.
"Welcome, I've been expecting you."
Egon turned to the source of the voice, which turned out to be a man hidden under a cloak next to a weird piece of machinery.
"Who are you? What is this place?" Egon was more surprised then angry.
"Where? Don't tell me you don't recognize your own home?"
"My what?" Egon looked around, a lot of it had collapsed and disappeared, but it was the firehouse, not much left of it though.
"What's going on, who are you?" He took a step closer towards the stranger.
"Who I am isn't important right now, there is plenty of time for that later. However what I must tell you now you must judge with an open mind. You must also tell your friends at the right moment."
"What have my friends.."
"Later, as you have noticed." the figure gestures around him. "That this place and the surrounding buildings are in terrible shape, the truth is that it is the year 2015. And before you start thinking this is a sci-fi show dream, I assure you it isn't."
"Alright, so what caused this devastation."
"Like I said, it is 2015, 13 years after the destruction of the Containment Unit." An expression of shock crossed Egon's face.
"Destroyed?"
"Correct, destroyed by a powerful entity that you will come up against...and be defeated, the entity will then take siege on the firehouse, destroying it and the Containment Unit, thus creating the Ghost Army which we have been fighting."
"We?" Enquired Egon
"There are many of us, after the original Ghostbusters failed a new team was formed, myself as the leader. We called ourselves "Ghostbusters: Apocalypse Squad."
"Why "Apocalypse Squad"?"
"Because the world was having it's final apocalypse."
"And I'm here to do what exactly."
The figure gestured around him again.
"Prevent this hell from ever coming into existence."
"Hold on a minute, even if we did succeed it would eventually be undone, a time paradox would result."
"I took that into consideration, you see this device beside me? It brought you here, though technically you don't exist here. You have the same physical mass as a ghost."
"Interesting theory, being able to locate a specific brain wave in the past and use it to project a image you could have contact with. What I don't understand is how I'm going to remember this when I wake up, or how this will prevent a paradox?"
"As you're asleep this technically counts as dream, which you won't remember much of when you're asleep. However this device is also implanting specific information in you brain waves so that you will only remember them unconsciously. But when the proper time comes they will become available to you."
Egon inspected the figure more closely this time, the cloak was old and seemed to have been through a war, the figure held a rusted and battered but apparently working Proton Pack. In a cardboard box sat a trap in similar condition.
"I have to leave you know, the indicator is showing that you will be waking soon."
"But if this is a dream of sorts how will I remember this conversation when I next see you?"
"Our conversation has been included on the information you are receiving."
"Well I shall then see you tomorrow night."
"Indeed...."
The image faded and disappeared.
The stranger thought to himself "For all our sakes that device better have worked."
Chapter Five
Egon bolted upright, he was now awake. The last lingering shadow memories of the weird dream he'd had were bleeding out of his mind. He turned to face the bedside clock. It read: 1:30AM
He heard loud snoring near his bed, he turned over to see Peter was occupying his bed.
"Thanks Winston, now he doesn't have to sleep in the car." Egon thought.
Egon turned over to go back to sleep yet something puzzled him, how could he see so well if he'd removed his glasses getting into bed? He felt across his face and found his red specs in their regular position slowly slipping off his nose. He placed them on his nightstand and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Six
When Egon woke again it was daytime, bright sunlight filtering through the gap in the curtains. He looked at the clock, It read: 7:00am.
Deciding that he'd rather get something done then lying in bed, Egon got up. He glanced across to Peter's bed, which was empty. The sheets didn't even seem to have been slept in. Had what he'd seen last night been part of a dream?
Egon walked down the steps to garage expecting only himself to be up and about, but was surprised when he saw Ecto's back winched up, and Peter removing the dented rear wheel.
"Peter Venkman up before 7:00am, this must be a dream!"
Peter looked up from his position and grinned.
"I decided that I'd try to get back in to Winston's good books by starting to repair Ecto early, and I've also got about half the list of spare parts needed written up." He nodded towards a sheet of paper with his handwriting on spread across an old desk he'd pulled up alongside the ambulance.
"Don't forget the rear spotlight, it fell off as I was leaving."
"Already on the list."
Egon walked over to the answering machine that had been installed in case any emergencies cropped up over night, however another group of people dealt with night calls.
"Ow, Damn!"
Egon turned in direction of the car.
"I swear Egon, this car is gonna cause one of us a major injury."
"Well, it did try to kill us, twice."
The smell of pancakes and eggs drifted down the stairs.
"Smells like Rays up and cooking breakfast." Came the observation from below Ecto.
"I'll grab you a plate and cup of coffee before Slimer eats the lot."
*****
The sizzling from the cooker drowned out any sound of Egon's approach.
"It's startling what Peter can do if you threaten him enough."
"I know what you mean." Stantz flipped a pancake.
"How do you like yours?"
"Well done with a large amount of Maple Syrup."
"There's a bottle in the fridge." Egon walked over to the fridge and opened the door, thankfully Slimer hadn't been in there this morning otherwise there'd be no syrup left, or anything for that matter.
"Hey Egon could you get out the plates?"
"Which plates?" asked Egon absent-mindedly.
"The ones that the slime comes off easily. Are you okay Egon? I know that look and it says "Something's bothering me." Egon glanced towards his friend.
"I can't quite explain it, I had an unusual dream last night, I can only remember bits and pieces from it. But I believe it somehow relates with our future." Ray turned off the cooker to dedicate his full attention towards Egon's problem.
"As a rough guess, it kinda sounds like a premonition of sorts. We might be able to help you remember more if we use some hypnotism. I'll call a friend of mine over if you'd like."
"If it helps me to make sense of the mental fragments then it would be greatly appreciated."
"CRASH!" Both Egon and Ray stared out of the kitchen door as the last of the sound echoed up of the staircase.
"Peter!" Ray shouted as both he and Egon raced down the stairs. What they found was not what they expected, instead of finding Peter possible crushed under the fallen Ecto-1, they actually found Peter beginning to sweep up broken shards of glass from where a brick had been thrown through one of the ground floor windows.
"Damn kids." Muttered Peter as he was cleaning up the diamond sharp shards.
"Are you okay Peter?" Worry heavy in Ray's voice.
"Only my nerves." Venkman gave his friend a nervous grin.
"I think this wasn't just a normal act of vandalism." Both Peter and Ray turned to see Egon holding a piece of notepaper in one hand, the brick in the other.
"Soon your business will be shut down permanently". Egon read out aloud for the benefit of his friends.
"Someone is threatening us? But why?" Ray re-read the message.
"Yuck, it feels like this came from a sewer!" At this shout of disgust from Peter, Egon pulled out his PKE Meter and switched it on, it instantly began bleeping wildly.
"Wow, it's just like when you examined that piece of paper with Ragnorock on it and it caused the meter to overload!"
"Ow!" Egon's hand uncurled from the meter as it rapidly heated up. He used a rag to hold the handle.
"Oh great, another PKE Meter frying piece of paper!" Peter chimed in.
"Get down, now!" Egon threw the meter through the broken window. The building was then rocked by an explosion.
"Good thing the street out there was under construction, otherwise we could have had some real trouble on our hands." The three Ghostbusters walked out into the street and saw the blast crater where presumably the meter had landed. The smoke from the explosion was starting to clear. The sound of a window opening overhead drifted down. "What the hell was that!" Winston's voice drifted down to the street.
"Don't worry Winston, we were just helping the road work crews destroy the street." Shouted Peter.
"Show your appreciation for New York by blowing up a part of it." Winston grinned and then disappeared from the window. The three Ghostbusters walked back into the firehouse to alert to the police and fire officials.
"If the power levels were high enough to do that then we all could be in serious trouble." Egon stated while looking through his computerized version of Tobin's Spirit Guide.
"Yeah, we'll have the NYPD on our asses like The National Enquirer on an alien story." Peter grinned.
"What I mean is that this letter is linked to an entity of similar power as the one who was able to cause Ragnorock using a flute."
"Should I go get the filofax to find out the most likely suspects?" Ray was moving towards Janine's desk.
"Good idea Ray, I'll continue to check Tobin's. And Peter?" Peter glanced up from the pile of tools on the floor. "Yes Egon?" Egon smiled for a moment. "Continue to repair Ecto, if the situation gets as bad as I believe then we'll be needing her."
Chapter Five
In her many years as Secretary, Janine had seen many things: giant marshmallow men, a walking Statue of Liberty, "Godzilla wearing a Octopus mask" as Dr. Venkman called the "Old One" and she had seen nearly everything worth seeing in New York, but one thing she hadn't expected was a blast crater next to the Ghostbusters' Firehouse.
"Those guys." She thought with amusement. When the Ghostbusters were involved even explosions were expectable.
"Do it yourself roadwork's?" The three Ghostbusters who were in the garage looked up at her.
"No, Egon was just testing his Ectoplasmic Mines." Peter grinned from his position under Ecto's tailgate.
"We had a slight problem with an threat letter." Janine's expression changed to one of worry.
"Threat letter, is someone after us?" Egon glanced up from Janine's desk. "It's more a case of something is after us. But to what I'm not sure yet. But as you saw outside it's very powerful."
As if to prove Egon's point, a lampshade from the ceiling light near to the desk toppled to the floor.
"Wow Peter, I didn't realize that you'd get up early to fix the car!" Peter slid out from under Ecto at the sound of Winston's voice.
"Surely you would have seen me just after the explosion?"
"I know you were down there, I was just showing my surprise of waking up after you, though it's nice to know that I can motivate you enough." Winston gestured towards the car.
"Well, I've been able to put together a partial list of parts needed, and you can see a pile of parts that needed to be removed over there." Peter roughly indicated an area near the stairs to the basement.
Ray strained to hear a weird sound emanating from the floor above. "What could that be? Oh no! The pancakes!" Four sets of eyes watched Ray sprint up the stairs.
"I guess Slimer's got at the breakfast." Peter's voice drifted up from the rear of Ecto.
Chapter Six
"Welcome back." The stranger stood before Egon again.
"It's nice to know I can remember this again, for now anyway."
"Now that I have explained the cause of our surroundings and why you're here, I must tell you why you failed."
"Hold on a minute." Egon stepped closer to the stranger before him, but couldn't move any further. "I don't see how only knowing this as the fragments of a dream is going to help, as soon as I wake up I'll barely remember this encounter. And I certainly won't remember any complex alterations to our equipment.
"If I know you as well as I remember, you'll be able to find a way to remember our encounters not only wholly, but you'll be able to bring other parties into this conversation."
"I guess you mean the other Ghostbusters." The stranger smiled. "Of course."
"Anyway, the dream time is ever fleeting and we must discuss much." The stranger grunted quietly as he sat down on an aged chair.
"It began 13 years ago, a demon-god, similar to that of Gozer was entering our world, however this demon had witnessed the dramatic defeat of Gozer, and so the demon-god temporarily abandoned his invasion of Earth. The demon's name is Azriel." Egon put his hand over his breast pocket where he normally kept his computer, however as he was in his nightshirt he didn't have it with him.
"It wouldn't have worked anyway." The stranger announced while viewing Egon's actions. "Azriel was entering into this world using Pentagram made of Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers. The Main six points are made of public places, while the markings in the central section of the Pentagram were the Chrysler Building, the Metropolitan Life Building and the Empire State Building."
Egon did a few calculations in his head. "Those would be appropriate."
"In five days from your present time the first signs of Azriel's invasion will begin to appear, this will include masses of fire, chasms opening up along streets, and an enormous lightning storm covering the sky above and around New York."
"So what failed." The tone in Egon's voice was grave.
"Azriel is a positively charged demon, and the particle throwers at their present settings would only bounce off of him."
"I see."
"But that was only part of the problem, to give Azriel the power to enter this world he needs three sacrifices, however this was only found out when it was too late. To break the spell that allowed Azriel to enter, you had to either remove one or all of the sacrifices from the smaller Pentagrams maked on the buildings."
Egon glanced across the stranger's shoulder, in the distance he could see the beheaded tower of the Chrysler Building.
"And the Containment Unit?" The stranger seemed to shudder as the unpleasant memory resurfaced.
"After Azriel had defeated the Ghostbusters he smashed his way to the Firehouse to release his Ghost Army. By this point only you and Dr. Venkman had survived the first battle with Azriel." Egon's face showed disbelief.
"Ray, Winston..dead? It can't be possible."
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. But if you succeed then none of this will happen." The stanger then contiued his account. "After Azriel had defteated you in battle, you and Peter managed to escape to Ecto-1."
*Flashback*
A badly injured Egon and Peter stumble into the Ecto-1. The sky and concrete canyons of Manhattan flashed constantly with unnatural lightning.
"My God Egon, we used up all we had and it didn't even harm him!" Peter coughed and was startled to see blood sliding down the windshield.
"I should have seen it sooner, Azriel was drawing power from three sacrifices, one on each building." Egon had suffered severe burns on his left arm and had a cut across his left eyebrow.
"Where to now?" Peter glanced across from his seat.
"Back to HQ where we can try to plan another attack." The Ecto-1 screeched and swerved through the halted rush hour traffic.
"Watch it Egon, I don't want to have to go through rebuilding the car again." An expression of pain flashed on both of their faces' at the thought of their lost comrades. The three-story bulk of the Firehouse approached at speed. Peter pressed the button to open the double doors. The dented and burnt Ecto-1 pulled into the garage.
"Oh god Egon are you okay? Where's Winston and Ray." An expression of worry covered Janine's and Slimer's faces as the two battle scarred Ghostbusters approached.
Peter coughed again. "They...they didn't make it." Both Slimer's and Janine's faces fell, Slimer mashed his face into Janine's shoulder as he burst into tears. Moisture began to stream down Janine's left cheek. "As long as Egon and I are still alive we can avenge them." Peter walked towards the stairs.
"Where are you going?" a tired Egon asked.
"To clear the lab table, we've got some serious work to do." Egon kept watching Peter until his boots disappeared above the garage ceiling.
"Don't worry Janine, even though they are gone we will be able to make sure they didn't die in vain." Egon stood next to Janine and gave her a gentle hug. He was responded by a "Thanks" between gasps. Egon finished the embrace and stared down at Janine. "I love you" he whispered. "Well, it's about time you said that." Janine replied back. Egon then started walking towards the stairs. "Coming?" Janine looked up. Slimer, still whimpering a little but otherwise controlled floated towards the redhead. "Yes." Janine said nearly silently. Egon turned his head towards Slimer, who gave Egon a nod of agreement. And so the three joined Peter in the lab as they began to lay out the plan to attempt to send Azriel back to where he'd come from.
"Okay guys this is how I see it..." Peter was interrupted as the building was shook by a vast amount of energy.
"No!" Peter shouted as he could see the unmistakable shape of Azriel through the skylight. Emergency lights began to flash and claxons began to sound as the building was rocked on it's foundations.
People outside were fleeing and screaming in terror as the demon Azriel was assaulting the firestation. The neon sign's metal support snapped and the glass casing tumbled to the ground, breaking into white, red and black shards. Masonry and brickwork fell to the street as the building shook apart.
"We have to get out now! Everyone bring any equipment you can carry, I don't think we'll be able to stay here much longer." Egon shouted as the sound of a train derailing filled the building. Peter grabbed his Proton pack from the side of the table as the skylight imploded, showering them in glass. The three humans and ghost made it down to the floor below and were only just able to avoid a section of floor collapsing and falling into the garage. They stumbled down the rapidly collapsing staircase and ran across to the Ecto-1, the roof and bonnet now littered with parts of the building.
"Hold on, I have to check something!" Egon shouted over the racket.
"Egon come back!" Janine screamed. "Janine stay in the car, I'll get him." Peter than rushed off towards the stairs to the basement. He found Egon standing on the landing overlooking the basement, Egon was watching the Containment Unit begin to disintigrate.
"Come on Egon, there's nothing we can do to stop it!" The two Ghostbusters then turned and sprinted up the debris littered staircase. A large crashing sound was heard above as Peter and Egon crossed the collapsing garage towards Ecto-1. Egon sat in the passenger seat as Peter took the driver's seat.
"Hold onto your helmets!" Peter shouted as he jammed his boot onto the gas pedal. The Ambulance shot forward, the garage seen through the sides of the car blurred as they approached the double doors, one of which was in the process of collapsing. The car shot through the archway, scraping some of the paintwork on the remains of the doors. Peter then jammed on the brake and rotated the car 180 degrees to view the burning remains of the Firehouse, It seemed relatively intact. A rumbling from below reached feverpitch and what sounded like a boiler exploding filled the air as column of red energy exploded out of the roof of the crippled structure. Debris started to fall from the sky nearly 30 meters away from the charred shell of the firehouse. Peter was instantly brought back to when Peck had shut off the grid, the effect was the same, if not larger than before because of the larger number of ghosts contained in the red metal prison that had ceased to exist three minutes ago.
"My God in Heaven, what do we do now?" four sets of eyes stared out at the symbol of disaster unfolding before them.
To Be Continued...
The sky was a dark yellow-orange colour, it looked like it was on fire. The ghost looked towards the horizon, partially blocked by the two grey, rotting towers. The steel skeleton of the towers' support beams showing through the areas where the tower's skin had fallen off like the rib cage of some dead giant. The ghost looked down, a wide assortment of ruined buildings, rusting cars and human corpses littered the dead city below.
The ghost swooped lower, looped around the twin towers and descended to a level matching the height of a ten-story building. It could see the streets better now, the rusted cars weren't just in random positions, neither were the corpses and skeletons lying around. They had fallen and rusted in positions that showed they were in a rush hour. The pavements literally jammed with the dead. The ghost was passing by the North tower of the now abandoned World Trade Center. Most of the centre's windows had been blow out during the ghost army's attack.
The ghost was moving North towards the wasteland of Central Park, it passed over empty offices, smashed department stores and ruined Subway stations.
The three-story building came into view. It had been designated a no-go area even after the city had fallen and the last few humans were rounded up, "if there was no danger of human contact then why are we not permitted to enter it?" the thought passed through the ghost's ethereal mind. It lowered itself again, now hovering at a height of five stories so it could get a better look at the building. Most of the roof had collapsed into the building, taking most of the floors with it. A large section of the outside wall had also collapsed. The windows were all broken and for all purposes it looked like every other building in the city.
He could see it, just hovering above the front of the building, of course he had the advantage, with the small section of roof remaining overhead he could easily hide in the shadows. He aimed carefully, pointing the tip of the gun towards the ghost. "Three.... two....one...."
The ghost heard a humming noise from below and started moving forward to investigate. "That can't be electricity." it though "We wiped out all power sources." it hovered closer to the building.
"Fire!" a beam of yellow energy with blue lightning snaked across the sky.
"No!" The ghost tried to float away, knowing too well that if it were caught in the energy it wouldn't be able to escape. But it was to late, the energy wrapped itself around the ghost, it screamed in pain. The figure kicked a box using his free leg, the box slid across the debris strewn floor and stopped when the cord was at it's full length.
The ghost recognized the box and what it represented, he had to tell the Leader otherwise they would be in severe danger, however it never got the chance to fly away.
The box opened releasing an inverted pyramid of white light, the ghost screamed more and more but to no avail, and the powerful vortex of energy eventually sucked the spirit into the box. Battered yellow and black doors closing down on the spirit. The red indicator light flickered showing the trap's age.
He smiled to himself, he picked up the trap, disconnected the cable and placed it in a cardboard box labeled "full". Turning towards a machine covered by an old tarp he couldn't help thinking how much it would change the world if it worked.
"Only one way to find out." He removed the tarp and stood in awe, he hadn't know if he'd be able to build it with what was left, most of the equipment had been destroyed in the blast, but he'd been able to salvage some. And with the help he'd received the device was now finished. He tapped a red button on the side, for a couple of seconds it looked like nothing was going to happen. Then a fountain of sparks erupted out of the side of the machine, and a ghostly glow appeared to his right.
"Welcome, I've been expecting you."
The wind swept up, causing the cape and hood to move, the wind revealed two things, the smile on the figure's face. But what was more important was that the wind had also exposed the figure's right arm, showing a dirtied and torn green uniform, with a dirtied no-ghost logo attached to the upper part of the arm.
Chapter Two
"I'm going to sleep for a week when we get home." Peter yawned from the backseat of Ecto-1.
"Then we'd be able to get a rest from your mouth Peter." replied Winston from the driver's seat. Peter stuck out his tongue at Winston's head, then he turned to rest his legs on the seat.
Egon was tapping away at his pocket held computer, he suddenly frowned and shook the computer a few times.
"Problem Egon?" Ray had noticed the physicist's angry movements.
"The batteries have run down." Egon replied without hiding his annoyance.
"Just make sure he doesn't throttle the thing." Peter's voice drifted up from behind the seat.
"Well it's not the only thing with run down batteries." Winston's grave voice drifted into the rear of the car.
"What do you mean by that?" The light inside of the car started to dim.
"What the?" Ray looked at the dimming ceiling light.
"I'm gonna check something." Peter got up and stood on the seat.
"What are you doing?" Ray asked as Peter's head disappeared into the ceiling.
"I believe he's checking something on the roof." Ray shifted over his seat to speak to Peter.
"See anything Peter?"
"Not yet, hold on the rear siren lights have gone out, I think I can make out HQ. Ray tell Winston to turn off everything but the engine."
"But what if a policeman is passing by and sees us?"
"Would you rather push Ecto home?"
"You're the boss." Even though Winston didn't have any confidence in Peter's plan. From outside the car started to shut down. The remaining siren lights went out, followed by the red light on the forward siren lights. The spotlights followed, then the siren died out. The headlights flickered out, followed by the taillights and finally the cabin lights.
"Ok we're just a block away..." SMASH! The car rocked sideways and settled down again. The three other Ghostbusters looked at Peter's head as his face went red and he hid it above the roof.
Winston opened the driver's door and stepped out into the dark street. Ray and Egon stepped out of the rear passenger door. Peter observed the carnage overhead.
"Oh hi Officer, fancy meeting you here."
A very angry looking NYPD officer stood next to the crumpled bonnet of his squad car. The three other Ghostbusters could only sigh and close their eyes as the verbal barrage between the police officer and Peter Venkman began.
*****
Ecto passed through the station doors and came to a stop in it's regular place in the Garage. Winston and Ray got out and went around to the rear of the car to inspect the damage.
"Oh man!" Winston exclaimed with good reason. The rear wing was a crumpled mess, the red tail lights on that side had been smashed, the reverse lamp smashed, the window above was cracked badly, the paint work on the wing was flaking and the rear wheel felt like it had developed a wobble. Both Winston and Ray turned angry faces towards Peter. "That is the last time I listen to one of your plans when it concerns Ecto."
Janine, having heard the crash and the heated argument next to Ecto had come to investigate. She had found a very angry looking Ray and Winston as well as a pretty shaken Peter.
"Ouch." Four sets of eyes turned to her, three of which softened a little, this wasn't her fault.
"Okay Peter, from now on until I say so the only contact you will be having with Ecto apart for being in the garage is when you help repair the damage, completely." Janine was a little shocked at the angry tone in Winston's voice, normally he kept a cool head. Dr.Venkman must have done something to cause the crumpled rear wing.
Peter turned to look at the crumpled wreckage that was the rear left wing of Ecto-1. Winston walked over to the rear of the car and pulled on the handle connected to the rear door. CREAK, the door didn't budge, he pulled again and still no luck. Ray moved over and they both pulled the door handle, after a few seconds the door shot open and they were on the floor. Winston stared in horror at the disconnected door handle in his hand. His face crumpled in a scowl and he tossed the useless handle at Peter, which struck Peter in the chest. Having enacted a small part of his long and painful revenge towards Venkman he started to unload the packs and traps.
Ray who had calmed down a bit walked over to Peter. "I know you can't be fully blamed for this, but for your sake Peter you'd better not make a fuss about it. Tomorrow I'll give you a list of places where you can get spare parts, as to a list of what's damaged you're gonna have to find the car construction manual and put together the list yourself. But you'll do that tomorrow, Winston might make you fix Ecto 'til the end of time, but he'd want you to get a good sleep so you don't mess it up." With his part done for now, Ray headed towards the staircase to have a sleep.
Winston and Egon followed suit, however Peter just stood there staring at the car. The main garage lights went out. Egon paused on the middle landing of the staircase, turning to see the car he couldn't help but feel sorry for Peter. Sure Peter was to blame for the idea of driving without lights, but Winston had been unfair in handling the situation.
"Peter, Peter? Are you ok?"
Egon was surprised with how Peter answered his question. Instead of following the guys upstairs, Peter walked over to Ecto's side door opened it and slid onto the rear seat. He then closed the door and just sat there.
Egon started up the stairs again when the sound of metal and glass smacking the garage floor made him jump, Egon turned and looked back at Ecto, the rear spotlight had fallen off of the roof.
"Add the spotlight to the long list of damaged parts." Egon thought.
Chapter Three
"Geez I don't know what came over me." Winston sat up in his bed.
"Winston don't worry, Peter knows that you were upset, he'll realize in time that you were saying those things in the heat of the moment."
"Where is Peter anyway?" Winston looked over to Egon.
"For some reason Peter has decided to spend the night sleeping in Ecto." Egon frowned at Peter's reaction to the verbal battle he'd had with the Police officer and the verbal barrage he'd received from Winston. Thinking about it now Peter hadn't said a word after they had piled back into Ecto- 1.
Winston blinked for a moment trying to decipher Peter's actions, deciding that he had to do something Winston put on his dressing gown and was slipping on his slippers.
"Where are you going?" Ray looked confused.
"To talk some sense into Peter, don't wait up, I don't want to cause everyone to lose sleep over this incident." Ray and Egon exchanged glances.
"We'll go to sleep, in obvious protest. But if there's a problem then wake us." Egon said , followed by Ray's nod of agreement.
"Okay, but let's hope it doesn't come to that." The room darkened and Winston's outline was visible between the door and frame. "Have a good night guys". That was Egon and Ray's cue to settle down and catch some sleep.
*****
"Grey" Peter stared at Ecto's roof. "Of all colours that have been painted onto this car they had to choose grey for the interior." muttered Peter out loud.
Click, clunk.
"Are you going to sit there all night or am I going to have to kick your ass up those stairs." Peter raised his head, once realizing he hadn't imagined it he dropped his head back again.
"Look Peter I'm sorry about what happened earlier, it was a combination of my love of this car, the stress from that recent bust, not being able to vent my frustration in front of the Police officer and the stupidity of the situation. You weren't to blame, I shouldn't have listened to the plan and besides, I'm sure that cop was driving without his lights either because I'm sure I saw them light up after I got out of my door.
"Well, I'm glad to know that I wasn't totally to blame." Venkman grinned at Winston.
"You know what Peter? You sure are one hell of a asshole when you put your mind to it." A trace of humour in his voice. His face became stern for a few moments. "Though I still want you to help out fixing the car, advised of course."
"Consider it done Cap'n." Peter's mocking tone returned.
"With that part of business done I need to get to the second and final part. Are you going to get upstairs and get some sleep?" Winston's face then changed to evil grin. "Or am I going to have to get Slimer to slime you upstairs."
"Don't you dare threaten Peter Venkman!" Peter reached behind him and picked up the spare blanket. "I hope that you can still dodge things as good when you're tired out as when you're playing basketball." Peter flung the sheet at Winston, which caught him in the chest. Being caught off guard by the attack Winston collapsed to the floor. Janine who had been finishing her paperwork when Winston had come downstairs broke into laughter at the mock attack. Her laughter was joined by both Peter's and Winston's as Peter helped the collapsed man get up.
"Now...now get upstairs or face the consequences." Peter saluted Winston and marched towards the first floor.
"Everything okay now?" Janine asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine for now."
"Can you trust him with working on Ecto?"
"He'll be careful, otherwise he'll have both me and Ray to answer to."
"Well I'm going now, I'll see you guys in the morning."
"Have a good night Janine." The redhead strode over to the main doors and stepped through the smaller portal in one of the doors.
Chapter Four.
At first Egon couldn't see properly, then his surrounding became clearer as they solidified, though it wasn't much of a difference, the destruction was the same.
"Welcome, I've been expecting you."
Egon turned to the source of the voice, which turned out to be a man hidden under a cloak next to a weird piece of machinery.
"Who are you? What is this place?" Egon was more surprised then angry.
"Where? Don't tell me you don't recognize your own home?"
"My what?" Egon looked around, a lot of it had collapsed and disappeared, but it was the firehouse, not much left of it though.
"What's going on, who are you?" He took a step closer towards the stranger.
"Who I am isn't important right now, there is plenty of time for that later. However what I must tell you now you must judge with an open mind. You must also tell your friends at the right moment."
"What have my friends.."
"Later, as you have noticed." the figure gestures around him. "That this place and the surrounding buildings are in terrible shape, the truth is that it is the year 2015. And before you start thinking this is a sci-fi show dream, I assure you it isn't."
"Alright, so what caused this devastation."
"Like I said, it is 2015, 13 years after the destruction of the Containment Unit." An expression of shock crossed Egon's face.
"Destroyed?"
"Correct, destroyed by a powerful entity that you will come up against...and be defeated, the entity will then take siege on the firehouse, destroying it and the Containment Unit, thus creating the Ghost Army which we have been fighting."
"We?" Enquired Egon
"There are many of us, after the original Ghostbusters failed a new team was formed, myself as the leader. We called ourselves "Ghostbusters: Apocalypse Squad."
"Why "Apocalypse Squad"?"
"Because the world was having it's final apocalypse."
"And I'm here to do what exactly."
The figure gestured around him again.
"Prevent this hell from ever coming into existence."
"Hold on a minute, even if we did succeed it would eventually be undone, a time paradox would result."
"I took that into consideration, you see this device beside me? It brought you here, though technically you don't exist here. You have the same physical mass as a ghost."
"Interesting theory, being able to locate a specific brain wave in the past and use it to project a image you could have contact with. What I don't understand is how I'm going to remember this when I wake up, or how this will prevent a paradox?"
"As you're asleep this technically counts as dream, which you won't remember much of when you're asleep. However this device is also implanting specific information in you brain waves so that you will only remember them unconsciously. But when the proper time comes they will become available to you."
Egon inspected the figure more closely this time, the cloak was old and seemed to have been through a war, the figure held a rusted and battered but apparently working Proton Pack. In a cardboard box sat a trap in similar condition.
"I have to leave you know, the indicator is showing that you will be waking soon."
"But if this is a dream of sorts how will I remember this conversation when I next see you?"
"Our conversation has been included on the information you are receiving."
"Well I shall then see you tomorrow night."
"Indeed...."
The image faded and disappeared.
The stranger thought to himself "For all our sakes that device better have worked."
Chapter Five
Egon bolted upright, he was now awake. The last lingering shadow memories of the weird dream he'd had were bleeding out of his mind. He turned to face the bedside clock. It read: 1:30AM
He heard loud snoring near his bed, he turned over to see Peter was occupying his bed.
"Thanks Winston, now he doesn't have to sleep in the car." Egon thought.
Egon turned over to go back to sleep yet something puzzled him, how could he see so well if he'd removed his glasses getting into bed? He felt across his face and found his red specs in their regular position slowly slipping off his nose. He placed them on his nightstand and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Six
When Egon woke again it was daytime, bright sunlight filtering through the gap in the curtains. He looked at the clock, It read: 7:00am.
Deciding that he'd rather get something done then lying in bed, Egon got up. He glanced across to Peter's bed, which was empty. The sheets didn't even seem to have been slept in. Had what he'd seen last night been part of a dream?
Egon walked down the steps to garage expecting only himself to be up and about, but was surprised when he saw Ecto's back winched up, and Peter removing the dented rear wheel.
"Peter Venkman up before 7:00am, this must be a dream!"
Peter looked up from his position and grinned.
"I decided that I'd try to get back in to Winston's good books by starting to repair Ecto early, and I've also got about half the list of spare parts needed written up." He nodded towards a sheet of paper with his handwriting on spread across an old desk he'd pulled up alongside the ambulance.
"Don't forget the rear spotlight, it fell off as I was leaving."
"Already on the list."
Egon walked over to the answering machine that had been installed in case any emergencies cropped up over night, however another group of people dealt with night calls.
"Ow, Damn!"
Egon turned in direction of the car.
"I swear Egon, this car is gonna cause one of us a major injury."
"Well, it did try to kill us, twice."
The smell of pancakes and eggs drifted down the stairs.
"Smells like Rays up and cooking breakfast." Came the observation from below Ecto.
"I'll grab you a plate and cup of coffee before Slimer eats the lot."
*****
The sizzling from the cooker drowned out any sound of Egon's approach.
"It's startling what Peter can do if you threaten him enough."
"I know what you mean." Stantz flipped a pancake.
"How do you like yours?"
"Well done with a large amount of Maple Syrup."
"There's a bottle in the fridge." Egon walked over to the fridge and opened the door, thankfully Slimer hadn't been in there this morning otherwise there'd be no syrup left, or anything for that matter.
"Hey Egon could you get out the plates?"
"Which plates?" asked Egon absent-mindedly.
"The ones that the slime comes off easily. Are you okay Egon? I know that look and it says "Something's bothering me." Egon glanced towards his friend.
"I can't quite explain it, I had an unusual dream last night, I can only remember bits and pieces from it. But I believe it somehow relates with our future." Ray turned off the cooker to dedicate his full attention towards Egon's problem.
"As a rough guess, it kinda sounds like a premonition of sorts. We might be able to help you remember more if we use some hypnotism. I'll call a friend of mine over if you'd like."
"If it helps me to make sense of the mental fragments then it would be greatly appreciated."
"CRASH!" Both Egon and Ray stared out of the kitchen door as the last of the sound echoed up of the staircase.
"Peter!" Ray shouted as both he and Egon raced down the stairs. What they found was not what they expected, instead of finding Peter possible crushed under the fallen Ecto-1, they actually found Peter beginning to sweep up broken shards of glass from where a brick had been thrown through one of the ground floor windows.
"Damn kids." Muttered Peter as he was cleaning up the diamond sharp shards.
"Are you okay Peter?" Worry heavy in Ray's voice.
"Only my nerves." Venkman gave his friend a nervous grin.
"I think this wasn't just a normal act of vandalism." Both Peter and Ray turned to see Egon holding a piece of notepaper in one hand, the brick in the other.
"Soon your business will be shut down permanently". Egon read out aloud for the benefit of his friends.
"Someone is threatening us? But why?" Ray re-read the message.
"Yuck, it feels like this came from a sewer!" At this shout of disgust from Peter, Egon pulled out his PKE Meter and switched it on, it instantly began bleeping wildly.
"Wow, it's just like when you examined that piece of paper with Ragnorock on it and it caused the meter to overload!"
"Ow!" Egon's hand uncurled from the meter as it rapidly heated up. He used a rag to hold the handle.
"Oh great, another PKE Meter frying piece of paper!" Peter chimed in.
"Get down, now!" Egon threw the meter through the broken window. The building was then rocked by an explosion.
"Good thing the street out there was under construction, otherwise we could have had some real trouble on our hands." The three Ghostbusters walked out into the street and saw the blast crater where presumably the meter had landed. The smoke from the explosion was starting to clear. The sound of a window opening overhead drifted down. "What the hell was that!" Winston's voice drifted down to the street.
"Don't worry Winston, we were just helping the road work crews destroy the street." Shouted Peter.
"Show your appreciation for New York by blowing up a part of it." Winston grinned and then disappeared from the window. The three Ghostbusters walked back into the firehouse to alert to the police and fire officials.
"If the power levels were high enough to do that then we all could be in serious trouble." Egon stated while looking through his computerized version of Tobin's Spirit Guide.
"Yeah, we'll have the NYPD on our asses like The National Enquirer on an alien story." Peter grinned.
"What I mean is that this letter is linked to an entity of similar power as the one who was able to cause Ragnorock using a flute."
"Should I go get the filofax to find out the most likely suspects?" Ray was moving towards Janine's desk.
"Good idea Ray, I'll continue to check Tobin's. And Peter?" Peter glanced up from the pile of tools on the floor. "Yes Egon?" Egon smiled for a moment. "Continue to repair Ecto, if the situation gets as bad as I believe then we'll be needing her."
Chapter Five
In her many years as Secretary, Janine had seen many things: giant marshmallow men, a walking Statue of Liberty, "Godzilla wearing a Octopus mask" as Dr. Venkman called the "Old One" and she had seen nearly everything worth seeing in New York, but one thing she hadn't expected was a blast crater next to the Ghostbusters' Firehouse.
"Those guys." She thought with amusement. When the Ghostbusters were involved even explosions were expectable.
"Do it yourself roadwork's?" The three Ghostbusters who were in the garage looked up at her.
"No, Egon was just testing his Ectoplasmic Mines." Peter grinned from his position under Ecto's tailgate.
"We had a slight problem with an threat letter." Janine's expression changed to one of worry.
"Threat letter, is someone after us?" Egon glanced up from Janine's desk. "It's more a case of something is after us. But to what I'm not sure yet. But as you saw outside it's very powerful."
As if to prove Egon's point, a lampshade from the ceiling light near to the desk toppled to the floor.
"Wow Peter, I didn't realize that you'd get up early to fix the car!" Peter slid out from under Ecto at the sound of Winston's voice.
"Surely you would have seen me just after the explosion?"
"I know you were down there, I was just showing my surprise of waking up after you, though it's nice to know that I can motivate you enough." Winston gestured towards the car.
"Well, I've been able to put together a partial list of parts needed, and you can see a pile of parts that needed to be removed over there." Peter roughly indicated an area near the stairs to the basement.
Ray strained to hear a weird sound emanating from the floor above. "What could that be? Oh no! The pancakes!" Four sets of eyes watched Ray sprint up the stairs.
"I guess Slimer's got at the breakfast." Peter's voice drifted up from the rear of Ecto.
Chapter Six
"Welcome back." The stranger stood before Egon again.
"It's nice to know I can remember this again, for now anyway."
"Now that I have explained the cause of our surroundings and why you're here, I must tell you why you failed."
"Hold on a minute." Egon stepped closer to the stranger before him, but couldn't move any further. "I don't see how only knowing this as the fragments of a dream is going to help, as soon as I wake up I'll barely remember this encounter. And I certainly won't remember any complex alterations to our equipment.
"If I know you as well as I remember, you'll be able to find a way to remember our encounters not only wholly, but you'll be able to bring other parties into this conversation."
"I guess you mean the other Ghostbusters." The stranger smiled. "Of course."
"Anyway, the dream time is ever fleeting and we must discuss much." The stranger grunted quietly as he sat down on an aged chair.
"It began 13 years ago, a demon-god, similar to that of Gozer was entering our world, however this demon had witnessed the dramatic defeat of Gozer, and so the demon-god temporarily abandoned his invasion of Earth. The demon's name is Azriel." Egon put his hand over his breast pocket where he normally kept his computer, however as he was in his nightshirt he didn't have it with him.
"It wouldn't have worked anyway." The stranger announced while viewing Egon's actions. "Azriel was entering into this world using Pentagram made of Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers. The Main six points are made of public places, while the markings in the central section of the Pentagram were the Chrysler Building, the Metropolitan Life Building and the Empire State Building."
Egon did a few calculations in his head. "Those would be appropriate."
"In five days from your present time the first signs of Azriel's invasion will begin to appear, this will include masses of fire, chasms opening up along streets, and an enormous lightning storm covering the sky above and around New York."
"So what failed." The tone in Egon's voice was grave.
"Azriel is a positively charged demon, and the particle throwers at their present settings would only bounce off of him."
"I see."
"But that was only part of the problem, to give Azriel the power to enter this world he needs three sacrifices, however this was only found out when it was too late. To break the spell that allowed Azriel to enter, you had to either remove one or all of the sacrifices from the smaller Pentagrams maked on the buildings."
Egon glanced across the stranger's shoulder, in the distance he could see the beheaded tower of the Chrysler Building.
"And the Containment Unit?" The stranger seemed to shudder as the unpleasant memory resurfaced.
"After Azriel had defeated the Ghostbusters he smashed his way to the Firehouse to release his Ghost Army. By this point only you and Dr. Venkman had survived the first battle with Azriel." Egon's face showed disbelief.
"Ray, Winston..dead? It can't be possible."
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. But if you succeed then none of this will happen." The stanger then contiued his account. "After Azriel had defteated you in battle, you and Peter managed to escape to Ecto-1."
*Flashback*
A badly injured Egon and Peter stumble into the Ecto-1. The sky and concrete canyons of Manhattan flashed constantly with unnatural lightning.
"My God Egon, we used up all we had and it didn't even harm him!" Peter coughed and was startled to see blood sliding down the windshield.
"I should have seen it sooner, Azriel was drawing power from three sacrifices, one on each building." Egon had suffered severe burns on his left arm and had a cut across his left eyebrow.
"Where to now?" Peter glanced across from his seat.
"Back to HQ where we can try to plan another attack." The Ecto-1 screeched and swerved through the halted rush hour traffic.
"Watch it Egon, I don't want to have to go through rebuilding the car again." An expression of pain flashed on both of their faces' at the thought of their lost comrades. The three-story bulk of the Firehouse approached at speed. Peter pressed the button to open the double doors. The dented and burnt Ecto-1 pulled into the garage.
"Oh god Egon are you okay? Where's Winston and Ray." An expression of worry covered Janine's and Slimer's faces as the two battle scarred Ghostbusters approached.
Peter coughed again. "They...they didn't make it." Both Slimer's and Janine's faces fell, Slimer mashed his face into Janine's shoulder as he burst into tears. Moisture began to stream down Janine's left cheek. "As long as Egon and I are still alive we can avenge them." Peter walked towards the stairs.
"Where are you going?" a tired Egon asked.
"To clear the lab table, we've got some serious work to do." Egon kept watching Peter until his boots disappeared above the garage ceiling.
"Don't worry Janine, even though they are gone we will be able to make sure they didn't die in vain." Egon stood next to Janine and gave her a gentle hug. He was responded by a "Thanks" between gasps. Egon finished the embrace and stared down at Janine. "I love you" he whispered. "Well, it's about time you said that." Janine replied back. Egon then started walking towards the stairs. "Coming?" Janine looked up. Slimer, still whimpering a little but otherwise controlled floated towards the redhead. "Yes." Janine said nearly silently. Egon turned his head towards Slimer, who gave Egon a nod of agreement. And so the three joined Peter in the lab as they began to lay out the plan to attempt to send Azriel back to where he'd come from.
"Okay guys this is how I see it..." Peter was interrupted as the building was shook by a vast amount of energy.
"No!" Peter shouted as he could see the unmistakable shape of Azriel through the skylight. Emergency lights began to flash and claxons began to sound as the building was rocked on it's foundations.
People outside were fleeing and screaming in terror as the demon Azriel was assaulting the firestation. The neon sign's metal support snapped and the glass casing tumbled to the ground, breaking into white, red and black shards. Masonry and brickwork fell to the street as the building shook apart.
"We have to get out now! Everyone bring any equipment you can carry, I don't think we'll be able to stay here much longer." Egon shouted as the sound of a train derailing filled the building. Peter grabbed his Proton pack from the side of the table as the skylight imploded, showering them in glass. The three humans and ghost made it down to the floor below and were only just able to avoid a section of floor collapsing and falling into the garage. They stumbled down the rapidly collapsing staircase and ran across to the Ecto-1, the roof and bonnet now littered with parts of the building.
"Hold on, I have to check something!" Egon shouted over the racket.
"Egon come back!" Janine screamed. "Janine stay in the car, I'll get him." Peter than rushed off towards the stairs to the basement. He found Egon standing on the landing overlooking the basement, Egon was watching the Containment Unit begin to disintigrate.
"Come on Egon, there's nothing we can do to stop it!" The two Ghostbusters then turned and sprinted up the debris littered staircase. A large crashing sound was heard above as Peter and Egon crossed the collapsing garage towards Ecto-1. Egon sat in the passenger seat as Peter took the driver's seat.
"Hold onto your helmets!" Peter shouted as he jammed his boot onto the gas pedal. The Ambulance shot forward, the garage seen through the sides of the car blurred as they approached the double doors, one of which was in the process of collapsing. The car shot through the archway, scraping some of the paintwork on the remains of the doors. Peter then jammed on the brake and rotated the car 180 degrees to view the burning remains of the Firehouse, It seemed relatively intact. A rumbling from below reached feverpitch and what sounded like a boiler exploding filled the air as column of red energy exploded out of the roof of the crippled structure. Debris started to fall from the sky nearly 30 meters away from the charred shell of the firehouse. Peter was instantly brought back to when Peck had shut off the grid, the effect was the same, if not larger than before because of the larger number of ghosts contained in the red metal prison that had ceased to exist three minutes ago.
"My God in Heaven, what do we do now?" four sets of eyes stared out at the symbol of disaster unfolding before them.
To Be Continued...