Peter's unbreakable grip on Ray's arm only seemed to tighten as he took one large step closer to his captive. Winston's finger hovered over the trigger on the thrower, ready to open fire as a last resort to protect Ray if necessary. Unwilling to move from his protective position he had taken over Egon, who was still completely defenseless on the floor, Winston could only wait for Peter to make his next move.

"Peter?" Ray continued to try and reason with the now possess psychologist. "You don't have to do this, let me go and fight back against the ghost. You're strong enough to resist it, we've seen you do it before!"

The hand on Ray's arm seemed to relax for a fleeting moment before regaining its initial grip.

"Peter!" Ray tried again. "Don't let it-"

Angry and fueled by supernatural power Peter was able to easily throw Ray across the bunk room with a single, swift motion. The unprepared engineer was helpless against the strength of the possessor. Slamming hard against the far wall, the proton pack still strapped to his back taking the brunt force of the impact, Ray gasped as the breath was torn from his body. Sliding down against the wall and onto the floor he pressed a hand to his chest as he gasped for air.

With Ray now out of the line of fire Winston took his shot and struck Peter in the chest with the powerful proton stream. "Peter! Fight it!" He shouted as he root his boots to the floor to keep himself from losing his balance or aim.

Peter was pushed backward on staggering feet. The angry possessor snarled and protested as the weapon held it at bay inside Peter's body. Peter crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to block the winding proton stream and free himself from the ionized beam of energy.

"Peter!" Winston shouted again. "Snap out of it!"

In response to the firm commands by Winston and the proton pack Peter lashed out with both arms, a pulse of strong PKE energy surging from his possessed body. The pulse was able to deflect the proton stream causing it to rebound back toward Winston disabling the thrower and knocking it out of his hands as he too was sent flying backward across the room.

"Winston!" Ray panted in a hoarse voice as he struggled to catch his breath.

Winston landed hard on his side landing beside Egon's outstretched legs. The proton pack shut itself off as it overheated, letting out a warning alarm and vented the built up steam.

Peter, whose body had been taken by the possessor, loomed menacingly over the three downed Ghostbusters with a wicked grin of triumph that could only be emulated by the impossible smile which has twisted Peter's face into the caricature that it had become. A smoldering black crater had been burned into the fabric of the jumpsuit in the center of Peter's chest, courtesy of the proton stream.

"DO NOT FOLLOW." Peter hissed as an ethereal glow covered his body in a yellow aura of psychokinetic power. Unable to move from where they laid Ray and Winston could only watch as the possessor used its immense power to levitate Peter up from the ground and crash through the glass of the window in the bunk room.

"Peter?!" Winston called out the glass shattered, raining down onto the floor and the street like a shining rain. "No!"

Winston pushed himself up from the floor and sprinted to the broken window. Looking through the broken glass he frame watched as Peter's possessed form took off into the evening sky and disappeared from sight as the ethereal aura consumed his body, causing it to fade from sight behind psychokinetic shield of energy.

"I lost him..." Winston lamented as he back away from the broken window. Bits of glass were ground into the floorboards beneath his heavy boots "He's gone. That thing, 'Entriet', took him!"

Ray struggled to stand up as he continued to try and take a deep breath. "We'll find him. We have the possessor's signature recorded." He extended one arm outward toward Winston as he wrapped his other arm around his chest. "We just need to find a way to separate the possessor from Peter once we find him."

Winston let Ray leaned against him as he finally caught his breath. "What about Egon? He's still out of it!"

Letting his arm drop from Winston's shoulder Ray watched as Winston put his arm under Egon's shoulders and lift the unconscious physicist's head up from the cold floor. "Can you help him? Maybe we should take him to the hospital."

"I'll see if I can get him to respond and regain consciousness. If he stays out for too much longer we'll need to let a doctor examine for a possible skull fracture and concussion."

Ray could see the red warning lights on Winston's proton pack and knew that his own pack hadn't fared any better during the brief confrontation. "We need to swap our packs. I'll go let Janine know what's going on, you stay here with Egon."

Winston unclipped the support strap for the pack from around his waist and let Ray slip it off of his shoulders. "I don't think it'll do any good to use a proton pack again. Peter, or whatever that thing is that's using Peter's body, managed to break free and send me flying like I was nothing."

"Then we'll just have to get more creative." Ray decided as he hefted the second pack up his arm and onto his shoulder. "And I know just where to look for inspiration!"

Peter found himself floating weightlessly in a dark void of silence and nothingness. Regaining a sense of awareness he opened his eyes, standing upright on an invisible floor as he attempted to gain his bearings.

"Interesting." He noted as he gazed about the void that had become his new environment. "This feels familiar."

A cold wave of energy surged through the void and sent a chill up his spine.

"And angry."

"YOU ARE AWAKE." A hoarse voice called out as a figure appeared before Peter. "IMPRESSIVE."

"Not really, I wake up every morning. Not that difficult."

"YOU RESIST ME." The figure took on a hauntingly similar appearance to that of Peter. "HOW?"

"You clearly don't know who you're messing with, pal." Peter crossed his arms defiantly as he gave the possessor an disinterested glance. "This is my mind ans my body, no one controls it except for me!"

"YOU ARE MORTAL." The possessor sneered bitterly. "YOUR RESOLVE WILL BREAK SOON ENOUGH."

"Doubt it." Peter protested confidently. "If a demon or a broken heart can't take me down then there's no way a passing spirit like you can even make a dent."

"PERHAPS NOT." The possessor admitted with an amused snarl. "BUT YOUR FRIENDS WILL SHATTER LIKE BONE."

"Fat chance!" Peter wasn't intimidated by the ghost. He and the rest of the team had been threatened by countless other spirits, each threat a hollow insult. "You clearly haven't met my friends."

"I HAVE." The possessor insisted. "LOOK AT YOURSELF. YOU FRIENDS WERE WILLING TO DESTROY YOU TO GET TO ME."

Peter looked down at himself and noticed the blackened charred fabric of his jumpsuit clinging to his t-shirt beneath. Pressing his fingers to the burn on his chest his eye betrayed the emotion that had welled up inside.

"YOUR FRIENDS ARE AFRAID." The possessor taunted with a sick glee. "THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO STOP ME. EVEN IF IT MEANS HARMING YOU." It's aura grew in strength and brightness. "I AM INSIDE YOUR MIND. I KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW. I KNOW OF YOUR TECHNOLOGY AND YOUR TRICKS. I KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS AND I KNOW YOUR WEAKNESSES."

Peter's eyes flashed with resentment for only a moment before steeled determination began to shine through. "They're more courageous and resourceful than you think. In the end, you'll be taken down you loud mouthed shell!"

"WE SHALL SEE."

Winston had managed to lift Egon up from the floor and place him down on the top covers of his bed. Mindful of the bump on the back of Egon's head Winston had kept his movements very controlled and precise. Egon was laying on his back barely moving. His eyes were closed and his chest rose and fell rhythmically with his steady breaths.

The sound of heels clicking on the floor stole Winston's attention from Egon and to the opened door frame where Janine had passed through with alarm in her eyes.

"Ray told me what happened!" She all but blurted as she joined Winston at Egon's bedside. "How's Egon? How're you? Where's Dr. V?"

"Egon is still out of it, he has a nasty bump on the head. I'm fine just a little banged up and Peter... Well, he's gone."

"That ghost did this, didn't it?"

"Yeah. Looks that way."

"Ray's trying to find a way to locate that ghost as we speak." Janine gave Egon a thoughtful look as she spoke. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Some ice would be great." Winston accepted her offer. "And thanks Janine."

"No problem." She hustled out of the bunk room to retrieve the requested ice and a bag to put it in.

Winston picked up Egon's arm and measure his pulse at the wrist. "Aside from the blow to your head you seem to be in perfect health Egon."

"Here." Janine handed the bag of ice to Winston. The bag had been wrapped in a towel to prevent the melting ice from dripping water or from causing discomfort from the extreme cold temperature. "I'm going to see if I can help Ray."

"Thanks again, if I need anything else I'll call."

Gingerly Winston pressed the towel and ice against the bump on Egon's head. Hopefully the ice would reduce the swelling of the bump and perhaps be enough to revive Egon from his state of unconsciousness.

"We need you back with us sooner rather than later, man." Winston encouraged kindly to his downed friend.

Ray was sitting behind Janine's desk with a large book in his hands. The book was as aged and worn as the others Ray had brought back in his collection, but it was key into identifying the possessor that had taken Peter. The Latin inscriptions would in fact take time to translate, just as Ray had already warned Winston on their way back to the firehouse.

Letting out a loud sneeze Ray took a tissue from the box and focused in on the worn, yellowed pages between his fingertips.

Janine spotted Ray with his eyes intense as he began reading through the book, mentally translating each word as he read. Deciding against interrupting his train of thought she retreated to the kitchen and prepared a kettle to make some fresh tea.

"Let's see 'capta est'..." Ray thought out loud to himself. "means 'taken'. And 'corporis' is body. Sounds like a possessor. The answer must be here!"

Without a word Janine walked over to her desk and set down a steaming mug of herbal tea for Ray. Clearing some paperwork from the surface of her desk she gave the studious Ghostbuster additional room to work and read.

"That's strange. 'Limus'? That roughly translate to slime!" Subconscious Ray took the tea and sipped it while keeping his attention on the book. "Hold on; 'animarum homicidii'? Taker of souls. This is bad."

Looking away from the book he stared at the slime stains on the garage floor.

"What was that word the possessor said? 'Entriuet'?" Flipping through the pages of the book Ray honed in a certain article of interest. "Oh boy... This is big."

Upstairs in the bunk room Winston looked down at his watch, the face having been cracked when the ghost tossed him across the room made it a little difficult to read the time but not impossible. "It's been at least twenty minutes." Pulling the ice from Egon's head he checked the injury again relieved to see that there was no blood in Egon's hair from the wound. "I think we'll have to take you to the hospital."

A weak hand reached up as if trying to gain Winston's attention. "...Winston?"

"Egon!" Winston's relief was as palpable as it was loud. "Nice to see you awake!"

"How long was I unconscious?" Egon asked as delicately pressed his opened palm to the back of his head. "I remember something struck me in the back of my skull."

"I can't say for sure, but anywhere from thirty to forty minutes. Are you dizzy or nauseous?"

"No." Egon replied honestly as he carefully propped himself upright on his elbows, one hand still rubbing at the bump on the back of his head. "Only a headache."

"Hopefully not like Peter's headache." Winston couldn't help but quip.

"Peter? Peter!" Egon looked over to Peter's bed only to find it empty. "Where is he?"

"Take it easy!" Winston cautioned as he put a hand on Egon's shoulder to help hold him steady. "He... The possessor..."

"The possessor took him. Didn't it?"

"Yeah." Winston nodded slowly. "It did."

"And the possessor used Peter to strike me."

"Peter did this to you?" Winston was visibly startled by the revelation. "But he said he was asleep when you were attacked!"

"He most likely was asleep. The possessor must've taken him while he was unable to defend himself. It used Peter as both a host and as a weapon."

"How do you know it was Peter who hit you? How do you know it wasn't the ghost itself or the ghost using something else to hit you?"

"Because I distinctly remember feeling the sting of hard knuckles striking me in the back of my skull. I was hit with a very real, very strong fist. Not an energy source or stationary object."

"Make sense. That possessor was able to give Peter some pretty impressive strength. He threw both me and Ray across the room and even managed to break free of a proton stream."

"Fascinating." Egon's eyes narrowed as he began developing a theory in his mind. "If the possessor was able to enhance Peter's own natural strength it makes sense that Peter's physical form would be able to resist the proton streams and allow said possessor to elude capture. It would also be wise to assume that the possessor now has acquired all of the knowledge that Peter holds."

"So what do we do? How do we capture something that knows every way we could possibly catch it? We can't just attack the possessor, we'd kill Peter in the process."

"We build a new trap." Egon answered flatly. "It's the only way."

"Guys! Guys!" Ray came racing up the staircase with the book in his hands. Almost sliding to a stop beside Egon's bed he nearly thrust the book into Egon's hands. "Thank goodness you're awake!" He quickly gave Egon a reassuring pat on the back. "I think I found out who our possessor is and why it's here!"

...to be continued...