Hank approached the small office without making a sound as he observed his distraught partner sitting behind the desk. The radio was off, the headphones were set aside and John was sitting in abject silence as something painfully heavy weighed against his mind.

"You okay John?"

"Fine." He lied as he sat back against the chair and turned his head to look at Hank. "Just thinking."

"About the past?"

"No. The future."

Sighing Hank walked into the office and leaned against the desk. "I know it's been rough but everything will be okay. I just know it. We're going to stop Vigo, I'm going to find my way and we're all going to rebuild our lives in peace. Believe it!"

"That's thing, I do, but..." John shook his head. "Forget it. It's not important. What's Ray doing?"

Hank didn't want to stop talking about whatever it was that was pressing John's faith but decided to respect his friend's wish and answered the question. "Ray is going to make us a 'slime-blower' so we can take down Vigo. Did you make contact with Wally?"

"Yeah, I told him to use the Delta codes to buy us some time."

"Good idea. Hopefully we won't need it, but it never hurts to have a back-up plan."

"Speaking of which," John motioned to the parked ambulance in the garage. "let's load up as much emergency supplies and equipment as possible. No mistakes this time."

Ray had just finished the construction of the slime-blower, using a more refined and smaller design in comparison to the original slime-blowers that he and Egon had built two years prior. Matching this design to the alternate design now implemented by the team, which combined the proton pack and slime blower into a single piece, Ray attached his creation to the unoccupied spare frame and strapped it to his back.

"Powering up..." He told himself and switched the device from 'off' to 'on'. The pack whirred to life and the power level remained stable. "Everything is holding firm."

Walking toward the exit of the large basement his eye was drawn to the ion pistols that Hank had devised. The array and ingenious construction of the weapons was beautiful like a piece of art.

"Need to remember to utilize this design if I-" He paused and corrected himself. "WHEN I get back to my world. I will find a way back, I know it."

Powering down the pack Ray looked at the stairway across the basement and knew his new friends, the allies who had saved him and were willing to trust him with the fate of their world, were waiting for him.

With special permission from the museum curator Egon and Winston were able to vacate the location of their previous bust and use it for scientific research. Fortunately the immediate location had closed off for clean up and repair which gave the duo plenty of space and opportunity to recreate the event that had caused Ray to disappear.

"Ready?" Winston asked as he set the second prototype down on the floor and backed away.

"Ready." Egon waited for Winston to be clear of the trap radius before pressing the switch. The two men used their arms to protect their eyes from the impending bright light. "Opening trap."

Just as before the prototype burst open with a strong beam of ionized light and the power fluctuations remained stable. By all accounts the prototype was a complete success.

"Closing trap." Egon pressed the trigger and the doors shut. "We have our controlled readings and our previous reading. Ready for the original prototype."

"Right." Winston switched the two prototypes and did just as before. Standing clear of the trap's range he nodded to Egon and shielded his eyes. "Ready."

Pressing the trigger the original prototype reacted just as it had before. The doors on the top of the trap jammed and wouldn't open fully. Egon pressed the trigger once and then twice to quickly shut the doors and try to open them again. The doors were free of the jam and opened fully giving the two Ghostbusters a clear reading on energy levels and frequencies.

"Shutting down."

Winston lowered his arm as the trap shut and the test was completed. "Okay, let's check the readings."

Analyzing the three sets of data with a quick but precised calculation Egon's brow arched in confusing. "This isn't correct."

"What's wrong?" Winston asked as he gathered the two prototypes and slung them over his shoulders.

"These readings are identical in every way. There should be a mass change in power levels and energy frequencies, and yet everything is matching." He stared at the room with an intense glare. "Something is different. But what?"

Winston glanced about the room and thought back to the bust that had caused Ray to disappear. While giving the room a careful once over he realized what was different about the room. "There's no slime."

"There's no..." Egon's mind began racing as he took into consideration the PKE signature emitted by the average possessor and calculated the potential changes in the ionization energy levels. "Winston, you've solved the formula."

"I did?" Winston was surprised that the solution was something as simple as slime. "How? What does the slime have to do with anything?"

"We need to return to the firehouse. I now know what we need to do to find Ray."

Peter was laying on his side in his bed feeling absolutely horrendous. Not only was his headache as intense as ever but he was burning up and freezing at the same time. It felt like his whole body was betraying him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Janine was sitting on the edge of his bed with her hand on his shoulder sympathetically. "Are you sure you don't to tell Egon you're sick? He's always been able to help you before."

"No..." Peter muttered as he pressed his face into his pillow. "Ray is more important."

"So is your friendship with Egon." Janine reminded him without skipping a beat. "When he and Winston left I told them you were sleeping off a headache, but his first assumption was that you were hungover."

Peter laughed a little. "If I were him I'd think the same thing..."

"That's not the point." Janine stated as she pressed her hand against his forehead. "You're both still made at each other, you're both too stubborn to apologize and you've got a high fever. Only one of these things I can help you with, the other two problems are your own."

"You'll apologize for me?" Peter quipped sharply.

Janine retracted her hand from his forehead. "I'm going to get you some ice."

"...and I didn't get you anything..." He murmured to himself as Janine left the room. As soon as he was alone he let out an intense groan of pain. "Besides, it's not like me apologizing is going to bring Ray back. And Egon has every right to be mad at me..."

Ray introduced the slime-blower to John and Hank and demonstrated the proper use of said weapon. A quick explanation and a small demo on the far wall of the garage illustrated beautifully how efficient and powerful the piece of equipment would be against Vigo.

"All we need to do is top off the slime." Ray happily stated as he loaded the positively charged slime from large the storage barrel and into the storage tank of the slime blower itself. "We'll be able to bring a couple refills too, but I don't think they'll be necessary."

"Pink slime." John bluntly observed. "You took down an undead tyrant of death and destruction with pink slime that creates 'feel-good' vibes. How did you ever think to use this 'mood' slime against him?"

Ray couldn't help but smile as John used the same term Peter had when the benefits of the slime had just been discovered. "You never know unless you try, right? Besides, this stuff is POTENT."

"How so?" Hank asked as he loaded up a refill container with the same pink slime.

"Just a spoonful was enough to make our toaster dance," Ray remarked as he sealed up the supply tank. "and a healthy coating on the inside of the Statue of Liberty got her moving from Ellis Island all the way downtown."

"Statue of... what?" John asked.

"Of... of Liberty." Ray looked up and gave John a puzzled look. "Big, gorgeous statue? Gift from the French? Icon of New York City?"

John started smiling wickedly as he successfully messed with Ray. Hank himself started to laugh as he loaded up the ambulance and secured all the supplies in place.

Once Ray caught onto the joke he started laughing as well. "Not funny."

"It was kinda' funny." John defended himself. "Although one true difference is our Statue of Liberty was a gift from England, not France."

"Well, at least we still have the same allies in these two worlds." Ray brushed off the comment as he hefted the slime-blower into the back of the ambulance and helped Hank to secure it with the rest of the equipment. "So... Are we ready to go?"

"Yeah." John confirmed as he pulled the keys to the ambulance from his jumpsuit pocket. "Let's go save New York."

...to be continued...