Inside the restoration room, Janosz lights the final candle. Over the course of the night, he has moved every stitch of furniture off to the sides of the room, giving Vigo the central position by the front wall. All around the room candles are set up in various patterns as he kneels in the center of one of them. He throws the match aside as he looks towards the painting.
"I await the words of Vigo!" Before him, the painting has returned to its altered state, the river of slime flowing beneath his floating head.
"I Vigo, the scourge of Carpathia…" Vigo starts.
"I know, you told me all this, the scourge…"
"…the sorrow of Moldavia…"
"Sorrow, I've heard all of this, yes…"
"…command you!"
"Command me, Lord."
"The season of my rebirth begins with the birth of the new year."
"Good!"
"Bring me the child that I might live again."
"Yes!" Janosz says passionately with a smile. His smile fades as a thought crosses his mind. "Eh, Lord Vigo, I vas wondering…" he starts, lying down on the floor, "this woman Dana is fine and strong." Vigo turns his head, a thoughtful expression on his face as he listens. Janosz touches the flame of a candle as he continues to talk. "Now, if I vas to bring the baby, could I have the woman?" He begins to sit up, ready to beg for his life if he had offended his master in any way with his demands. Vigo remains silent for a few moments, and then delivers his answer.
"So be it! On this day of darkness she will be ours; wife to you and mother to me!" His smile would have sent shivers down Janosz's spine if not for Vigo's strong hold over him. Janosz leaps up, happy.
"Thank you, Lord, thank you!"
Dana's eyes glaze over. She sits in the chair in the Ghostbusters' living area trying to focus on Citizen Kane on the TV. Unfortunately, focusing on it has proven to be rather difficult as Louis has been talking about all the financial aspects that have gone into making the movie. This is a man who loves his job a little too much.
"You know, you really don't have to stay…I'm sure they'll be back soon," Dana says, checking her watch.
"Oh, no, I don't mind. After all, what are friends for?" Louis asks, cramming his mouth full of popcorn in his seat on the couch.
"Yupp," Dana sighs.
In the bedroom area, Oscar crawls around inside the makeshift crib made for him on the bed with pillows wearing his yellow Winnie the Pooh pajamas. He turns around as he hears a squeak behind him. The bedroom window slowly opens on its own as the wind begins to pick up outside.
Dana has had just about enough and decides to get out of there before she explodes. She stands up quickly, trying to think up a good excuse before hurting Louis' feelings. He may be annoying, but he's still a human being. "I'm gonna go check on Oscar, be right back."
"I'll be here," he says, cramming in some more popcorn. Dana heads towards the bedroom area. She opens the door and smiles as she approaches the bed. The smile quickly fades when she sees the bed is empty.
"Oscar?" She looks up when she feels a breeze and sees the window open. "Oscar…" she whispers to herself as she runs over to it. She sticks her head out, and finds her son standing upright at the end of the ledge over Varick. "OSCAR!" she screams. "LOUIS!" she calls out as she begins to climb onto the ledge. Louis runs into the room, frantically looking around.
"What the…?" He runs over to the windows and sticks his head out as Dana carefully makes her way along the ledge. "Oh my God!" he says, seeing the baby at the corner. Then, something in the sky catches his eye. "Dana, look!" He points up. Dana looks back, and then follows his finger to see a blue glowing entity streaking down out of the sky and coming towards the firehouse. Dana becomes paralyzed as the entity comes close enough for them to see the dated nanny's uniform and an old baby buggy. Dana's eyes grow wide as the translucent creature's face becomes clear, recognizing Janosz instantly.
He smiles sinisterly at her, his eyes glowing bright red. Dana scrambles to reach her baby, but Janosz's hand extends outward to cover the distance between him and the building, snatching up Oscar before Dana could grab him. He laughs silently as he places Oscar in the buggy.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Dana screams. Janosz winks at her before turning and flying back the way he came. Dana scrambles back inside the firehouse, pushing her way past Louis.
"That was a ghost!" he says, his voice shaky as his fear is evident.
"No…that was Janosz! Janosz took my baby…the museum!" Dana quickly runs out of the room and heads to the stairs. Louis runs after her and stops at the landing.
"Wait, what's going on!" Moments later, he hears the firehouse door slam, and he looks up, trying to figure out what to do. "I gotta find the guys!" he says to himself.
Inside a room at Parkview Hospital, the Ghostbusters are seated around a rectangular table with the doctor, each wearing hospital issued clothing. The room is dark save for the small light above the table. A window behind them has bars and the blinds are shut. By the only exit a very muscular orderly stands with his arms crossed. On the table is a tape recorder and cups of water.
Egon stares off into space, trying to figure out what this would mean to his standings in the scientific community. Peter sits next to him, his head on the table as he tries to figure out all the ways he could kill Ray and Egon without being caught for getting him into this mess. Winston looks over at the window, dreaming about getting out of here soon. Next to him, Ray sits with his arms folded as, for the billionth time, he tries to explain to the doctor the situation at hand.
"As I've said before, we believe the spirit of a 16th Century Moldavian tyrant is alive and well inside a painting at the Manhattan Museum of Art."
"Uh huh," says the doctor in uninterested disbelief as he puffs on his cigarette. "And, are there any other paintings in the museum with bad spirits in them?" Egon shakes his head.
"You're wasting time. He's drawing strength from a psychomagnetheric slime flow that's been collecting under the city."
"Yes, tell me about this slime."
"It's very potent stuff," Winston starts, "we made our toaster dance with it. And a bath tub tried to eat his friend's baby," he finishes, motioning to Peter. Peter picks his head up as the doctor looks over at him.
"The bathtub?" the doctor asks.
"Don't look at me, I think these people are completely nuts," Peter says.
Meanwhile, in the Van Horne station, the river of slime begins to spill over the platform. It slowly and steadily begins to rise until the entire station is underneath the flowing mass, but it doesn't stop there.
A cab pulls up outside of the museum and Dana gets out after paying the driver. She looks around as the cab speeds off, trying to keep her hair out of her face with the strong winds blowing all around her. She turns to the museum, takes a deep breath, and then begins to ascend the stairs. She grabs onto the railing, fighting against the wind as it grows stronger with each step. Newspapers and various pieces of litter fly around her, hitting her and clinging to her body. She makes it to the revolving door at the top of the stairs and pushes her way through.
As soon as she disappears inside, the door's shutters slide closed and locks. From the top of them, mood slime begins to pour out rapidly, coating the shutters entirely and gathering into a puddle on the stairs. More slime begins to pour out from various crevices of the museum, pooling around its base. As the volume increases, the slime begins to rise up from its puddles, defying gravity as it coats the sides of the museum. Once it's completely covered, the slime solidifies and becomes an impenetrable shell, ensuring that none may enter to disturb the process.
Inside, Dana slowly walks through the empty hallways, her boots causing light echoes bouncing off the marble walls. She turns into the restoration room and looks around at the wide open space littered with candles. Across from her stands Vigo's painting. In front of it is a stone pedestal covered in strange markings with a soft cushion on top. On the cushion sits Oscar. Seeing no one around, Dana quickly runs across the room, carefully stepping over the candles, and picks up Oscar, holding him tight.
"Oh, sweetheart, I thought I lost you!" Janosz slowly pokes his head out from behind a support column, smiling as he watches Dana's joyful reunion. He steps out, trying to figure out how to handle this.
"Hello, Dana," he starts, a little nervous. Dana steps back, fear and rage flowing through her body. "I thought that you might come."
"You stay away, Janosz! I mean it!"
"Oh, don't be worried, he vill not be harmed!" Janosz says, continuing to step slowly forward. "He has been chosen to be the vessel for the spirit of Vigo, and you vill be the mother of the ruler of the world. Doesn't that sound nice?"
"No! It sounds ludicrous! You stay away from him, I mean it!" Dana says, continuing to slowly back up towards the arches that lead into the room.
"I don't think we have choice here. Take a look, that's not Gainsborough's Blue Boy there," Janosz says, motioning towards the painting. "He's Vigo!" He says, making a saluting motion.
"I don't care who he is, he's not taking my baby!" Dana turns and starts to run out, but suddenly she's pushed forward as if thrown by invisible hands, the same hands that yank Oscar out of her grasp. She slides along the floor and back out of the room, slamming into the wall across the way as the room's gates shut themselves. Oscar floats back across the room and gently drops back down to his original resting place.
The slime begins to rise up through the cracks of foundation and the lines of pipes that travel the length of the city. It pushes itself up through the sewers and out of fixtures, securing its grasp on New York.
TIMES SQUARE
Slime drips down a movie theater's marquee and onto the sidewalk below. The crowd of moviegoers from within come bursting out of the doors, screaming and running in terror. Seconds later, a long ghost with four boney arms, six eyes and gargoyle wings comes flying out after them, roaring fiercely.
THE SEDGEWICK HOTEL
Slime bubbles up through a grating and forms a puddle on the sidewalk around it. Outside of the Sedgewick Hotel, a middle-aged woman wearing an elegant dress and fur coat paces back and forth impatiently. She has a very important party she simply has to be at, and the doorman is taking forever getting her a cab. She doesn't notice one of her high heeled shoes being immersed into the slime puddle as she turns to pace back in the other direction. She fluffs her hair with her fingers until she feels something moving in her coat.
She looks down as four minks pop out of it, squealing. She screams as they try to claw and bite at her. Somehow, she manages to get the coat off and throws it away on the ground. The coat takes off down the street, clawing and biting at people it passes before disappearing around the corner.
WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK
Cars stop dead in the streets and their occupants scramble out of them, joining in with the crowd of people running for their lives. In the center of all the chaos is the Washington Arch inside the park. A large demon ghost slips through it, looking at the crowd of people running from it with its beady red eyes. It holds up its clawed hands and lets out a mighty roar, further inspiring the panic already in progress.
THE 11th PRECINCT
The precinct is busier than usual this particular evening. For almost an hour, the phones have been ringing off the hook. Panicked people from all over the city have been calling in reporting one strange thing after another, keeping officers at their phones while others scurry about with reports and files, trying to deal with every problem.
"Was it a big dinosaur or a little dinosaur?" a detective sarcastically asks the caller on the phone. "Oh, it was just the skeleton…so which way was it headed?"
"Wait a second, a what was chasing you?" another befuddled detective asks. "The park BENCH was chasing you? Oh, I see!"
"Wait a second," a sergeant says. He stands up from his desk, hand cupped over the receiver as he turns towards his commanding officer conferring with a detective near his area. "Lieutenant, I think you better talk to this guy."
"I'm busy here!"
"It's some dock supervisor down at pier 54."
"What's the problem?"
"He says the Titanic just arrived."
PIER 54 From inside their office, two Port Authority workers stare out of the window in disbelief, mouths dropped open. Docked before them are the translucent remains of the R.M.S. Titanic. Several large holes dot the starboard side of the hull while a large gap is evident in the middle of the ship. The ship is covered in rust and seaweed showing just how long its been under the water. Marching down the ramp leading from the main deck, ghosts wearing period clothing exit the ship and make their way into the city along the pier. The workers exchange a glance and one of them shrugs.
"Well, better late than never."
The hauntings continue on into the night all over the city, leaving no one with a moment's peace.
The next morning, New Year's Eve. The mayor's cabinet has gathered in the City Hall meeting room to discuss the problem raging in the streets since the night before.
"The battery's swamped! We've had more than 3,000 calls since midnight last night!" the fire chief tells one of the mayor's aides as he looks on to a map of the city with various disturbances marked off.
The police chief paces the length of the carpeted room, talking to another aide who carries a file folder with her. "I've got every man in uniform on the street, and I'm STILL shorthanded! I've got meter maids chasing ghosts all over midtown!" he says before they take their seats at the long conference table. Hardemeyer sits across from them, reviewing notes and reports and fearing the rest of his hair is about to fall out. Another aide comes up from behind him puts a photograph down in front of him. Hardemeyer picks it up and looks at it.
"There's this shell thing over the Manhattan Museum of Art, we can't make a dent!" Hardemeyer sighs, flippantly handing the picture back to him.
"Did you try dynamite?"
"We tried everything." Suddenly, one of the conference room doors open and a disheveled Lenny fights his way inside through a crowd of reporters, flashes going off every second. The officer on guard outside shuts the door after him as Lenny looks around the room, hoping for someone to have some form of answers for him.
"What the hell's going on! It's pandemonium out there!" Hardemeyer stands up next to the mayor.
"Y-yes, I know sir…we're working on it."
"Great," Lenny says, turning towards the long map of New York behind them, "while you're working on it, I'm being known as the mayor who let New York get sucked down into the 10th level of hell!" he says, slapping the map out of frustration. He places a hand in his pocket and runs the other through what remains of his hair, trying to fight back the stress and think of the best way to deal with the problem and all its ramifications. "Alright, we got no choice. Call the Ghostbusters."
"Wait!" Hardemeyer says, a bit of panic jumping into his chest. "I'm sure there must be some other way…" he suggest with a nervous smile.
"Jack, I spent an hour last night in my bedroom talking to Fiorella LaGuardia and he's been dead for over 40 years. Now, where are the Ghostbusters?" Lenny asks as he steps in front of his chair, looking at some papers put in front of him. Hardemeyer gulps, knowing its time to come clean.
"Uh, they're not available…" Lenny drops his papers and slowly turns towards him, a puzzled and irritated look on his face.
"What do you mean they're not available?"
"Um, well, I had them committed to the psychiatric ward at Parkview Hospital."
"You what?" Lenny's nostrils begin to flare, and two of his aides in the nearby corner slowly begin to get up and move towards the other side of the room. Damage control, Jack! Hardemeyer tells himself.
"They were threatening to go to the press! I was protecting your interests!"
"Oh yeah!" Lenny demands. He chases Hardemeyer around the chair and begins to force him towards the doors. "Well, you can stop protecting my interests! You're FIRED!" He gives him a final shove, causing him to bump into the doors.
"But…the election…" Hardemeyer starts.
"Harry, remove this man from the building!" Lenny barks. One of the aides at the table quickly gets up and starts to usher Hardemeyer out the door. "And get me the Ghostbusters!" Lenny says to another aide across the room.
"Mr. Mayor! Mr. Mayor!" another aide calls from the window. Lenny looks over at him. "Come take a look at this!" Lenny quickly moves to the window where he stands, everyone else in the room following along. The room becomes absolutely silent when they see it.
Outside, strange clouds begin to swirl and gather around the sun over the New York skyline, appearing from out of nowhere. They grow in number and intensity as the city begins to grow darker and darker. "Wow…you ever see anything like that?" the aide asks. They swirl and dance in the sky, flowing like a river as they extend out over the city as if to cover it in a blanket. Lenny grits his teeth as he watches.
"Somebody get me the Ghostbusters!" he growls.
The doors at Parkview burst open as Louis leads the Ghostbusters down the hallway towards the parking area where Ecto-1 waits, suiting up as they go.
"…and then he put the baby in a carriage and levitated away!" Louis finishes telling them.
"What did Dana do, where'd she go?" Peter asks, zipping up his suit.
"I dunno, she said she was going to the museum to get the baby back! And then there was an eclipse and the whole town went dark and everything's nuts!"
"It all fits!" Ray exclaims. "The painting only serves as the housing for Vigo's power while the slime is his conduit. He wants in on the 21st Century, he needs a human body to inhabit. Little Oscar must be it!"
"And I bet we're the only ones who can stop him," Winston says.
"You bet we are!"
Ecto-1 pulls up through the crowd of spectators and emergency vehicles in front of the museum, coming to a stop. The Ghostbusters and Louis emerge and look in awe at the pulsating shell where the museum once was.
"It looks like a giant Jell-o mold," Ray states.
"I hate Jell-o," Winston mentions.
"Aw, c'mon…there's always room for Jell-o," Peter tells him.
Inside the museum, Dana paces back in forth in the hallway as she has been since being trapped inside the night before. Janosz paces along with her on the other side of the gates. She tries to think of how to get inside and save her baby, but with the supernatural forces holding the gates locked, there's very little she could do.
"Soon it vill be midnight and the world vill be mine and Vigo's!" Janosz says, excitedly. His smile fades a bit when he thinks about it more. "Vell, mainly Vigo's…Oh, Dana…you have this terrific opportunity to make the best of this relationship!"
"We don't have a relationship," Dana informs him. Janosz drops to his knees, clinging to one of the gates as he looks at her through them,
"I know! Marry me, Dana! Together, we vill raise Vigo as our son!" Dana rolls her eyes and looks across the room at the painting. Janosz quickly stands up and looks back, then turns back to her. "And let me tell you something here; there are many perks to being the mother of a living god! I'm sure we could get a magnificent apartment, a car, perhaps free parking." Janosz takes a hold of one of the gates and slowly opens it, smiling at Dana.
"Many marriages begin with a certain amount of distance. Do you think that, perhaps over time, we could learn to…love each other?" Dana resists the urge to tell him off when she realizes he's inviting her back in. Perhaps she could use his insane lust as an advantage to get close enough to Oscar to attempt to save him again. She looks at him and smiles warmly.
"Yes, I'm sure we could learn." She moves past him through the gate and into the room, hoping that something will happen soon to save them.
Winston clips his proton pack's belt around his waist as he nods to the others, adjusting their packs. They exchange a glance then begin to approach the museum.
"Can I help?" Louis asks.
"Just keep the car company," Peter says back, "this won't take long." Stopping a few feet from the steps, Ray looks at the guys, then back at their objective.
"Pull 'em," he says. They reach up and remove their positron rifles from the packs. They flip on the power, letting their packs hum to life.
"Full neutronas," Egon says. They make the necessary adjustments, and then take aim.
"Let's cook!" Ray says. They pull their triggers and the proton streams come flying out, hitting the slime wall at full power. After about a minute, they see their streams have absolutely no effect on the pulsating mass before them. "Save 'em," Ray says, killing his stream. The others do the same, prompting boos to rise up from the crowd behind them.
"That slime wall is pulsating with evil," Egon declares, "it would take a tremendous amount of positive energy to crack that shell and I sincerely doubt there's enough goodwill left in this town to do it." Ray leans down against Ecto-1, shaking his head.
"Why don't we just say supportive and nurturing things to it?" Peter suggests.
"I just can't believe things have gotten so bad lately that there's no way back!" Ray says, standing back up. "I mean, sure it's crowded, it's noisy, it's polluted, and there are people all around who'd just as soon step on your face as look at ya, but there's gotta be a few sparks of sweet humanity left in this burned-out burg, we just have to mobilize it!" Lenny pushes his way through the crowd and comes up to them.
"Oh great…speaking of sweet humanity…" Peter mutters.
"What the hell is going on here?" he demands. "What is that thing? Why aren't you doing anything about it!"
"Well, Mr. Mayor, it's like this: there's a 16th Century Moldavian tyrant loose inside that museum with people trapped with him, and that thing is a protective barrier composed of hardened slime pulsating with enough negative energy to make our beams useless," Ray says.
"There are people in there? Oh this is fantastic," Lenny says, throwing up his arms. He can feel his blood pressure rising, just picturing the headlines.
"You got it. And if we can't find a way in there before midnight tonight, you will be known as the mayor who let New York get sucked down into the tenth level of hell!" Peter looks down while thinking. He looks back up and a glint from a light bar catches his eye. He looks towards the PA speaker situated on Ecto-1's roof. He raises an eyebrow as he turns his attention towards one of the nearby fire trucks. He turns and looks back at the museum.
"Hey, Ray…didn't you used to want to be a fireman?"
