Doctors Peter Venkman and Ray Stantz pulled up at the now-abandoned apartment building in the red Honda Civic. The whole area was one big scene of chaos and destruction. Cars were smashed. Walls had been blown out. Trees and shrubs had been uprooted. Areas of concrete had been cracked and pulled up. There were bloodstains everywhere. An eerie silence pervaded the whole area. Eerier still, there were no police cars anywhere near the silent, violent wreckage.
"Kinda' reminds you of when we scaled that midtown high-rise to fight Gozer," claimed Ray.
"Yeah, except there were no uprooted trees, there were still people around, and there was no blood and no stench of death. Come to think of it, it's NOTHING LIKE THAT!!!" shot Peter.
This prompted Ray to look at him rather sheepishly, as they pulled their gear out of the back of the red Civic.
"You know, I don't believe for a minute what you said back at the firehouse," commented Ray, lighting up a cigarette. "The ease with which the Cenobites tracked Louis to my bookstore…"
"Yeah, it was total bullshit," admitted Peter.
"So if they have him, maybe they've been here already to take him back to Labyrinth. And supposedly the entrance to Labyrinth is inside the apartment…"
"Waitaminute. I think I know where you're going with this, and why you insisted on bringing all this stuff for just a one-bedroom townhouse apartment sweep-and-clear." Peter squinted at the building. "We're going to go into Labyrinth, aren't we? To rescue Janine?"
Ray nodded with a twinkle in his eye. Peter just sighed. Argument was futile because no one else would likely rescue her. It comes with wearing the circle-slash-ghost.
"You know, Ray, we oughta' leave one of the packs in the car. It's a possibility that we'll be bolting out the building with some nameless horror from hell right behind us. If we should have to drop our stuff while inside, it'll be a huge relief."
"Don't know about you Pete, but I'm planning to return here without losing anything. Both packs come with us. And so does this PKE Meter, set especially to Janine's bio-frequency; as well as the Ecto-Visor with night vision enhancement, and a few other small tools," said Ray, tossing Peter the Ecto-Visor and a small piton gun.
Cautiously the two scientists started up the steps to Janine's apartment and proceeded through the doorway over the fallen door. Inside they found broken furniture, dishes, and potted plants among the chaotic debris of papers, stale food, ectoplasm and chains dangling from the ceiling. They exchanged glances and powered up their packs. As they continued through the wreckage and the eerie silence, they rounded a corner into the hallway where they saw the dark stone-lined entrance to Labyrinth.
"I don't think that's any old secret passage," whispered Ray. "Careful now." Peter nodded in agreement.
The two Ghostbusters descended into darkness and were immediately struck by the awful smell, a vile combination of stagnant water, old stone, and decaying corpses, as well as the hollow echoes of their own footfalls. Only the lights on their Proton Packs cut through the immediate darkness, making it barely possible to see. A distant growl immediately caught the attention of the two men.
"Far too faint to be close…" whispered Ray.
He reached down onto his belt and pressed a button on an object resembling a palm pilot. Peter pulled down his Ecto-Visor over his eyes and scanned the area for safety. As they continued, the few visible stone carvings on the walls shocked the two men. As they rounded a corner into an area of amber candlelight and faint purple light, they heard distant tortured screams and incredibly hopeless moaning. For perhaps the first time, the horrible realization of the gravity of the situation sunk into Doctors Peter Venkman and Ray Stantz. The growling from earlier cut through those distant sounds, causing Peter to pull down his visor once again. This time he saw a form in the distance. It appeared to be running along the walls, advancing on their position. This form was shaped like an upside down human, except where its forearms and hands should have been there were paws and long sharp claws. Where its legs should have been, there were short, stubby, dinosaur-like hands. Where the head should have been, there was a long snaky tail. Instead of a groin, there was a very small head with lots of long sharp teeth. The growling grew very loud, sounding very much like that of a terrier.
"Hey Ray, there's a large form coming down the hall toward us. Hide over there near that stone outcropping and I'll attract the attention of whatever is coming down the corridor. When it passes you open fire. We'll fry that sucker," said Peter, pushing up his Ecto-Visor.
The thing came around the bend in the hall, and was now visible to the scientists. It was much uglier than its Ecto-Visor image, and was covered with pale pink skin. Two dark beady eyes sat near the top of its head. Its nostrils were long and wide in the middle of its mutant face. It stopped and the two blackened eyes focused on Peter.
"Hello Poochie," he taunted. "Come any closer and I'll avenge tormented mail carriers everywhere!"
The thing narrowed its eyes and began charging, hands and mouth outstretched, growling all the way.
"Have it your way," said Peter.
Just as the beast was about to run over the visible Ghostbuster a bright orange stream ripped through the darkness at the beast's backside. It lunged forward in pain and surprise. Peter backed away and fired his own atomic weapon at the inverted creature's head. Searing orange beams danced all over the creature's pale pink form. Smoke rose off the monster's burning flesh. It scurried higher up the walls and hauled its smoldering carcass back down the corridor, yelping all the way.
"And don't come back," shouted Ray.
The two Ghostbusters continued, following the specially tuned PKE Meter through the endless maze of corridors and hallways toward Janine's bio-signal, praying that it would still be active when they arrived. When they got to a particular open corridor, they stopped and looked up at a gigantic diamond-shaped prism emitting purple light.
"What's that gigantic thing that's patterned like the puzzle box?" asked Peter.
"That's Leviathan. It powers and oversees dimensions of darkness. Whoever takes control of Leviathan will rule Labyrinth and any other dimension it overtakes," Ray explained. "This thing has been the stuff of occult legend for millennia. It would be so cool if I could actually interact with it and study it!"
"No Ray, it wouldn't. Let's go."
After awhile, the two hell-bound Ghostbusters happened into a dark, wet, and smelly corridor that had faint red light emanating from each of the many prison cells. The faint light bounced off endless rows of chains hanging down from darkness above. A few of the tormented prisoners or their tormentors screamed or growled at the scientists and startled them. But it was not until they got to the cell adjacent to Janine's that they found a real surprise. At the Ghostbusters' approach, the cell occupant looked up furiously. The same sunken red eyes that paid their secretary only a glance were now firmly fixed upon them. Peter and Ray realized they were engaged in a stare-down with Vigo the Carpathian.
"So this is where you ended up after we blasted you out of our dimension," taunted Peter menacingly. "You don't look so good either, with the prune-face thing and all. It's just too damn bad you're trapped in there and we're out here. C'mon Ray. Let's finish this jailbreak."
No response.
"Let's go Ray. The sooner we get Janine out of here, the sooner we can help Egon and Winston back in Jersey."
Again, there was not a word from the pudgier man.
"Ray? Hey Ray?"
Peter turned to find Ray still staring into Vigo's eyes, as the Carpathian magician chanted a strange mantra. A pale green light channeled into the forehead of the silent scientist from the eyes of the shriveled monster. Ray turned on Peter and began to stalk his buddy, weapon drawn.
"Now I will destroy you once and for all, and your soul will live in eternal torment," said Vigo through Ray.
"Oh shit," said Peter, slowly backing up. "I'm in trouble."
…
Janine watched with dread from her cell. What Peter didn't see is the small machine several feet behind him that rose out of the dark floor. It vaguely resembled an iron maiden. She remembered watching some poor victim back into this machine, only to have all his skin stripped off by razor wire, and the blood drained out of his body via spiked tubes. She guessed that Vigo watched this happen as well. The possessed Dr. Stantz appeared to be backing Peter toward this awful machine.
Dr. V has no idea how much trouble he's in, thought Janine. I have to break Vigo's concentration.
She glanced around her cell and noticed a table with a lot of metallic objects, some sharp, all wicked. This table would be at arm's length if she could move her arms. Janine realized that she had free range of motion with her legs, and got an idea. She immediately slid off her left boot and tore a hole in her thin sock on the edge of the prison throne. Janine extended her toes out through the sock hole and began stretching her leg over to the table. Meanwhile, Ray had his proton gun at Peter's chest, backing him up toward the skin-stripping machine with the vilest grin adorning the possessed scientist's face. As Peter's feet backed up slowly toward the hideous machine, Janine's foot continued stretching toward the table, toes wiggling toward a small metallic object resembling a silver sphere. Finally her toes wrapped around the handle and she picked it up with her foot.
Here goes nothing, thought Janine.
She kicked toward the adjoining cell and managed to hurl the small instrument right at the back of Vigo's head. He snarled in shock, lost concentration, and broke the trance.
"Dr. V, don't back up any further!" Janine shouted. "You'll end up so much pepperoni!"
Peter fell forward on Ray, tackling him to the ground and just narrowly avoiding the hungry maw of the evil machine.
"What happened?" murmured Ray groggily.
"Vigo got you again, and you tried to push both of us into that," sighed Peter, pointing at the skin-stripping machine. "Now let's do what we came to do."
They both got up and melted Janine's prison bars with proton beams, and then grabbed some leftover sharp instruments off the table and cut the shackles of the throne.
"We owe you one babe," said Peter, giving Janine a quick peck on the cheek.
"Yes we do. Pete, I'm sorry, I… I don't know what came over me," said Ray regretfully.
As they moved to exit the cell, Peter, Ray, and Janine were confronted by three skinless humanoids with glowing green crystals protruding from the backs of their necks.
"If I can't force you to kill each other, I guess my minions will just have to do it," sneered Vigo. The drones immediately muscled them to the ground, released them from their packs, and attempted to wrestle them toward the skin-stripper. Peter and Ray managed to grab a couple of the sharp tools that landed on the floor and slashed at them, forcing the minions to release the two men and then the redheaded woman. However, a minion had accidentally rolled over a proton pack and set off its ridiculously short self-destruct cycle. Recognizing the noise, Ray screamed to Peter and Janine.
"We've got to get out of here right now!"
Janine and Peter leapt up and dashed out of the prison cell as the minions struggled to their own feet. As Janine scooted past, a minion grabbed her foot, tried to pull her back to the ground, and pulled off her other boot. The three heroes were about to flee from the room when Ray caught Vigo's gaze one more time and stopped.
"Oh not again, Francine!" exclaimed Peter.
Peter and Janine grabbed Ray by the arms and dragged him out of the chamber and away from Vigo's gaze as the Proton Packs exploded and incinerated the pursuing minions. Ray regained mental control, but the three heroes were not yet in the clear. They soon found themselves back in the Leviathan chamber. However, their path was now blocked by a huge chasm, leaving no way out. With an atomic fireball rapidly surging toward them, Peter looked at Ray and Janine for ideas.
"I've got it!" exclaimed Ray. "Peter, do you still have that piton gun from the car?"
"Yeah," started Peter.
"Can you aim well?"
"I was the staff ace on my high school ball club."
"Shoot the piton into Leviathan and we'll swing across the chasm to the other side on its steel cable," said Ray.
"What do I look like? Indiana Jones?" asked Peter incredulously.
"Do you have a better idea, Dr. V?" said Janine. "I don't think the approaching fireball cares about negotiations."
"Aw hell…" murmured Peter and fired the hook up to the giant prism. Amazingly it locked into Leviathan and they swung across on the steel cable. As they sailed through the air, Ray backhanded a small tracking device onto the side of the hovering prism. They landed on the other side and used Ray's PKE Meter to retrace their steps through the darkened maze of corridors back to Janine's apartment as fast as they could possibly move. Despite their frantic wind sprints, the atomic explosion was drawing closer, illuminating their path more and more. As they reached the dimensional exit, Janine felt the intense heat of the fireball on her backside. The trio dived onto the apartment hallway just in time to have the last flame of the explosion fly over their heads and fizzle out. Janine exchanged glances with Ray and Peter, all three of them out of breath.
"I can't—believe—we—got out!" Gasped Ray. They then heard the same growling as when they first entered the nightmarish alternate dimension.
"Not again," Peter said in frustration and slicked back his dark brown mane.
They rose, crept out to the living room and found the same beast the two men had fried earlier, only this time it wore dingy metallic spiked armor. The creature's blackened skin made it even uglier than before. It snarled at them and began to stalk the exhausted humans.
"I take it you guys fried Lassie here on the way in," deadpanned Janine.
"Well not only that, but Pete gave him a severe taunting," stated Ray. "I think he wants revenge."
As the beast charged at them, Ray took his PKE meter and jammed the device into its open mouth. The creature stumbled around for a few seconds, choking on it, before biting the meter in half. Peter, Ray, and Janine used this time to scramble out the apartment entryway and down to Ray's red Civic still parked outside. The feral demon charged down the apartment steps as Ray started the car, put it into gear and drove off with the beast in hot pursuit. It followed them roughly five blocks before giving up and going back inside the disorderly apartment.
"What a night," sighed Peter, staring back at the demon as the red Civic sped toward the firehouse.