The huge iron firehouse doors slammed open and Ecto-1 pulled gently but firmly into the enormous vehicle bay on the building's main floor. All three people dashed downstairs to greet the emerging paranormalists and survivors.
"Good. You're all here," stated Egon flatly, closing the car door behind him. "We've got a lot to discuss. Meet in my lab in five minutes." The bespectacled scientist pulled Janine aside while Winston, John, and Kirsty ascended the stairwell. "There is something I've meant to tell you for a long, long, time. It is very personal and very difficult for me to say…" Egon shifted his weight and rubbed his neck.
"Yes Egon, what did you want to say? Is it something about my time in Labyrinth?" She stared into his eyes waiting for an answer.
"No, it's nothing to do with the case. Well, it has something to do with it. I just wanted to tell you that…" Egon cleared his throat.
"Yo Egon, Janine! Come on! We need to discuss what we've found!" called Ray from the stairs. The brainy parapsychologist sighed and accompanied Janine up the stairs in silence. Around the large wooden table in Egon's lab, the discussion began.
"Egon, have you been playing in the science projects again?" asked Peter, referring to the dried slime that covered the clothing of the two guests.
"No Peter, but we made an alarming discovery. John's hemoglobin is only useful for repelling Cenobite attacks," replied Egon.
"And the slime stuff didn't even work on Pinhead or his two cronies," added Winston.
"We were naturally surprised when they turned their guns on us," said John. "We almost thought they'd been possessed by Pinhead. But after they slimed us, the otherworldly chains couldn't puncture us."
"So we're back at square one, eh team?" Frowned Ray. "Well, when Peter and I descended into Labyrinth to rescue Janine, we found an old enemy, active but apparently contained in his cell. Vigo Von Homburg, the Carpathian demon, was down there. And he almost got me again."
Winston and Egon attentively sat up. John and Kirsty looked at them.
"Who is Vigo?" Asked Kirsty cautiously.
"Vigo, my dear," said Peter, "is the demon of a sixteenth century Carpathian madman who dabbled in black arts and as a hobby loved the occasional beheading, disemboweling, wracking, and any and all other cruel forms of torture. We met up with that charming guy on New Year's Eve a few years ago because he was trying to possess the baby of a close, personal friend. We ended up blasting him to kingdom come and saving the world."
"While I was imprisoned, I was able to watch him work over some magic spells. He looked real busy, too," added Janine.
"Do you think his spell-casting had something to do with Pinhead's odd behavior?" Asked John.
"That is a real possibility," said Egon. "But at the moment, our major concerns are the Cenobites and their plans."
"Right," said Ray. "So we know we can't stop him with slime, we likely can't stop him with protons, and the longer he's active the more our world changes."
"You ain't kidding, man," said Winston. "You should have seen our drive back home. Looked like we were right in the middle of a late sixties gothic horror movie, with the buildings changing like they are."
"Yeah. Several buildings we could see had changed into large stone monoliths, many of which had clearly visible torture devices, even from the turnpike. Usually only the immediate area in which the Lament Configuration was solved experiences those kinds of changes," informed John. He and Egon stated together, "This seems apocalyptic in nature."
That statement prompted a look of dread on Ray's face. Peter moved over to him and nudged the pudgy scientist with an elbow.
"Are you gonna' tell them about your dream or do I have to?" He whispered to Ray.
…
Back in Labyrinth, Vigo chanted a few more minutes. The small portraits in front of him suddenly caught fire as the door to his cell busted off its hinges, as though pulled by invisible chains. A sinister smirk flashed across his shriveled demonic face as he slowly walked toward the Leviathan, with a few of his cronies in tow. "You've done well thus far," he said to a brunette.
…
Ray sighed. "When Peter, Janine, and I returned home here, we were able to catch a couple hours of sleep. During that sleep I had a very vivid dream. I dreamed that our firehouse and our dimension had been taken over by Leviathan. I had an encounter with Angelique in the bathroom where she told me to get both puzzle boxes for her, and she agreed to make sure that we didn't come to harm. She tried to seduce me in our bathroom. I refused there, and then she led me downstairs to find Leviathan in the place of our Containment Unit and Peter and Janine under threat of physical torture unless I agreed to do what she wanted. Angelique arranged a meeting at three o'clock today at Janine's apartment."
Janine nodded affirmatively but Peter gave him a suspicious glance, the same glance the first time he heard the tale.
Egon said, "Don't you think it might simply have been a dream? Your mind attempting to reconcile the recent events?"
Winson replied, "Egon, you know how psychic Ray is." He looked at John and Kirsty. "In the past, Ray's always come up with crazy but correct solutions on many of our baffling cases. He's also been the one the ghosts love to possess. We oughta' listen when he has a vivid dream. Especially when it sounds like a premonition."
The six other people affirmatively nodded, some more reluctantly than others.
"Don't you guys think we ought to be trying to find those puzzle boxes as well? Even though you can't hurt the Cenobites, you can stop them by closing the box. I've done it twice before," said Kirsty. "And John's done it once himself."
"So by my watch, we've got about fourteen hours to find both Lament Configurations," stated Ray. "I suggest Spates List online for strange things like this. Also, we can access my bookstore's website from here. It contains a list of all other occult shops in the Tri-State Area."
"If we find them, then what?" asked John.
"Then I close them," started Kirsty.
"And while you're closing them, we drop Proton Concussion Grenades into their inner subspace fields," added Egon.
"I thought you said you couldn't get them to hold a fuse for more than a second," stated Peter.
"It was a tenth of a second," reminded Ray, "and you could prevent a premature explosion by linking the PCGs to an external detonator," he hypothesized.
"It is theoretically possible to reverse the dimensional flow by an extreme burst of atomic energy, but I would need to reconfigure the proton concussion grenades to provide the necessary explosive power," said Egon.
"Okay, team," barked Peter. "Egon, you and Ray prepare those grenades and their detonators. John, Kirsty, you start the search for those puzzle boxes. Winston, you make vials of the leftover blood-slime for our protection. Janine, you take a pack and answer the door. I'm right behind"
The loud and frantic pounding echoed up into Egon's lab from the vehicle bay down below. Janine quietly slipped down the stairs, and opened Egon's locker to retrieve his proton pack. Peter slid down the fire pole, slinked to his locker, and grabbed his pack. He motioned to Janine to reach into Egon's locker and retrieve a proton pack, which she quickly did. With Peter flanking her, the secretary cautiously approached the large noisy door. After she slowly pushed it open, a hideous Cenobite reproduction of a police officer started to lunge toward them, nightstick drawn. Janine retreated slightly out of fear. A stocky detective in brown hat and trench coat bludgeoned the creature from behind. As the creature attempted to climb to its feet, Peter stuck his proton gun in the glowing red wound inside the beast's mouth and liquefied its insides. The sub-demon collapsed and the three hauled it outside to a nearby dumpster. After returning inside introductions began.
"I assume by dat little attack right dere that I've come to da right place," started the man in the trench coat. "I'm Detective Bill Pacino wit da NYPD, and I wanna' know why you guys haven't stopped dis ting yet. Da Big Apple's gone ta hell! Now I've always stuck up for you guys whenever crazy shit like dis has happened. But da officers still alive are ready to blame you guys for what's happening. Now I doubt any of it's your fault, but I can't stall for time anymore. So stop dis ting or I'll have ta arrest ya, please?"
Janine shot a worried glance to Peter, who cleared his throat and replied.
"Detective Pacino, I'm Doctor Peter Venkman of the Ghostbusters." He held out his hand to the stocky detective but quickly drew it back when refused. "You and your diligent brave colleagues need to hold out just a little longer. I'm sure you've realized that these aren't the usual spooks that sometimes show up and threaten to, say, rip the core right out of the Big Apple. These creatures we've been facing are much more dangerous, and so if we fail, the consequences will be a whole lot greater for not just New York but the entire world! The reason we've been taking so long is that none of our usual dirt sheets have any info on these monsters, so we've had to do all the research ourselves. I'm sure as a detective you can relate to that right?" Detective Pacino nodded affirmatively. "So the sooner you let us finish our research, the sooner we can go kill the monsters. Just tell the boys at your precinct to avoid the nasty bastards… oh, and, to shoot them in glowing red wounds. That will kill them."
"Really?! Well dat's a big help! Tanks so much for ya time Doctor Venkman. I'll see myself out." With that phrase the detective left through the same iron door that he had entered.
"Getting rid of him was easier than I thought," remarked Peter coyly. "You know, this time it really was our fault." Janine just nodded her head in mock disgust.