It didn't take long for Ray and Winston to finish their task and return to the firehouse. With a dozen smoking traps filled with troublesome imps the two men were absolutely exhausted and trudged heavily toward the basement stairs with the traps slung over their hunched, slouched shoulders. Sweat and dirt stained their faces, necks and hands. Their jumpsuits were just as dirty and had small holes ripped throughout their legs and arms thanks to the sharp fangs of the swarming, ghostly pests.

"Hi Janine." Winston greeted lowly as he and Ray walked by her desk. "Where are Peter and Egon?"

"Out on a call." She answered without looking away from her computer screen. A pencil was clenched between her teeth which made her words sounds a little muffled as she spoke. "They've been gone for about half an hour."

"Oh."

One by one Ray and Winston inserted the traps into the chute of the massive ecto-containment unit and deposited the imps into the paranormal prison. As the traps emptied steadily the two men leaned tiredly against the walls of the basement as their physical exhaustion was evidently wearing them down.

"Only four more to go." Ray stated as he picked up the next trap while tossing the previous one aside. "I think this is some kind of record."

"For most exhausted before noon? Oh yeah, I'll agree with you on that one."

"Is this worse than dealing with Gozer or Vigo?" Ray asked playfully as he finished emptying the trap in his hands.

"Is anything worse than Gozer or Vigo?"

"What about Venkman's cooking?"

"That's in its own league of terrifying!" Winston commented with a slight chuckle to his voice. "Don't tell him I said that, he might try even more new recipes on us."

"Don't worry," Ray inserted the final trap and began to deposit the imp inside the prison. "I'll keep your secret. I can still taste that weird pizza he made three months ago."

With all of the traps emptied the two Ghostbusters sealed the containment unit and set the traps into their chargers to replenish the batteries for the next impending call.

"Come on." Ray walked steadily up the stairs, his pace was slow from fatigue and foot steps were heavy. "Let's see if they're back yet."

Janine had finished typing up her report and was now using a nail file to give herself a quick manicure while she awaited her next assignment. As she blew gently on her fingertips the two Ghostbusters exited the basement and joined her at her little office area set up just outside the bulk of the garage.

"Anything new happen while we were downstairs?" Ray asked as he took a seat in front of her desk.

"Nope. No calls. No sign of Egon or Dr. V."

"Where'd they go?" Winston opened his locker at the right wall of the garage to replace his torn jumpsuit with a clean one.

"To an abandoned storage lot outside the city." Janine replied firmly as she handed Ray a copy of the address she had written down on her notepad. "Peter was still a little hungover, so I bet they're going to be working kinda' slow today."

"Abandoned storage lot?" Ray's eyes lit up with excitement. "If this is the place I think it is then we should head out and give them a hand!"

"Uh, why's that?" Winston zipped up his fresh jumpsuit and threw his tattered one into the nearby trashcan. "An abandoned lot doesn't sound too complicated of a place to check out."

"You're right, it isn't." Ray got up from his seat and joined Winston at the lockers. He too pulled open his locker to retrieve a new jumpsuit. "But this lot was built notoriously close to an ancient Indian burial ground. AND..." Ray quickly slipped off his old jumpsuit and replaced it with the new one. "there's a rumor that ancient ruins from a secretive society had been unearthed during the construction of the lot."

"Let me guess," Winston grinned slightly as he folded his arms over his chest and leaned casually against his locker. "the lot was supposedly cursed and that's why the place went out of business. Right?"

"Right!" Zipping up his jumpsuit he motioned toward Ecto-1 with his hand. "Want to go exploring?"

"Might as well." Winston tossed Ray the keys to the hearse and strolled over to the passenger door. "Janine, if we get any more calls contact us over the radio."

"No problem guys!" Janine called out as she continued to fuss with her nails. "Have fun."

A skin chilling cold was the first thing Peter felt as the darkness slowly left his mind. The smell of must and old earth filled his nose and the steady rhythm of dripping water seemed to echo forever in the otherwise silent room. Opening his eyes Peter found himself staring at large gray stones that lined the walls and the floor of the odd, unfamiliar room in which he found himself alone.

"Spengz?" Peter's headache was as intense as ever. "What... the..." He realized that he was laying on his back and slowly sat upright. A heaviness on his hands that 'clanked' as he moved about drew his attention to his arms. "Shackles?"

Two massive metal cuffs were fastened around his wrists in an uncomfortably tight manner. The metal restraints were secured to one another by a single link rather than a chain to hinder his movements all the more. The weight and overall tightness of the cuffs caused deep purple bruises to form on his wrists and small cuts to ooze blood painfully every tight he flexed his fingers.

"Where... am I?" Peter asked himself as he stood up on shaking legs, his arms hanging low in front of him as he struggled to compensate for the additional weight around his hands.

"You are my prisoner." Moirai responded through the seemingly wide open doorway. A single layer of ethereal energy provided a translucent barrier between the cell and the exterior corridor. "Welcome to Bastille of Fog."

"Bastille of Fog?" Peter repeated slowly.

"A prison with no escape." Moirai hissed bitterly. "With your imprisonment a great injustice has been remedied. Ready yourself for a lengthy eternity of isolation."

"I don't know what your beef with me is lady," Peter defended in a snippy and cruel manner. "but I swear I'm innocent!"

"No one is truly innocent." With those final words the robed deity gracefully glided away from the cell and out of Peter's line of sight.

"Prison?" Peter sat down abruptly on the stone bench that jutted outward from the wall. "But why? What did I do?"

Sitting alone in the confining cell of cold stone Peter closed his eyes and wallowed in self pity. The icy cold air of the prison relentlessly cut into his skin, easily chilling him through the torn fabric of his jumpsuit at his shoulder, his leg and around his wrists. Unable to wrap his arms around himself to stave off the freezing air Peter forced himself to endure the harsh conditions as he tried to think of a plan of escape.

"Egon!" Peter's eyes shot open with fear as his thoughts took him back to the final moments just before his capture. "What happened to Egon?! Is he alright?!"

The drive out of the city was uneventful and somewhat boring as Ray and Winston set off to join their colleagues at the scene of the second call of the morning. Little traffic and even fewer people gave the entire area a sense of foreboding and dread, almost as if the land had been left untouched for a reason, or had been abandoned entirely out of fear.

"It's just around this turn." Winston directed Ray along the road as they approached the abandoned lot. "I can see Ecto-2 from here."

"Good, we didn't miss them!"

As the hearse pulled up alongside the pick-up truck both men eyed the lot suspiciously. There was a sign of a massive struggle but no sign of combatants.

"What the hell happened out here?" Winston asked as he pushed open his door and stood beside the hearse. "Looks like an earthquake shook the place!"

"Yeah... And where are Peter and Egon? They shouldn't be too far from the truck."

"Let's take a look around."

"Right."

Walking with careful, meticulous steps the two men maneuvered around the massive fissures and potholes that littered the lot with the carnage of the previous battle. The remaining rusted metal cargo containers had been displaced by the violent tremors leaving large scrapes in the surface of the concrete as evidence of their forced movement. Massive chunks of the concrete had been broken loose leaving potholes behind and the missing pieces of the concrete rested next to the holes like massive jagged shrapnel.

"Whatever happened here happened recently." Winston observed as he looked around the area curiously. An unusually shaped metal object resting on the surface of the lot caught his attention. Walking over to the object he attempted to identify it and his heart skipped a beat when he recognized the mangled design of a proton pack. "What happened out here?"

"Winston!" Ray shouted in a frightful tone as he raced across the lot to a form on the ground. "It's Egon!"

"Egon?" Winston immediately took off after Ray.

Ray skidded to a clumsy stop as he dropped down to his knees and put his hand on Egon's back to check on his friend. The blood stains and tears along the fabric of the gray jumpsuit matched the level of destruction of the lot around them.

"He's still breathing." Ray stated as he rested his hand on Egon's back. He ran his hand along Egon's spine and up his neck. "I don't feel any breaks or dislocations along his spinal column."

"How's his head?" Winston asked as he knelt on Egon's opposite side.

"I can see a cut but I can't tell if he's suffered any skull fracture or a concussion."

"Well until we know for certain let's treat him like he is concussed."

"Good plan."

"Come on," Winston moved his hands to Egon's shoulder, careful of the deep laceration that ran along the limb. "turn him onto his back, careful of his neck."

"Okay, yeah. Easy does it..." Ray supported Egon's neck and head as Winston turned over the injured physicist from his chest and onto his back. "That's it..."

The additional bleeding injuries that marred Egon's chest and abdomen made the two men flinch. A deep, long laceration stretched across his chest. Multiple cuts along his upper abdomen was indicative of the multiple rocks that had bombarded his entire body and left large bruises or cuts behind.

"Oh man," Winston winced at the sight he looked up at Egon's bleeding, bruises face. "something beat the hell out of him!"

"Or someone..." Ray timidly suggested as he put his hand to Egon's face and patted gently. "Egon? Hey Egon, can you hear me?"

A low groan of pain was the only response. His body twitched slightly as somewhere deep inside Egon's partially conscious mind he recognized the voices of his friends.

"We should get him to a hospital." Ray moved his hand from Egon's face and rested it down on his chest.

A weak, bloodied hand reached up and wrapped around Ray's forearm. "...Peter."

"Peter?" Winston's eyes went wide with fear. "Where is he Egon? We haven't seen him!"

"...t-taken."

"Taken?" Winston almost whispered. "Who took him?"

"...M-Moirai." Egon's eyes opened slightly only to close again immediately. "She took him."

"Moirai?" Ray's brow arched curiously. "Why does that name ring a bell?"

Egon's hand went limp and fell from Ray's arm back to the ground.

"As much as I hate doing this, we can't take Egon to the hospital right now."

"Wait, what?" Winston looked at Ray like he had just lost his mind. "Egon's hurt! He needs medical attention!"

"I know he does, but he's the only one who knows what happened here and where Peter has gone." Ray explained calmly. "Besides, you know Egon won't stay in the hospital while Peter is still missing. At least if we take him back to the firehouse and take care of him ourselves we won't have to worry about him trying to escape the hospital."

"Good point." Winston moved his arms under Egon's shoulders and lifted him up slightly as to carry him much easier to Ecto-1. "Who knew scientists could be so stubborn?"

Peter desperately pulled at his shackles futilely, propping his boot down on the lone link that chained the two cuffs together and stepped down while pulling his arms up. The cuffs were too tight and wouldn't budge loose or even slip over his sore hands.

"Come on, COME. ON." Peter begged through gritted teeth as he fought to free his hands from the metal bindings. "COME. OFF!"

His boot slipped from the link and the intense motion caused Peter's arms to jerk back with tremendous force and he smacked his head back against the stone wall with a painful 'thud'.

"OW!" Peter cried out loudly as he leaned forward against his knees, unable to cradle his throbbing head in his restrained hands. The strike to the head only made his lingering headache worse! "I hope Egon's alright... because I'm not doing so good..."

...to be continued...