Taking the still damaged PKE meter from under the large pile of papers that had been scattered across the top of the desk Ray pocketed the somewhat functional device as he threw on his coat and made a beeline for Ecto-1. The doomsday clock was ticking and he was bound and determined to keep the city and the world as he knew it alive and well.

"Ray where are you going?" Peter asked curiously as his flustered colleague hastened his pace and opened the driver's side door of the car. Pulling open the car door Ray felt a hand reach over and slam it shut just as quickly as it had opened. "Ray, I asked you a question." Peter persisted with a stubbornness that had become a staple of his charmingly abrasive personality. "Where in the hell are you going?"

"I have to get a more accurate reading of the storm." Ray finally replied without looking Peter in the eye all the while struggling to pull the car door back open. "The sooner the better."

Egon joined his colleagues beside Ecto-1. "Ray, I can say with almost complete certainty that going to the hotel alone is an exceptionally bad idea."

Ray glanced over to Egon and felt his stomach knot when he saw the white bandages contrasting brilliantly against the black shirt that Egon had put on earlier in the evening. The guilt of not being there to aid his injured friend still gnawed at Ray's psyche, while the guilt of wanting to let Egon 'go' when he didn't respond immediately to resuscitative measures made him truly sick. "It needs to be done."

"Don't go." Peter insisted as he kept his hand on the car door and pulled the car keys from Ray's hand. "We need to stick together. We'll check out the hotel together, alright?"

Only nodding in agreement Ray took a step back from the car and headed back toward the office like a whimpering pup. "I guess you're right. We can't just rush into this without a game plan."

"Do you have any idea how much simpler life would be if you could just keep that in mind?" Peter teased as he put his hand on Ray's shoulder. "Just remind yourself that 'Peter is always right', and everything will be just fine!"

Egon followed slowly behind his two friends as they regrouped in the office. "Gentlemen we have a deadline to make and we can't afford to be late. We must find a way to keep the gateway from opening, or at the very least find a way to shut it and lock it up tight, if it does actually open."

Peter just cocked his head as he studied the pondering expressions on his colleagues' faces. "Ideas anyone? I'm listening! Now's the time to speak up."

Ray stared at the PKE meter's final reading in his hand and sighed despondently. "If we only had a more accurate reading of the storm's energy level then we could possibly adjust the energy wavelength on our proton packs to reverse the energy flow and keep the gate shut, or possibly seal it. Permanently."

"Considering that the last attempt I made to take a reading of the storm nearly resulted in my own demise I don't see how it'd be possible for any of us here to gauge a proper reading without being endangered." Egon's face was blank as he mentally began weighing the odds of success and failure in his mind. "We must also take into consideration that since my initial scan of the storm a significant amount of time has passed and the storm itself has surely become stronger, more violent and all the more unpredictable."

"You're right." Ray admitted with a twinge of defeat in his voice. Waving around the PKE meter as he smacked it on its side, more irritated than fearful of their current circumstance. "If we could just get a solid sample of the electrical structure of the storm itself-" The PKE meter suddenly chirped and the wands situated at the top of the device extended as the meter picked up on a trace reading in the immediate area. "What the hell?"

Egon studied the device intently. "It's very unusual for the PKE meter to detect any activity in the firehouse. The containment unit in the basement also doubles as a type of shielding to keep any nominal or trace readings from affecting our equipment."

"Then whatever it's picking up on must be very powerful." Ray deduced with a mixture of excitement, worry and curiosity swirling in his voice.

Peter furrowed his brow at the sudden activity displayed by the meter. "Hey Ray, do that again." He pointed at the meter in Ray's hand.

"Do what again?"

"Wave the meter in the air again. Humor me."

Repeating his previous actions Ray moved the meter through the air again and froze as soon as it made a noise. Holding it firmly in his hand, doing his best to keep even the slightest muscle twitch from affecting its current position, Ray looked up from the display on the meter and at the source of the reading. "Egon, it's you."

"Me?" Egon's eyes lit up with intrigue as he pressed his hand to chest in self gesture.

Ray waved the PKE meter over Egon's upper body again and received the same unexpected result on the display. "There's no mistaking it Egon, there's a massive surge of psychokinetic energy emanating from your body."

"Must be a lingering effect of the electrical strike." Egon surmised with a surprisingly calmness in his tone. "Ray, I believe that I need to be examined for any other potential readings or residual energy fluctuations. There maybe a viable sample embedded in my subcutaneous tissues."

"Agreed." Ray lowered the meter and gave Peter a concerned glance. "We better get him down into the lab, fast."

Escorting Egon down into the lab Ray felt his heart pounding with absolute fear for the safety of his already injured friend. Turning on the lights in the basement lab and scouring through the numerous pieces of equipment that the unorthodox scientists had managed to acquire over the years Ray fumbled impatiently through the wires and heavy metallic objects that lined the shelves and sat atop desks.

"Whoa, take it easy!" Peter flinched when he heard all the commotion Ray was making as he dug through the equipment. "You're not going to get any answers if you break everything."

Ignoring Peter's comment Ray continued his desperate search.

"Venkman's right." Egon agreed with Peter as he stood beside the large desk across from the containment unit. "We can't afford to lose our nerve. Stay focused."

A loud 'crash' was the only response Ray managed to give either of his colleagues as he continued his clumsy dig through the equipment.

Peter and Egon exchanged looks of annoyance and impatience.

"Have a seat Egon." Peter patted the top of the desk as he cleared the papers away. "This won't hurt a bit."

A loud groan of pain from Egon quickly proved the quirky psychiatrist wrong. "It hurt a bit." Egon complained through gritted teeth as he wrapped his arm around his chest. The simple act of attempting to slip off his shirt was proving too taxing for his physically strained upper body.

The sound of pain pulled Ray from his made scramble of digging through equipment. He stood up straight and turned his attention to Egon, various wires and broken pieces of metal tangled up in his clenched hands. "Egon? You okay?"

Peter proceeded to help Egon slip off the shirt while the pained physicist breathed through the intense pain. "I'll be fine. I just need to sit down."

Ray dropped everything he had gathered and assisted Peter with helping Egon to sit down on top of the desk. "Easy pal, we got you."

Tossing aside the black shirt Peter proceeded to check the bandages wrapped around Egon's chest. "Get a good reading, will ya' Ray? I'm going to go back upstairs and get new bandages."

"Right. No problem." Ray answered in somewhat confident tone as he helped Egon to expose the still healing burns under the white gauze. "Take it easy..."

Egon could see the overwhelming discomfort in Ray's eyes. In an attempt to ease the awkwardness and heavy tension in the air he offered his good friend some words of comfort. "Trust me, it looks worse than it feels."

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Ray was distracted by his own personal guilt to focus on anything that was being said. Holding up the PKE meter to Egon's chest he made sure the device was properly set to its default functions. "Just hold still while I take a reading."

Egon put his hand over the meter and pushed it down. "Ray, what's on your mind? And don't try to tell me 'nothing', I know you too well."

"I... It's just..." Ray couldn't bring himself to admit how he felt, how he was just angry and disappointed in himself for failing to react properly when Egon needed him the most. "I wish I knew."

"Ray, I know what happened. Dana and Peter told me."

"They did?" Ray swallowed a nervous lump that had risen in his throat. "Everything?"

"I know that I was revived through CPR, and I know that you were convinced that I was beyond saving. I'm not upset."

"You're... You're not mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you?" Egon took his hand from the meter. "Given the circumstances I would've reached the same conclusion."

"It's just, I can't get it out of my head." Ray was losing his cool and couldn't repress his anxiety any more. "When I saw you laying there on the floor, not breathing and without a pulse... It was bad enough to walk in on you having a seizure-"

"I had gone into convulsions?!" Egon hadn't been told that part.

"You... didn't know?" Ray blushed a little at his blunder.

"No."

"Oh, well. You did."

"That explains the debilitating headache I suffered when I came to." Egon was still mentally putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "It might also explain the vivid dreaming."

"Dream? What did you dream about?"

"Nothing." Egon wasn't ready to talk about what he had experienced during his near death, not yet. "Please. Begin the exam."

"Okay. Be still, I'm not sure how sensitive the meter is anymore."

Practically holding his breath during the exam Egon listened intently to every little squeak and whine the PKE meter as it swept over his body. The look on Ray's face only seemed to confirm his suspicions that the residual energy level from the strike was unnervingly high.

"Well?" Egon asked as Ray finally lowered the meter. "What did you find?"

Ray's face was pale and his eyes glassy. "We're dealing something of incredible power. I... I don't think we have the proper equipment to stop it. Not this time."

Before Egon could say anything Peter had returned to the basement lab with the first aid kit. "So how did our patient do? Was he a good boy?"

"Check out these readings." Ray presented the meter to Peter.

"That's..." Peter was struggling to process the numbers he was viewing on the small display. "high."

Egon tagged on his own observation. "And this extraordinarily high reading is of a residual energy spike."

Peter didn't quite know how to react. "We can do something about this though, right?"

Ray just bowed his head with uncertainty while Egon remained silent.

"That's a 'no'. Great." Peter set the first aid kit down on the desk beside Egon. "Well, while I take care of Egon why you don't you," he put one hand under Ray's chin and lifted his head until the two men were making direct eye contact. "Ray, do a little equipment check, okay?"

Without a word Ray set the PKE meter down on the desk and approached the wall where the proton packs had been stored for safe keeping.

"So Spengz," Peter resumed his focus on Egon and the painful wound that still needed attention. "how are feeling? Any pain, nausea, dizziness, delusions of grandeur?"

"No more than usual." His curt reply was followed by a painful hiss as Peter began to press a sterile pad against his chest. "At least nothing compared to my seizure."

"Ray told you." Peter paused for a moment and looked Egon right in his eyes. "Sorry. I forgot to mention that part."

"Can't imagine why."

"Here, hold this." Peter instructed Egon to keep the pad pressed against his chest.

"Got it." Egon lifted his hand and held the bandage in place. "The pain's already diminishing. I think I'm on the mend."

"Now Egon, what do you think we should do about our impending doom? Try one last seemingly crazy stunt to save the entire world, or kick back and watch a movie? Think we should order out?"

"I think we need to find Winston." Egon suggested dryly as he watched Peter wrap the fresh gauze around his lower chest and upper abdomen. "We should also find Janine and Dana."

"Dana?" Peter was defensive when it came to matters with his new bride. "She's safe and with Oscar. Why bring her back to the source of the chaos?"

"Without a doubt we're going to need as much help as possible."

...to be continued...