With a confident stride that comes from only from someone who exudes complete control the hotel receptionist placed herself between the portal and the three Ghostbusters. Flashing a mug grin with a hollow eyed stare of utter insanity through her glasses, she extended her arms as if to introduce the city to the impending chaos that she intended to unleash in a single act of fury.
Egon took a step forward as he prepared to confront the power hungry woman. "Why have you done this? To what purpose will the destruction of serve?"
Ray was still nervous, his body beginning to tremble anxiously. "Egon... don't get too close to her."
Peter glanced over to Ray to reassure the wary man. "He knows what he's doing."
The receptionist lowered her arms and stared with intent at the bold physicist. "Destruction of this city, and all of the wretched people who dare to claim this place as their own, is merely a warning."
"Warning?" Egon's hands tightened around the proton wand as every fiber of his being told him to stay on his guard. "Warning to what?"
"Doomsday." She smiled wickedly as she spoke with a twisted pleasure. "This world is run by beings who think themselves too clever, to righteous to fall. War, famine, pestilence and death: this is not the work of Four Horsemen, no, it is the work of mankind. This world is too sick to survive, and I intend to put it out of its misery."
"Too sick to survive..." Egon quietly repeated her words to himself as a knot formed in his stomach.
Ray recognized that particular phrase, he was sure of it. "Haven't we heard that sentiment before?"
"Yes." Egon confirmed as he held his ground. "It was the reasoning behind every action, every decision made by Ivo Shandor."
Peter felt a twinge of fear run his blood cold. "The founder of the Gozer cult." He took one step forward near Egon's left shoulder and aimed his proton wand at the strange woman. "His followers are truly dedicated, I will admit it. But right now I have a score to settle with this Shandor nut."
Egon arched his brow as he heard the anger brewing in Peter's voice.
"Not only does this Shandor lunatic-"
The woman silenced Peter with her own bitter retort. "Hold your tongue mortal."
Peter wasn't deterred. "As I was saying, thanks to this Shandor fool, the woman that I love was terrorized, possessed, transformed and put in a life or death struggle that continues to haunt her to this day. Not to mention your leader brainwashing you and all your weak minded little minions into carrying on these 'end of the world' seances for almost a full century; wasting everyone's valuable time, AND you tried to kill Egon! No way sister," he took another step forward. "tonight is the final meeting for your little cult."
With those words Ray too stepped forward, standing at Egon's right shoulder.
As stubborn and impulsive as Peter could be, he was not a man without mercy. "Stop what you're doing now, end this before it gets any worse."
The woman extended her arms once more, taking a T pose as she stood before the bright portal. The light of the portal outlined her body in an ethereal glow. She took a step back and positioned herself just outside the portal and shot the Ghostbusters an evil grin. "It cannot be stopped." She took another step back and looked upward at the storm raging overhead.
"Don't do that!" Ray pleaded as he watched her step dangerously close to the portal. "Just... just come back over here!"
"Prepare." She all but hissed as she closed her eyes and fall backward into the portal, vanishing into the ethereal glow.
The trio watched in stunned silence as the portal churned to life, its energy combining with that of the storm that swirled over the building. The two energies merged, doubling in strength and creating a dense, eerie mist that billowed out from the portal, bathing the roof in a paranormal fog.
"We have to close the portal." Egon decided as he watched in a near trance as the portal emanated an incalculable strength. "We need to stop her before she has a chance to do anything else."
"Let's light it up." Peter was more than ready to fire a proton stream.
A sudden flash of lightning blinded the trio, causing them to stumble backward as they dropped their proton wands and pressed their hands against their burning eyes.
A high pitched squeal filled the air as an electrical surge swept over their equipment.
"What's that?!" Peter asked loudly as he blinked a few times to try and clear the dancing spots from his vision.
"Something is overheating..." Egon knew every sound the equipment made, knowing that in that moment something was about to fail catastrophically. "Check your packs!"
Before any of the men had a chance to even slip off the packs from their backs the high pitched squeal reached its peak and the smell of ozone and iron filled the air. Blue smoke began to pour from Ray's belt.
"Ray!" Peter spotted the smoke and alerted his friend. "Watch out!"
Fire and black smoke filled the air as a loud explosion rocked the rooftop, knocking the trio from their feet. The all too familiar, haunting and ear splitting scream of the banshee's cry screeched through the city.
Egon was thrown to his side during the explosion. Slowly rolling over onto his chest he put his arms beneath himself and carefully pushed his body up from the ground. The searing pain in his chest gnawing at every nerve as even the smallest movement put too much strain on his injured chest. Peering through the dark smoke he saw the figures of his two colleagues sprawled out not too far away.
"Ray? Venkman?" Egon called out as the acrid smoke began to clear.
Peter was the first to stir. Sitting upright, awkwardly trying to balance himself with the heavy weight of his proton pack resisting his movements, he looked over to Egon and replied calmly. "I'm alright. Ray, you okay?"
Ray was laying face down on the roof, not moving.
"Ray?" Egon asked again as he forced himself to crawl over his to downed friend. "Answer us."
Peter didn't like the tone of Egon's voice and especially didn't like the unresponsive Ray laying prone on the roof. "Ray? Ray say something."
Egon reached Ray first and put his hand on Ray's back. He could feel that Ray was still breathing which was always a good sign. It was then he saw a black, charred burn on Ray's lower back, running down the side of his hip and down his upper leg. Metallic shards jutted outward painfully from Ray's back, side and leg, and large pieces of debris lay scattered about the roof like shrapnel.
"Peter..." Egon had discovered the source of the explosion and which piece of equipment had overheated. "The trap. It exploded."
"What?" Peter scrambled over to Ray and looked down at his wounded friend's side. "The trap exploded? How did that happen?"
Egon bowed his head in shame as he looked down at the fresh burn that tore into Ray's body. "It was my fault."
"Your fault? How's that?" He put one hand on Ray's arm as he waited for any sign of regained consciousness from Ray.
"I adjusted the frequency for the proton packs to ensure that we can seal the portal. I hadn't anticipated capturing a ghost beforehand. I hadn't adjusted the trap accordingly, it couldn't take the additional power surge. The trap exploded because of my negligence."
Peter just stared in awe at Egon. He had never before seen the usually confident man so weighted with doubt before. "Egon, you didn't do anything wrong. It was an accident, alright? This wasn't your fault."
A massive burst of blue light from the portal drew Egon and Peter's attention back to the opened gateway to the other side. From within the portal a figure emerged.
"Who's that?" Peter asked as he tried to recognize the approaching figure. Never moving from Ray side he watched the figure's every move.
Egon didn't have the answer. Keeping his silence Egon discreetly reached for his proton wand, holding it out of sight at his side.
The figure stepped closer and revealed herself to be the very receptionist who had set things in motion. However, it was merely the receptionist's body. She was now acting as a vessel for the ethereal force to bring about the end of the world.
"I am the Augur." Her voice was the same dominating, booming voice that had threatened the Ghostbusters before hand. "The time has come."
...to be continued...