Disclaimer: I still don't own the characters. This chapter is a bit more violent than my usual fare, so warnings for that and language. I sincerely hope you are enjoying the story and thank those of you who favorited/followed it so far. More to come in about a week or two (probably two). On with the story…
2
Missing
It was the worst feeling of déjà vu.
Abby had been gone an hour. She'd been attempting to follow Holtzmann's instructions for calibrating the containment unit, suspecting that her friend had deliberately written them illegibly hoping that Abby would have to relent and allow her to come do the work personally. She'd given up trying to decipher the scrawls for fear of making a mistake and blowing up a large chunk of New York City and called Holtzmann.
There was no answer at the apartment. Abby tried twice.
She figured that Janine had shown up early, in which case Abby hated to interrupt to call and talk shop. She'd considered holding off on the calibrations, but Holtzmann had made it sound like the maintenance to the unit was high priority (which, again, could have been her way of trying to finagle her way back into work). Abby made up her mind and tried Holtzmann's cell phone.
The cell phone went to voice mail.
Okay, Abby could take a hint. Holtzmann was either out with her mother, sleeping, or sulking and deliberately ignoring Abby's calls. Dumpster diving for scrap parts was also a possibility, in which case she'd rip out her stitches and be right back in the hospital. Abby tried texting: Holtz – these notes are BS. Call me or I'll let Kevin use your Faraday cage for a spaghetti strainer again.
Still no reply.
Abby set aside the phone and the instructions and told herself she was being paranoid. Her nerves were just fried from two weeks of hospital vigils and worry; she was worrying over nothing. It had only been an hour…
Holtz – Kevin is using your proton fork to pick out his toe lint. Call me.
Maybe her battery was dead. Holtzmann kept running it out since her new cell phone came with unlimited music streaming.
Thirty minutes, two phone calls, and five text messages later, Abby was walking up the stairs to her own apartment, unpinning her key from her bra. When she reached for the lock, she noticed the door was ajar. "Holtz?" Even if she'd fallen asleep or sneaked out of the apartment, the door shouldn't be open. Abby tensed, the creepy feeling of déjà vu making the hair on her neck stand on end. "Holtz? Why is the door open-?"
Once inside, after taking one sweeping glance around the living room, Abby was pulling out her cell phone to dial the firehouse.
Every surface of Abby's walls, floors, and tables were covered with equations and a few words she recognized as Nahuatl from the research they were doing on the Hidalgo Casino incident and Voga Ra'El. Words were written in ink, lipstick, ketchup…apparently whatever Holtz could get her hands on. There were equations written on the ceiling. How the hell did Holtz do that? Abby gaped.
"Crap." She checked the rest of the apartment, hoping Holtzmann was there but knowing she wouldn't be, which she waited for someone at their headquarters to answer her call. One hour. She'd left Holtzmann alone for one damned hour…this could not be happening again. She was in no shape to deal with ghosts or be dragged around the city by cultists. She didn't have so much as a ghost grenade to defend herself.
If she even could defend herself. Abby knew this wasn't an abduction. This was a possession. There was no defending oneself against possession. She knew that all too well.
Finally, Erin's voice came on the line. "Erin? Get over here. Holtz is gone. No, I'm not joking! What the hell kind of question is that?! No-I think our Vogaites are back." Abby looked at the cryptic equations. It was all math and physics way beyond her expertise. If anyone could decipher them, it would be Erin. "And there's something else you need to see."
GBGBGBGBGBGB
Abby heard a familiar siren; Patty and Erin were finally there. It had only been fifteen minutes, but it felt longer. During the interminable wait, Abby had searched the apartment building for any traces of her friend but come up empty. She had called Agent Hawkins, who cursed and promised to get a search underway immediately.
She called Janine. Whatever doubts Abby had about the woman, she was still Holtzmann's mother. She was on her way to the apartment anyway, and the last thing Abby wanted was for her to pull up to a scene of lights and sirens.
Janine had been eerily calm, saying only "I'll be there in ten minutes." She'd hung up before Abby could respond.
Finally, for nothing more constructive she could do for the time being, Abby called Holtzmann's cell phone. It went straight to voice mail. She tried to ping its location, but that didn't' work. It was either off or the battery is dead. Or a Toltec ghost was blocking the call.
"Abby?" Patty's voice was tight with worry as she burst into the living room, Erin only two steps behind her. "We're here-whoah."
Erin's attention was immediately riveted to the myriad equations, fascinated despite her more pressing concern for Holtzmann. "What is this?"
"You tell me. This math is way out of my league," Abby said. "I don't know what any of it means."
"It means: 'All play and no work makes Holtzy go bat shit crazy'." Patty felt like she'd walked in on a Stephen King novel…which was essentially how she felt at least once a day since she decided to join the ghosthunters.
"I don't think so. This-" Erin pointed to some of the scrawled words. "-is Nahuatl. You're right, Abby, this has got something to do with Voga Ra'El." She silently rebuked herself for letting cases go on the back-burner when Arthur Klein attacked Holtzmann and her recovery became the Ghostbusters top priority. If just one of them had kept up with the caseload, they might have had a jump on the Vogaite cult by now and prevented this…
Abduction? Possession?
Patty got a headache just looking at the math. Math was never her best subject. She didn't even like helping her nieces with their homework. "I checked the EVP before we headed over here. I didn't hear too much chatter, but there was one word." She pulled out her notebook, where she had spelled out the odd word phonetically. "Calmanani. Does that mean anything?"
Abby got out her laptop and started doing a search.
Erin studied the equations. It was no wonder that Abby couldn't decipher them. Erin was one of the best physicists in the country, and she floundered just pondering the mathematics on display there. It was a fascinating, jumbled jigsaw puzzle…only she didn't have the picture to show her how the pieces were supposed to fit together. She'd have to study this for weeks or months to begin to crack it, and she didn't have that kind of time.
Holtzmann was a genius, but she hadn't created these equations on her own. So, was this a possession? Erin turned over that question in her mind. Voga Ra'El was supposed to be imprisoned in an alternate dimension; he couldn't possess Holtzmann. That meant he was controlling her. Or the mystery woman from the Hidalgo Casino was controlling her. How? Why?
"I've seen bits and pieces of these equations before-there are elements of Superstring theory, Grand Unified Theory-the Theory of Everything, there's even something that looks like a Calabi-Yau manifold. But the rest-some of this is almost over my head," Erin told them.
"What, like that Stephen Hawking dude's movie?" Patty asked.
Abby wasn't a novice in the physics department. "That all has to do with theories of the tenth dimension, right?"
Hawkins and Janine interrupted, knocking just once before they walked in.
"Have you heard from her?" Janine wants to know.
She'd already tried calling Jillian as well. Hawkins had Homeland Security monitoring for activity from Holtzmann's cell phone on the slim chance it was activated.
"Nothing," Abby shook her head.
Janine sat on the arm of the couch, resigning herself to waiting. It wasn't like it was the first time she'd had to wait out someone she loved disappearing because of a ghost…but this time it was her daughter. That was different. It was the most awful feeling she'd ever felt. It was precisely the reason she done everything in her power to prevent Jillian from becoming a Ghostbuster.
"I have the NYPD and Homeland Security looking. We'll find her," Agent Hawkins tried to reassure the women.
"Ray's out in his cab, too," Janine added. Ray had been the first person she'd called when Abby told her that Jillian was missing. The Homeland Security agent gave her a look, silently reminding her to choose her words carefully. "He knows…he knows the city." Actually, he had a PKE meter and he was scanning for spectral activity, but of course she could tell the Ghostbusters that because it was 'classified'.
Abby nodded thanks to them while she typed furiously on her keyboard. "Janine, you're welcome to stay here tonight."
"I appreciate that, but I'd rather help look for Jillian."
The laptop beeped; Abby read from the screen: "Calmanani-it loosely translates to 'Architect'. Also means 'to devise, plan, orchestrate."
"As in 'to build', maybe?" Erin guessed. "The Vogaites have Holtz, it would make sense if they want her to build them something-maybe these equations are the instructions for how to do it?"
"I don't get it. How did they find her? How did they even know she's got the mad scientist skills?" Patty wanted to know.
Agent Hawkins cut in: "Remember—you aren't just dealing with ghosts in this case, ladies. You're dealing with cultists, too. The woman you saw at the Hidalgo was a human being. Human beings can use the Internet to find out anything they want to know about you."
They hadn't thought about that. Hawkins picked up the file folder labeled 'Hidalgo Casino'. "The woman you saw at the Hidalgo calls herself Raina Chaix. Officially, she doesn't exist. I couldn't even find a birth certificate for her. She was the one who persuaded Kurt Vaughn to finance the excavation of Voga Ra'El's tomb and to help bring the artifacts into this country. You said that she was on the roof watching while you all took out Voga Ra'El's ghost buddies. That's probably when she first targeted Holtzmann. Or, she researched all of you and targeted her because of her engineering skills. We've had Holtzmann under guard since Arthur attacked her, so Chaix's probably been biding time until she could catch Holtz alone."
"Oh, my god," Janine blanched.
Abby snapped her fingers. "Wait, wait…you might be on to something. I didn't piece it together until what you said just now. Before Artie interrupted our investigation, we did find out that the item Raina Chaix stole from the display was the Eye of Tezcatlipoca." Abby took the file from Hawkins and rifled through until she found the Customs slip for the items in the exhibit. "Here it is: The Eye of Tezcatlipoca is described as a blue crystal figurine…"
She moved to the boxes that Kevin packed from Holtzmann's apartment. One box had been opened, and Abby knew exactly which one it was and what was missing from that box. "These are the gifts that were left at Holtz's place. There was one creepy ass blue crystal dude in here…"
"I remember that guy. I called him Snake Foot," Patty recalled.
"Well, Snake Foot was in this box a couple of hours ago, and now he's gone." Again, Abby rifled through the files. She pulled out an etching of a Toltec deity with a snake for a foot and held it up for the others to see. "Meet Tezcatlipoca."
"That's the blue crystal dude, all right," Patty confirms. "You think that ugly statue has something to do with Holtz going missing? Or that calamari manifold math on the wall?"
"I'd bet on it. That thing's been sitting in that box waiting for her, and we delivered it to Holtzmann for them." Erin was pissed, not to mention unnerved.
Hawkins was right—they had to be more careful. This was twice in less than a month that Holtzmann had been targeted. They were no longer the anonymous cats shoved into Homeland Security's bag of anonymity (to borrow Mayor Bradley's metaphor). The news coverage might swing back and forth between hailing them as heroes or deriding them as crackpots, but their names and faces were out there. Their work was making enemies for them in the human world right along with the spiritual realm.
"I'm going to add an A.P.B. on Raina Chaix." Hawkins pulled out his phone.
"Thanks, Hawkins," Abby said. "All right, so, we find the Vogaites and we find Holtz. So, here's the plan: Erin, you stay here and work on solving these equations. Figure out what Voga Ra'El and his little cultists want Holtz to build. Patty, go back to the firehouse and get on the EVP. Monitor for any more noise about a Calmanani or an Architect or Voga Ra'El. I'm going with Janine and Ray to look for Holtz. We'll start back at the Hidalgo. When we find her, I'll call." Not 'if'-when they found her. And God help Raina Chaix when Abby got her hands on the pasty little freak.
Erin didn't have a better plan. Sitting around working on math problems wasn't what she wanted to do while Holtzmann was missing, but Abby was right. This was the most useful thing she could do if they were going to find their friend and stop whatever Voga Ra'El's minions had in mind.
"I'm assigning an agent to each of you in case the Vogaites decide to come back," Hawkins informed them. He'd been issuing A.P.B.s and ordering road blocks while listening with one ear to the Ghostbusters' conversation. "Yates, Janine, you're with me. Tolan, wait here with until we get another agent over here to escort you to the firehouse."
"I am not sitting at the damn firehouse listening for chatter on the ghost microphone! I want to help look for Holtz," Patty protested.
"That is helping…but you're right, Patty. I'm sorry. We'll take turns on the EVP, okay?" Abby understood. She had to remember that wasn't the only one who cared about their friend. "Do me a favor though, Patty? Say some prayers?"
"I'm already on that."
GBGBGBGBGBGBGB
Janine followed Hawkins to his S.U.V. while the Ghostbusters formulated their plan. The minute they were alone, Janine whirled on the Homeland Security agent: "You need to give them clearance! They need to know the truth-Ray and Winston can help. If this ends up being a case of spectral possession, they can help."
Peter was still convalescing from his fall out the Ghostbusters' window a couple months earlier. He couldn't go galivanting around the city in a wheelchair, much less take on a supernatural army. But, Janine had already called in Ray and Winston to lend a hand. Ray had his own assortment of gadgets back in his warehouse workshop that might help when it came time to rescue Jillian. Erin and Abby might be able to help him fine tune his inventions. Without a doubt, they could accomplish more working with the new Ghostbusters than worrying about helping without revealing their own histories of ghost hunting.
"It's not my decision to make, Janine," Hawkins insisted.
"I have to keep secrets from my daughter! I have to keep secrets from her friends!" Janine hoped she got the chance to make that up to Jillian. "We're Ghostbusters. They're Ghostbusters. How are they not cleared-?"
"Because you and Stantz and Zeddemore and Venkman are officially part of Homeland Security and they-" Hawkins waved to the apartment, indicating the women inside. "—are only consultants. If you tell them anything, Janine, it's considered treason."
The few times he'd attempted to recruit the women into the paranormal defense agency on an official basis, he'd been rebuffed. They would accept the government funding and help out with a case whenever asked, but the women didn't trust them after the agency had dragged all the Ghostbusters' names through the mud trying to keep Rowan North and the Fourth Cataclysm under wraps.
Holtzmann wasn't interested in sharing her inventions and told Rorke and Hawkins so in no uncertain terms. She gave them only the gadgets she was certain couldn't be utilized for anything beyond defense against the paranormal. It would be too easy to convert some of her creations from weapons of paranormal defense into weapons that could be turned against the living (another reason Homeland Security insisted in keeping the scientists on a short leash). The engineer trusted no one besides herself and the Ghostbusters with the devices.
"Fine! Send me to jail! Ghosts already killed Egon. I'm not letting them take my daughter, too. You hear me, Hawkins?" Janine was toe-to-toe with him, glaring up into his eyes. She might be diminutive, but he had no doubt she was fully capable of making good on the implied threat.
Abby was walking down the sidewalk towards them, making them tabling the debate. She had a PKE meter and was calibrating it. "I want to check the Hildalgo Casino first, since that was the site of the first manifestation. Ready to go?
"Absolutely." Janine and Hawkins were still having their stare down while Abby, too distracted to notice, settling into the passenger seat of the vehicle. Rorke arrived on the scene, exchanged a few quiet words with Hawkins, and moved to stand guard at the door to Abby's apartment.
"I'll see what I can do," Hawkins promised Janine before they climbed into the car with Abby.
GBGBGBGBGB
Two days passed.
Erin buried herself in the equations. Any other time, she would have thrilled in the challenge of such complicated mathematics and its implications for theoretical and applied physics. She could have lost herself in the puzzle for weeks…but not this time. Her friend's life depended on her solving this mystery. That worry chipped at the distraction of the math; it grew a little stronger each day. Erin forgot to eat or sleep until Agent Rorke reminded her (and if she refused, he insisted by physically ushering her out of the room, ignoring her protests and threats). By dawn of the second day since Jillian had disappeared, Erin's worry escalated into barely controlled panic.
Abby and Patty drove themselves relentlessly. They took turns monitoring the EVP and searching the Internet for reports of paranormal events and driving around the city physically looking for their friend.
Ray and Winston were also patrolling the city with PKE meters, hoping the hell that Jillian was still in New York. After two days, she could have been taken anywhere in the world. Janine rode with them sometimes, other times with Abby or Patty. From time to time, she pulled out her phone and tried Jillian's number again. She did this until the digital voice on the line informed her that the voice mail box was full and the text messages were bounced back.
When she finally gave in to the need for sleep, Janine ended up staying at the firehouse. Abby had nagged and pleaded with the older woman to go to her apartment and get some real sleep (Holtzmann would have expected her friends to look out for her mother), but Janine refused. She wanted to be there to see what was happening firsthand. Abby finally insisted that Janine spend a few hours monitoring the EVP because that would require her to at least sit quietly.
She hadn't meant to, but the worry and exhaustion quickly caught up with her. Janine didn't realize she'd fallen asleep at the EVP until Winston's voice roused her: "Janine?"
He was standing in front of the table, holding two pizza boxes. Janine blinked groggily until she remembered in a rush of fear that she was in the Ghostbusters' headquarters and her daughter was still missing. She blinked at Winston. "What time is it?"
"Seven."
"A.M.?"
"Nope." He set the pizzas on the table. "You need to go get some real sleep."
"I can't." Janine opened the box and dug into a slice, her stomach growling at the prospect of actual food. "It's been two days, Winston. She could be anywhere by now."
Winston sat on the corner of the table. "Ray and I were talking about that. I don't think they've taken Jillian out of the city. From what you told me, this Raina Chaix lady went to a lot of trouble to bring the artifacts from Voga Ra'El's tomb and that Eye of Pez Cat thing all the way to New York. Whatever's going down, it's going down here."
Janine rolled her eyes. "That's supposed to reassure me?"
He shrugged. "I was hoping."
The firehouse's rolling door slid open, and Ecto-1 pulled into the garage. Hawkins' S.U.V. pulled up to the curb in front of the building a few seconds later.
"Uncle Bill?" Patty stretched as she got out of the driver's seat. Her back was stiff from several hours of driving around the city. She nearly gave a shout of joy when she saw the food he had brought. They hadn't eaten anything but disgusting gas station hot dogs while they were running around New York that day. "You read our minds!"
Janine didn't bother to ask if they'd had any luck in their search. They would have already called for her and Erin if they had.
They grabbed some pizza, inviting Agent Hawkins to have some as well. Patty hadn't had a chance to tell her adopted uncle about Holtzmann's disappearance, so she assumed 'Bill' had come to find out why she'd missed dinner at his house the night before. It had completely slipped Patty's mind. "I'm sorry about last night. We're having an emergency here."
Winston squeezed her shoulder. "Believe me, I understand. Janine told me about Jillian. What can I do to help?"
"Pray," Patty said.
Winston nodded, "Already did that."
As if on cue, Janine's phone rang. The caller i.d. read "Ray". She answered quickly, "Ray?"
"Okay, I've got good news, and I've got 'don't panic' news," Ray cautioned her.
She nearly growled. "God, Ray, I hate when you start a phone call like that. Just spit it out." Abby, Patty, and Winston were paying attention now. Janine ignored their questioning gazes.
"I found Jillian," Ray said.
Instantly, Janine was on her feet. She snapped her fingers and waved one hand wildly at the others. Abby and Patty dropped their food and ran to check that their gear was ready in Ecto-1. Abby pulled out her own phone and dialed Erin's number.
Ray continued. "Don't panic, but she's at 78th and Central Park West."
The address clearly meant something to him, but Janine couldn't place it. "She's where?"
Hawkins was at her shoulder, on the phone with his own agents. "Where is she?"
Janine relayed: "78th and Central Park West."
It meant nothing to Hawkins or the Ghostbusters, either…except for Winston. He cursed, "Shit."
Patty frowned at him. "That's bad? What's at 78th and Central Park West?" And how come her uncle knew the address?
Winston forgot secrecy in the sudden rush of memories that accompanied that address. He'd never forget that place. It was the first place that he and the original Ghostbusters had almost died. "Spook Central."
Abby stared at Patty's uncle blankly. "I don't know what that means."
Janine did. "Okay, Ray, we're on our way. Keep an eye on her."
As soon as she hung up, Janine and Winston moved with unspoken agreement to the Ghostbusters' cubbies, opened the weapons' locker (with the key Janine had borrowed when Kevin was playing with the PS4 and left the master key set on his desk) and helped themselves to some gear. Janine found grabbed some proton grenades and the proton shotgun. She also put on Jillian's coveralls, since her daughter was just about her size. Winston shrugged out of his suit jacket and rummaged until he found the coveralls Kevin had made for himself. They were a little big-the receptionist was a few inches taller-but they would do.
Hawkins was glaring daggers at them, but made no move to stop the duo. Standing beside Ecto-1 Abby and Patty watched them in confusion. Seeing their frowns, Winston belatedly asked: "Mind if we tag along?"
Patty shook her head, "I don't think that's-"
Winston grinned at her. "Good." He moved to the back of Ecto-1, enjoying the opportunity to inspect the car up close. It was so similar to the vehicle Ray and Egon had put together that Winston felt goosebumps on his arms. "She made the car?" he asked Janine. Jillian's mother nodded proudly. "Nice."
He popped open the tailgate. There were four proton packs. He hoped Jillian wouldn't mind lending her gear to her uncle. Winston hefted the pack, surprised at the weight. "This is lighter than ours. How'd she manage that?"
"Aluminum instead of steel." Jillian might not like to talk about herself, but Janine had discovered that first week at the hospital that her daughter would happily discuss paranormal mythology and nuclear physics all night long.
Winston repeated: "Nice."
"Ray's got his gear?" Janine asked.
"Doesn't leave home without it."
Patty raised her voice, interrupting the banter. She had been watching them prep the Ghostbusters' gear like they were old pros. "Hello? Confused people over here. Uncle Bill?"
Winston glanced at Hawkins. The agent warned: "You realize that telling them-"
"-is treason. We're talking about my goddaughter, here, so I'm not worried about going to jail right now. Besides, we haven't told them anything. It's not treason if they guess, is it?" It was a gray area; Winston knew that as well as the government agent.
In the interest of national security-and safely retrieving Holtzmann-Hawkins decided to accept that for now. He'd have a shitload of explaining to do with his bosses and the mayor later.
Patty was growing more confused by the minute. "Your goddaughter-" How did Uncle Bill even know Holtz except for that one time they met when he came looking for his hearse? And why was he talking to Janine like they were old friends. "Uncle Bill?"
"Get in the car, ladies," he ordered. Winston elbowed past Abby to settle into the driver's seat of Ecto-1 while Janine rode shotgun (literally). Hawkins headed for his own SUV.
Abby asked Patty: "Remember Mayor Bradley said the paranormal cat had been out of the bag before?"
Patty nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"I'm thinking we just found the cats."
Patty didn't get what she was implying, so Abby clarified. "I think maybe they've done this before."
3
Up On The Roof…
Ray usually avoided this neighborhood when he was out in his cab. He turned down fares who requested this street. The Ghostbusters had begged the owners of this particular building not to rebuild after the Gozer incident, or to at least change the architecture so it wouldn't conduct so much supernatural energy. However, since the building was a historical landmark (not to mention a tourist attraction since the Ghostbuster had fended off the first near-apocalypse on this site in 1984), their requests were denied. Real estate in New York City was too valuable to sit vacant…
…and people were morons, Ray groused.
He should have known the Vogaites would be interested in this place. It was a hot spot along the ley lines, a perfect crossover spot if this Voga Ra'El were to try to invade this dimension.
The PKE meter mounted into his taxi had led him to the ghosts that afternoon. The ghosts had led him to this building. He'd been just in time to see Jillian and a woman shrouded in a hooded cloak (presumably that 'Raina Chaix' whom Janine mentioned) go into the tower.
If it had only been Raina guarding his goddaughter, Ray could have taken the woman down easily. However, they were surrounded by an army of ghosts and apparitions. For added fun, Raina had some flesh and blood helpers. Voga-worshippers, Ray presumed. One had knocked out the doorman and tucked him into the alley before taking the man's place. Several more milled along the sidewalk. Others posed as various utility workers along the street.
Obviously, he couldn't take on a whole army of Vogaites by himself, not unless Jillian's life was in immediate danger and he had no other choice. He had to force himself to wait. He parked his cab down the street and monitored, hoping to catch another glimpse of Jillian. Hang in there, kiddo, we're coming.
He'd been there about a half-hour when, suddenly, one of the serpent vapors manifested right beside the open driver's-side window. The ghost hissed and bared its fangs at him.
It was going to take more than a snake ghost to impress him. Ray pointed to the light on the roof of his cab. "I'm out of service."
The ghost dove for him. Ray pulled out the device Janine called a 'ghost chipper' (he had sneaked it out of the Ghostbusters' weapons locker when he'd checked in with her the night before. He'd been interested to see some of his goddaughter's creations and figured Jillian would forgive him). A flick of the switch, and the ghost was pulled in through the driver's window, goes through the machine, and a blob of ectoplasm was projected out the passenger window and splashed onto the curb.
Ray checked to be sure the ghost's buddies hadn't noticed its demise.
GBGBGBGBGBGB
It began much the same way as it had at the Hidalgo Casino. From the roof of the towering apartment building, Raina Chaix gazed down upon the city. She watched as police cars and government vehicles gathered on the streets below. She heard the thrum of approaching helicopters in the distance. One vehicle distinguished itself from the others-a converted white hearse with flashing lights on its roof and doors emblazoned with the logo of the 'Ghostbusters'.
They had come for their friend. Raina Chaix had distant memories of friends and family. She had followed hers deep into the heart of Central America once, in search of the fabled tomb of Voga Ra'El. Her friends and family had fought for her when Voga Ra'El claimed Raina from their midst and made a slave of her. They had perished. She had mourned for them until she realized they had been gifted with a swift death versus the endless agony of days and nights tormented with Voga Ra'El's visions and voice. Then, she longed to join them, had longed-had begged, had prayed-to join them for over a century.
Soon. Soon it would be done. It was time to rest.
Raina turned from the ledge, forgetting the humans below. They would not find it so easy to thwart Voga Ra'El's plans. Her master's will would not be denied. Raina would not be denied the release of oblivion. It was her rightful reward for her suffering.
"They come," she said to the specters that gathered around the rooftop.
Obediently, the ghost warriors and snakes descend upon the Architect's would-be rescuers.
Raina watched the woman as she worked. Voga Ra'El had chosen his Architect wisely. Raina was pleased.
By the time the Eye of Tezcatlipoca had summoned Raina Chaix to the tiny apartment where the Architect waited, Holtzmann was furiously scribbling streams of equations as the Eye linked her mind to Voga Ra'El's consciousness-the only part of him that could cross the barrier from his prison for the moment. What Raina had heard as a non-stop, indecipherable monologue was a language to the Ghostbuster, a language she had in common with the disembodied Voga Ra'El. Others had tried, others whom Raina had mistaken for the Architect in her desperation for the prophecy to be fulfilled. They had gone mad in the blink of an eye. They had screamed, they had tried to shut it out. They had flung themselves into rivers, from rooftops, fallen on their blades, anything to escape Voga Ra'El's voice.
This one understood.
If the Architect was aware of Raina Chaix's presence, it was only on the peripheral of her consciousness. Holtzmann had led the way from the apartment. Voga Ra'El's spectral army flanked her, hearing her unspoken commands and scattering across the city to gather whatever items she commanded. She never once acknowledged Raina as Chaix drove them to the abandoned auto plant where the Architect would begin to assemble the device that would release Voga Ra'El from his prison.
Now, ghosts-guided by the Eye-floated the pieces that the Architect had been building for two days and set them in place for her to silently assemble. Holtzmann took two antenna pieces, placing one at the north corner of the roof and one at the south corner, next to the gargoyle statues that lined the rooftop. The antennas form a "V" with the main device, which she was assembling at the center of the rooftop.
The Architect then took the Eye of Tezcatlipoca and broke the stone into three pieces. She placed one piece in each antenna and the third in the main device-Voga Ra'El's bridge.
As soon as the crystals were placed, each device began to radiate power. Each fired one beam of neutrino energy into the sky, the three beams forming a triangle and merging into a single beam that stretched into the heavens.
Space itself began to tear open.
GBGBGBGBGB
Ecto-1 rolled up in time for the Ghostbusters to see the energy display from the roof where the ghosts circled.
Ray was waiting for them, blending in with the crowd behind the police barricades. The police pulled aside the barriers to allow the Ghostbusters and the Homeland Security vehicles access to the area. When Ecto-1 pulled along the sidewalk and the crowd began to press for a closer look, Ray took advantage of the police officers' distraction to slip over to the vehicle.
"Have any trouble finding the place?" Ray asked with feigned cheerfulness. He removed his overcoat to reveal the old proton pack he had brought along.
"We did what we always do-we followed the ghosts," Patty answered. She glanced at the pack he wore. It might be 'Proton Pack Mark One', but it was definitely a proton pack. She didn't need to be a scientist to see that. "You, too, huh?"
Ray raised an eyebrow at Janine and Winston. Janine wore Jillian's coveralls and the proton shotgun. Winston wore Kevin's uniform and toted one of the new proton packs. "I take it you told them?"
Winston raised his hands innocently. "They guessed. Not our fault."
"Clever."
Patty pointed a finger at Winston. "We're going to have a long talk after we get Holtz back, 'Uncle Bill'. Or whoever you really are."
"I told you, Patricia, I really am Bill. William is my middle name." She waves him off, and Winston sighed.
Patty was family as far as he was concerned. All the kids that he'd worked with at the Youth Center were special, but Patty had stood out among them. With her heart of gold, her determination, and her capacity for kindness, she had bonded with Winston (or "Bill" as he began to call himself after Homeland Security had begun to cover up the Ghostbusters' existence) and his wife until she was practically family. He hadn't enjoyed keeping secrets from her and more than Janine liked hiding the truth about Egon from Jillian. He'd have to find a way to make it up to Patty later.
Ray handed Patty the chipper. She glared. "How did you get this-? Janine!"
"Thanks for the loan. I brought my own," Ray told her.
Abby also quirked an eyebrow at him. "I can see that. You carry that thing in your cab?"
Ray nodded. "Oh sure, carrying a proton pack your trunk seems silly-until a Toltec demigod invades. Then who's got the last laugh?"
Hawkins' SUV rolled up. The agent saw Stantz standing beside the Ghostbusters, wearing his old proton pack, and threw up his hands. Ray started to speak, but Hawkins cut him off. "I know, I know. 'They guessed.'"
A second SUV soon followed. Erin climbed out, along with the red-haired rookie agent who was guarding her (Crosby or something like that was his name. Erin had only been half-listening, focused on her work with the equations).
Erin stared at Janine, Winston, Ray and their gear. She wasn't going to ask, they needed all the help they could get if they were going to get Holtzmann back from the Vogaites, so she just told them: "Okay, you can catch me up later."
Hawkins briefed the group: "NYPD and Homeland Security will provide support from the air and the ground. The pilots are reporting that Holtzmann and Chaix are on the roof. There are at least three active devices up there. The only roof access is via the stairwell in the southeast corner of the tower."
"We're familiar with the building," Winston told him.
Erin pulled out her notes from her study of the equations. "I'm still working out the math on that puzzle Holtzmann left-but, if I'm right, the Eye of Tezcatlipoca is going to be the power source for that machine Holtzmann built. Remove the crystals and the devices should shut down." Holtzmann had worked out the energy output of the Eye in one part of the equations that Erin could interpret.
Abby somehow was expecting it to be more complicated than 'pulling the plug' on whatever their friend was building. "That seems a little easy."
Patty argued, "Getting past the cultists, the ghosts, the crazy chick in the hood, and the dead Toltec ghost will make up for the easy part."
Winston gestured for their attention, pointing to the roof. A swarm of ghosts was descending upon the group. "Head's up. I think we've been spotted."
The attack came in waves—the spectral wave first. Ghosts in human and serpent forms streaked through the air, the crowd of onlookers scattering in terror before them and the police stepping back to make room as the Ghostbusters moved to intercept the wraiths. Janine and Abby punched a hole in the phantasms front line with the proton glove and proton shotgun. This parted the ghosts like water into two groups.
Erin and Patty came at the ghosts next, letting fly with the grenades and shredding the most massive specters with the ghost chipper. Ray and Winston herded the stragglers back into the fight zone with their proton packs.
Slowly, the Ghostbusters pushed back the wave of ghosts, making their way towards the tower.
Raina watches the fight below. She checked the Architect's progress. The bridge device was operational, but it would take time to open the barrier to Voga Ra'El's dimension. She had to buy time for the Architect to complete her work.
Chaix climbed up on the ledge of the roof and spread her arms wide, focusing on the stone gargoyles built into the sides of the building. The statues shattered, raining chunks of rock down on the Ghostbusters, cops, and Homeland Security.
Abby cried a warning, "Look out, look out!"
Ray dragged Janine behind his cab, shielding her from the rain of debris. Erin and Patty sheltered behind Ecto-1's tailgate while Winston and Abby dove behind an armored police vehicle.
A large boulder plummets right for Ecto-1. Erin shouted to Patty, "Move, move!"
They rolled clear seconds before the gargoyle's head smashes the engine. Winston groaned. "My hearse!"
"Hey, that one's on you. You parked it there," Patty told him.
Raina then gazed skyward at an approaching news police helicopter. The gawkers were a nuisance, not a threat. Still, their presence could interfere with the bridge device, she decided. She sent a gargoyle leg like a javelin smashing into the side of the aircraft. It went into a tailspin, barely managing to make a controlled crash on a nearby bridge.
"Hurry," Raina urged the Architect.
Holtzmann slid the last piece of the bridge device into place and a fourth and final beam fired up into the sky. All around the beams, tiny rips in the sky begin to form.
Patty gaped as the sky began to tear open. "Okay, What the hell are those?"
Erin stared. "I'd say trans-dimensional cross-rips…or micro-rips, at least." The rips were starting out tiny, appearing and then collapsing, each time revealing a different spot-Pisa, St. Helens, Road of Bones, the moon, globular clusters, spiral galaxies, ocean. The portals would seal themselves, only to reappear in random new locations. Each time the rips reopened, they increased exponentially in size. In a few minutes, they'd grow large enough to swallow a car, then a building, then…
She didn't want to think about what came after that.
The human Vogaite cultists came at them next, emerging from inside the building and rushing from their hiding places among the spectators to ambush the Ghostbusters. Since they couldn't shoot flesh and blood assailants with their weapons (as the neutrino beams would burn a person alive), the Ghostbusters use their neutrino wands like bats to fend off the attacks or they punched, kicked, and wrestled them. Hawkins, Crosby, and the police officers moved to help pull the attackers away. The cultists still managed to push the Ghostbusters back, taking back what ground they had gained in making their way into the building.
One caught Abby from behind, wrapped his arm around her throat. Abby slammed herself backwards against the armored police vehicle, pounding once, twice, and a third time before the arm that choked her went slack and the cultist slumped to the pavement.
"We aren't going to get to Holtz in time if we have to deal with these jokers! Erin, Janine-we're going to clear a path to the door!" Abby shouted above the roar of the ghosts, helicopters, and beams that cut into the sky. She figured that Erin had the best shot at shutting down the bridge device if she could get to the roof, and Janine was going to go after her daughter one way or the other. "You get to the staircase and try to reach the roof. We'll follow behind you as fast as we can."
Erin hesitated, but finally gave her a thumb's up. "Okay." She turned to Janine. Ready for this?"
Janine hefted the proton shotgun and nodded.
Abby and Patty used the proton grenades to drive the cultists back with grenades. When the humans stumbled, Ray and Winston moved to take them down. They created a gap in the Vogaite's defenses that allowed Janine and Erin to slip past the guards and into the ceiling.
They ran for the stairs, having to beat back a few cultists and ghosts that pop out along the way.
The lobby had been demolished by the specters. Half the doors had been blown from their hinges; the ones that were left had no signs to indicate what was what. Erin and Janine searched for any sign that read 'stairwell', checking doors as they ran. The first door was a janitor's closet. The second was a restroom.
The third door opened into one of the micro-rips. The portal led to an arctic landscape. Erin stumbled, nearly falling into the chasm, but Janine pulled her back and slammed the door.
Janine nearly chuckled at the absurdity of what she just did. "I'm not sure what good closing the door is going to do."
Erin moved to the next door-this just has to be it. "Yes! Stairs!" She raced up the stairway, taking the steps two at a time. Janine was a half-flight behind, pausing to fire at a bird-shaped ghost that swooped down at them.
"Thanks," Erin called back to her.
GBGBGBGBGB
Agent Rorke was aboard a Homeland Security helicopter, serving as eyes for the agents on the street below. He rode in the passenger seat upfront, not taking any chances after his last disastrous chopper ride. In the open belly of the aircraft sat two sharpshooters; one was armed with a rifle, the other with a knock-off version of a proton pack that the scientists in Homeland Security had created (attempting to duplicate Dr. Holtzmann's design when she adamantly refused to share her technology).
The scene above the streets was nearly as chaotic. Not only did the pilot have to weave around specters and wraiths, there were police helicopters circling the building and news helicopters swooping in to get exclusive footage.
Then tiny rips began to appear in the sky. The Homeland Security pilot wisely flew clear, not sure what these phenomena were but anxious not to fly into them and find out.
"Order those news helicopters to get back! This is a hot zone!" Rorke called over the radio. The police aircraft moved, conveying the order to the civilian crafts.
Rorke pointed out the shrouded figure of Raina Chaix to the sharpshooters. Raina appeared to be telekinetically launching more pieces of the building down on the police and agents on the street. "Take her out!"
The shooter tried, but as his finger squeezed the trigger, another micro-rip began to form too close to their aircraft. The Homeland Security ship managed to evade the chasm, but the police helicopter glided directly into it.
The police pilot expected to die the instant his aircraft crossed the event horizon, so he was pleasantly surprised (but still baffled) when the New York City skyline vanished and he found himself suddenly flying above a desert.
His co-pilot gaped. "Where are we?"
The pilot glanced out the window and spied…the Pyramids of Giza. "Looks like…Cairo."
The bullet meant for Raina zinged off the bricks beneath her feet. She turned to the black helicopter from which the shot had originated. It was the Homeland Security aircraft. As she watched, it circled around and lined up for another run at the rooftop.
She waited for them, mustering her power for another strike at the ships. The humans must not interfere with the Architect's work…
GBGBGBGBGB
Erin froze mid-stride. "Was that a gunshot?"
Janine had heard it, too. It had come from outside the building, directly above them. The roof. Jillian.
They ran faster, barreling up the staircase…
…just as a micro-rip began to form beneath their feet. Erin jumped, stumbling as she landed but clearing the gap that had materialized. Janine landed two steps below her, but the stair beneath her feet disappeared. Reflexively, Erin held out the neutrino wand. Janine's flailing hand caught hold of the barrel in a death grip with one hand and a broken piece of the handrail with the other. She looked down to see a landscape of ginger-colored rocks. A volcano in the distance spewed sulfur and fire into a purple sky.
With Erin's help, Janine pulled herself up before the micro-chasm sealed itself, leaving behind a gap in the staircase where the planks had fallen into the tear in space.
"You okay?" Erin asked her.
Janine's eyes were wide. "I'm fine-was that-?"
"An alien planet. Or a parallel universe. I think the machine is—well, it's strictly a theory, but I think it's acting like a radio, trying to tune in the Voga Ra'El's dimension. When it locks on, its' going to open a larger rip probably right above this building. We have to get to Holtz, get her to shut it down."
GBGBGBGBGB
Outside, the other Ghostbusters had watched the helicopters circle the roof. They'd watched a micro-rip swallow one of the police helicopters. They'd seen the black Homeland Security aircraft bank towards Raina Chaix. They heard the gunshots and saw the flash of the muzzle when the weapon fired.
Patty grabbed a fistful of Hawkins' suit jacket. "What are they doing?! Stop them! Holtz is up there!"
Hawkins was as surprised as the others. He had already pulled out his phone. "Rorke! Hold your fire! There's a civilian on that roof!"
Rorke's tone was unapologetic. "We have a DX-4 initiative in place, Agent Hawkins."
"Shit!" Hawkins ran for the building. Abby and Patty covered his approach, unleashing a volley from their proton packs that obliterated most of the lobby's exterior wall but sent ghosts and human Vogaites fleeing. "Buy us some time! The Ghostbusters are on the scene, we can contain the situation!"
"They have no authority here, and you know that, Hawk."
Abby managed to overhear the conversation. "What does that mean?" The agent didn't answer, so she pressed: "Hawkins! What's a DX-4 initiative?"
Patty paused, watching the Homeland Security helicopter circle around for another pass at the roof. "Yo, Abby-I think it means they're going to shoot Holtz!"
"They wouldn't do that! We're on their side!"
Patty waved to the aircraft and its open door, to the man with the rifle who was visible even from this distance.
"Right." Fury welled within Abby. She shoved past Hawkins, racing for the stairs, scolding him: "We are so not done talking about this, Hawkins!"
GBGBGBGB
As quickly as they had begun, the random pattern of micro-rips stopped. On the rooftop, Raina Chaix, Holtzmann, and the Vogaites paused, watching as a larger cross-rip slowly began to form above the tower. Light—prismatic and blinding as staring into the sun-radiated from the center of the chasm.
Raina dropped to her knees, turning her face away from the painful glare. The spectral army forgot the humans on the street and streaked for the chasm, making wild, excited arcs in the evening sky.
The light poured into through the windows on the stairwell. Erin and Janine squinted, holding up their hands to shield their eyes against the sudden glare. On the street below, all activity came to a halt as night turned to day. From below, Ray and Winston could see a swirling cloud (presumably ecto-plasmic) slowly emerge from the heart of the vortex.
"Voga Ra'El?" Winston guessed.
"Yep," Ray said.
"Back them up?"
Ray headed for the tower. "Yep."
Erin and Janine found the access door to the roof guarded by more cultists. Erin stifled a groan of frustration-they didn't have time for more delays. Janine aimed the proton shotgun and fired over their heads shoots. The blast wouldn't have harmed humans, but they didn't need to know that. The cultists ducked, and a second blast from the shotgun obliterated the door.
This time, they were prepared to find a cross-rip on the opposite side of the door. Erin and Janine grabbed the handrails, hanging on against the pull of the vortex. The cultists fell in, screaming as the intense gravity within the vortex crushed their bodies to the width of a single atom within seconds.
Janine shouted above the roar of the vortex: "Now what do we do?!"
Erin pointed to the window. "Fire escape!"
He no longer had human form. Within the crushing force of his prison, his flesh had been pulverized and every atom scattered across the dimensions, leaving nothing behind but the energy that was his non-corporeal self. His consciousness had lingered, trapped between universes in the nexus of dimensions. After the first century, he learned how to project his consciousness through the barrier between the living and the dead, to touch the minds of the living.
Most of the minds were overwhelmed by the touch of his consciousness. It drove them to madness. A century passed, and then another and another. Time had no meaning within the nexus.
Raina Chaix's was the first mind that could hear his whispers without descending into insanity. The Eye of Tezcatlipoca, which she and her expedition had unearthed, made it possible for her to share Voga Ra'El's consciousness without it destroying her. But, her mind was limited. She could hear his instructions, but to her it was gibberish, a nonsense language. He could guide her to the precise location of his tomb. He could instruct her on the proper use of each artifact in raising his army from the dead. She could not, however, comprehend the mathematics of his nexus prison nor construct the bridge that would convey him across the barrier back to land of the living.
He needed the Architect. He needed a mind that could hear his whispers and understand the breadth and scope of what had to be done. Raina Chaix was not the Architect-but she had found the Architect for him.
When the barrier finally opened, Voga Ra'El sensed her presence.
The Architect.
The Architect had succeeded.
But, their work had only begun.
The cloud poured from the vortex until it blotted out the radiating light. It swirled into a column of ectoplasmic vapor, stinking of decay and something otherworldly for which Raina had no word. At last, this was Voga Ra'El…or rather, what remained of him after he had been hurled into his otherworldly prison.
His voice touched Raina's mind: Rise.
She straightened, pulling the hood away from her face. "Your servant has done your bidding. The Architect." Raina stepped aside, extending her hand to Holtzmann, who didn't move. Chaix took her by the elbow with exaggerated care and urged her forward.
Voga Ra'El had no real eyes with which to gaze upon either Chaix or the Architect. Rather, Voga Ra'El felt the touch of their consciousness. He saw into their souls. Nothing within their minds was hidden from him. He saw the whole of their lives play out before him in an instant.
He returned it with a vision of their future—his and the Architect's. Voga Ra'El showed her the nexus that had been his prison…incomprehensible to most, it held no terror for the Architect. Her mind was already turning over the new puzzle he presented to her, the mystery of the dimensional nexus.
This one-her mind held the wisdom of the ages and a courageous spirit to match. Though that spirit railed against him even under the sway of the Eye of Tezcatlipoca, she would be brought to heel. A worthy vessel. He'd searched the infinite earths, waited an eternity for this moment. Together, they would bend the nexus and the infinite worlds to their mutual will and end the false worlds until the one true Earth remained.
"Bitch, get your hands off my daughter!"
Raina Chaix whirled in time for Janine to punch her squarely in the face.
Janine had beat Erin to the top of the fire escape. She'd stepped onto the roof in time to see the massive ectoplasmic cloud descending on Jillian and that vile woman in the cloak tugging her closer to the…well, Janine assumed that cloud was Voga Ra'El. Somehow, after the multitude of phantasms that the Ghostbusters had fought, she hadn't been expecting the Toltec entity to be in vaporous form.
It didn't matter whether he showed up as a swirling mass of gas or a giant marshmallow man, all Janine cared about was getting Jillian away from Voga Ra'El before he could possess her fully. They'd never get her back if he did.
The punch sent Raina Chaix stumbling, but did not knock her down. Her swarm of protectors reacted at once, lifting Janine skyward, intending to pitch her from the roof. Erin fired a proton beam that made them reconsider. Their hesitation was the only opening Janine needed to blast them with the shotgun.
Aboard the Homeland Security helicopter, Rorke saw an opportunity: Holtzmann and the Chaix woman were distracted by the arrival of Gilbert and Melnitz. Taking out Raina Chaix might be enough to snap Holtzmann from her control and put an end to this assault. If not, Rorke would end it himself.
"Take out Chaix!" Rorke shouted to the sharpshooter in belly of the helicopter.
Raina Chaix felt the bullet slam into her back like a blow from a powerful fist. The bullet tore an agonizing path through her body before exploding from her chest in a spray of blood. It had ripped through her heart, her mind distantly noted.
To her immense gratitude, the wound does not heal.
She felt herself dying, finally dying. As she expected, now that Voga Ra'El had the Architect, he no longer needed Raina. She was free to embrace the death she'd longed for all these years. As she sank to her knees, her life played out before her eyes. Still, her thoughts lingered on that fateful expedition, to her husband and friends who had perished. She hoped to be reunited with them on the other side of the barrier or wherever death was carrying her.
Raina was dead before she finished falling to the cement, a smile curling her lips.
Holtzmann now turned to face the Homeland Security aircraft. At her unspoken bidding, the ghost army of Voga Ra'El forgot Janine and Erin and zeroed in on the helicopter.
Rorke frowned. Holtzmann was still under the control of the entity, even without Chaix.
He couldn't let Voga Ra'El take possession of Holtzmann. The combination of the demon's bloodlust and the engineer's skills was too great a threat to Earth.
Regretfully, Rorke moved to elbow the sharpshooter out of the way. He took the rifle himself.
Erin saw the helicopter circle around again. She saw Holtzmann turn to face the airship and the Vogaite wraiths move to attack it. Then, she saw Agent Rorke training his rifle on Holtzmann.
"No!" Erin could not fire on the helicopter with her proton pack, not without destroying the craft and everyone on board. She ran, praying she could reach Holtzmann in time. Behind her, she heard Janine's shout. She thought she heard Abby and Patty adding their cries of protest, but that might have been wishful thinking. Mostly, Erin just heard her own heartbeat deafening her.
Rorke squeezed the trigger.
Abby, Patty, and Hawkins ascended the fire escape ladder and reached the rooftop just in time to hear the clap of gunfire…in time to see Holtzmann fall into Erin and Janine's arms as the bullet slammed into her chest.
"Jillian!" The scream tore from Janine. She eased her daughter to the cement, cradling her head in her lap, nearly vomiting at the spread of blood on Jillian's chest. She was barely aware of Erin kneeling beside her, the younger woman staring helplessly, tears spilling from her eyes as she added her soft prayers to Janine's. "No, no, no…"
Hawkins screamed into his phone: "Rorke, damn it, back off!"
As brightly as the consciousness of the Architect had burned, in an instant it was gone. Extinguished. Voga Ra'el could not scream, but his fury telegraphed like thunder in the air.
His army converged on the aircraft, ripping at its rotor blades and engines. They dragged the passengers from the machine and pitched them to the ground. Rorke managed to land on the roof, the wind knocked out of him but otherwise alive. The sharpshooter and the pilot were not so fortunate. The aircraft itself careened into the cross-rip and was crushed.
Abby was fairly certain her own heart had stopped beating when she saw Holtzmann fall. She didn't know if she screamed or not. She started to run towards Jillian, unsure what she could do to help, not wanting to believe what she had just seen had really happened...
The ectoplasmic cloud (Voga Ra'El? Abby wondered) crept toward Erin, Janine, and Holtzmann. Abby forced herself out of her grief and shock when she realized the danger. Wanting nothing so much as to kill the entity that had caused all this, she fired a restraining beam. "Patty—Patty!" Abby screamed, forcing Patty's attention back to Voga Ra'El. "I can't hold him by myself! Help me!"
Patty was numb, her entire awareness replaying the sound of the rifle crack and the image of her friend falling. She was halfway to Holtzmann when Abby's cry halted her. She turned, watching Abby attempting to restrain the undulating cloud that was Voga Ra'El with a single neutrino beam. She scowled at the creature, briefly considering testing whether the ghost chipper could cut through the ectoplasmic cloud as easily as it could any other free-floating vapor. It deserved to die a second death, and a third, to be banished to the most torturous prison imagineable (if only Patty knew what that might be). It might not have pulled the trigger, but Voga Ra'El was wholly responsible for Holtz's-
Holtz was not dead, her mind denied it. Patty would not allow it.
For the moment, Patty had to settle for adding a restraining beam to Abby's.
Voga Ra'El's plans would not be thwarted by these subcreatures. His consciousness reached for the Architect…
Jillian moved.
Janine felt it. She gasped in shock, praying she hadn't imagined it. Come on, baby…please.
Her fingers tore at the buttons on Jillian's pajama top, uncovering the bullet wound. As she and Erin watched in disbelief, the wound began to heal itself.
"Holtz?" Erin's fingers went to Jillian's throat, feeling for a pulse.
Holtzmann convulsed, drawing a sudden sharp gasp of air. Her eyes, glazed with shock and disorientation, glances all around-taking in the churning gaseous entity, the destruction of the Homeland Security chopper as it hit the vortex, the serpent and human ghosts gliding in the night sky…even the cell phone that had tumbled from her pocket when she'd fallen. Her hand clutched briefly at her chest as she stared in confusion at the blood and the bullet hole. She slumped back against Janine, breathing out: "Well…shit."
The Architect's consciousness returned. Such a simple thing to repair the fragile tissue of living flesh, a small matter compared to crossing a dimensional nexus. Voga Ra'El was be pleased. There was only the matter of dispatching these interfering subcreatures, then he and the Architect could continue their work.
Voga Ra'El was too strong for the neutrino beams. Abby could see the creature tearing free. "Erin!" she screamed.
Erin forced herself to move away from Holtzmann, entrusting her friend to Janine's guard. The vortex above was growing stronger. She was starting to feel the tug of its gravity. Loose pieces of mortar on the roof were being pulled skyward into the rip. They didn't have long before the building began to break apart and the gravity was strong enough to pull all of them into oblivion.
The Eye. Holtzmann's scribbled equations had indicated that the crystal was the power source of this machine that she had built, Erin remembered. At least, Erin hoped she had interpreted that correctly.
But, first…Voga Ra'El. Erin pulled out a trap. He was a ghost, not a god. Without a host, he could be trapped. He could be contained.
She tossed the trap, smashed her foot on the pedal…and prayed.
The trap sprang open, its energy tearing at the entity, dragging the resisting Voga Ra'El…
No! Voga Ra'El fought, but the pull of the trap was too strong. His mind reached for the Architect, begging for help. He summoned his army to defend him.
Hawkins saw the specters against lining up for a run at Abby, Patty, and Erin as they struggled to capture Voga Ra'El. He picked up Janine's proton shotgun and held off the ghosts as best he could, buying time for the Ghostbusters. Seconds later, Ray and Winston climbed onto the roof, adding their efforts to Hawkins', driving the army away from its master.
The trap was too strong…the Architect did not answer his call; his army could not reach him. The consciousness that had been Raina Chaix was gone..
…Voga Ra'El tried to summon her back.
Then the trap overpowered him and closed him inside.
"Ray! Abby! Get the crystals!" Erin pointed to the antenna pieces at the corners of the roof. "That should shut the machine down!" They nodded their understanding. She headed for the central component of the machine, searching for its piece of the Eye.
She tore it from its place in the device.
The machine powered down, its beams of energy winking out. Erin gazed skyward, sighing in relief as the cross-rip slowly decreased in size until it too blinked out of existence. Close. That had been too damned close.
Without their master's guidance, the mass of ghosts flitted around in confusion briefly, then zipped away and disappeared into the night. Agent Hawkins moved to check on Raina Chaix, finding no pulse when he felt her throat. He pulled out his phone to send the 'all clear' message to the agents on the street below. Rorke was pushing himself to his feet, grimacing at the pain that lanced through what he was sure was a broken arm.
The Ghostbusters converged on Holtzmann. She blinked, taking in her surroundings in confusion. The last thing she remembered was Abby leaving for the firehouse. Where was she? Wherever it was, the cement beneath her was freezing, the cold going right through the flimsy pajama top and flannel pajama pants she still wore, and-was that blood on her shirt? Arms wrapped around her shoulder, and she was leaning against something warm—someone.
She saw Janine's worried face staring down at her.
"Jillian?! How-?" Janine's squeezed her into a hug so tight that Jillian let out a quiet yelp until her mother loosened her grip so she could breathe again.
Sluggishly, Holtzmann blinked at her. "Janine? Are you wearing my coveralls?"
Janine frowned. "Really? That's the question you want answered right now?"
"Oh my god! Holtz! Is it you? You're not-?" Abby was suddenly there, kneeling beside her, blanching at the blood on her friend's shirt. Erin and Patty were next, the whole group trying to hug their friend at the same time. Their eyes were bright with unshed tears, but Holtzmann wasn't going to mention that.
"Holtz! Damn, you scared us! Are you okay?" Patty snapped. She, too, saw bullet hole. It infuriated her. She glared over her shoulder at Hawkins and Rorke. Hawkins had the grace to look sheepish; Rorke was indifferent, clutching at his arm and wincing. If his limb wasn't broken, Patty might just break it for him.
Holtzmann pushed herself up onto her elbows. It occurred to her she shouldn't be able to do that with her incision…then it occurred to her that she didn't feel the pain from the surgery any more. She lifted her shirt to see the incision was completely gone. What the-? "I feel like I just took a weekend bender. Where are we? What was that thing?" She pointed to the sky where the cross-rip had closed.
Her gaze fell on Raina Chaix's body—the woman from the Hidalgo. Where'd she come from?
"Long story. We've been looking for you for two days." This came from Ray, who stood a short distance away, smiling down at her. Was the whole family there? Holtzmann was getting more confused by the minute.
"I don't remember anything."
"That's typical after spectral possession." Automatically, Erin reverted to being clinical to bring her turbulent emotions under control. She and Janine helped Holtzmann climb to her feet. Patty nudged in, ducking beneath Holtzmann's shoulder to support her friend as she tried to regain her equilibrium.
"What?!" Spectral possession? The more they explained to Holtzmann, the more confused she felt.
Homeland Security agents and police officers swarmed onto the roof, led by Agent Crosby. Medics moved to Rorke. He whispered something to Hawkins, who scowled at the younger man in return. They argued briefly before Hawkins looked in the Ghostbusters' direction.
"Uh-oh. I think he's keeping me after class," Holtzmann cracked.
The Ghostbusters put themselves between their friend and the approaching agents.
"Dr. Holtzmann-I'm Agent Crosby, Homeland Security. I'm under orders to bring you in for debriefing-"
When he reached for his cuffs, Ray caught his wrist and Abby blocked his path. "You aren't touching her. You guys did enough," she warned.
Patty added, "You tried to kill her, now you want to throw her in jail? She didn't do nothing!"
Crosby gestured to the machinery scattered across the roof, to everything that Holtzmann had built. Erin shook her head. "She was under Voga Ra'El's control, obviously..."
"That ectoplasmic cloud was Voga Ra'El?" Holtzmann asked.
Erin nodded. "Yes."
Holtzmann was surprised. "Hmm. He was more gaseous than I would have expected…"
"The entity is contained! She's not under his control anymore!" Abby protested.
Crosby scoffed at that. "Are you sure about that, Dr. Gilbert? Because that thing made her open a dimensional cross rip that could have taken out the whole planet. We can't take that chance."
Hawkins stepped between Crosby and Ray, pushing away the handcuffs. He didn't want to have to throw the older man in jail for pummeling a federal agent. "The cuffs aren't necessary, Agent Crosby. I'm sure Dr. Holtzmann will be happy to answer our questions, but I'm responsible for the Ghostbusters. I'll take care of this."
He hoped they understood that he was trying to help. However, when Hawkins glanced at the group, the Ghostbusters' expressions were anything but trustful of him. Hawkins was disappointed. It had taken him months to begin to earn their trust and one gunshot for that trust to go down the crapper.
He appealed to Holtzmann. "Listen, Jillian-you just spent two days missing and under the control of a malevolent entity. Let our doctors check you over, make sure you're okay. You can answer the director's questions, and it'll be sorted out in a few hours."
Janine answered for her daughter. "We're not leaving her alone with you guys. We're coming, too." It wasn't as if the five of them could fend off the whole of Homeland Security, she reasoned. Plus, Hawkins had a point, they should have a doctor check Holtzmann. God only knew what had happened to her during the two days the Vogaites had her. Just thinking about it turned Janine's stomach.
"I wouldn't expect otherwise."
"I'm fine with all that, but can we find a ladies' room on the way? Not sure where I was for two days, but I'm pretty sure I didn't get a bathroom break the whole time…" Holtzmann hobbled towards the stairs, with Patty and Janine supporting her.
As she passed by them, Janine raised an eyebrow at Ray and Winston. Ray nodded back, reaching for his cell phone. He retreated to a private corner of the crowded rooftop and dialed. "Hey, it's me. Yeah, we found her…yeah, she's okay. I think. But, we need your help. The boys in black are arresting her. Think you can meet us?"
As they left the rooftop, the Ghostbusters and the agents were all too distracted to notice when Raina Chaix opened her eyes.
TBC…