"Egon, wait! You forgot your hat!"
Dragging the long tail of an improvised grounding cable, he turned, just a little over knee deep in the snow. Janine was floundering towards him nearly up to her hips in the trail that he had blazed,. Resettling the coil of rope over one itching, peeling shoulder, he yelled back, "No, Janine, stay with the car like I told you!"
"But it's 10 below, your ears will… aaaaak!" Janine disappeared, followed by a wail.
Egon dropped the rope, the trap and his proton pack, shoving the PKE meter into a side pocket and made his way to where he'd last seen her, the rising moon casting blue shadows on the unbroken snow covering the Hope bridge in contrast to the orange sodium lights overhead.
"Janine, where are you?"
"Down here." Came a very small voice almost underfoot, "I think I found a pothole."
"Stay put, I'll get you." He clicked on the lamp on the subway worker's helmet he'd added at the last minute to his equipment. Janine squinted up at him in the sudden burst of light, buried up to her armpits, "Are you all right?
"No, I don't think so, but snow went up my coat and I think I lost your hat."
"That's Peter's hat you lost."
"Whatever." She raised her hands to him, "This is going on my overtime sheet, y'know."
He crouched, taking her hands, "Hold tight… on the count of three… one… two…thr…"
"Aaaak!" That was Janine again, "I lost my boots, and those were my good ones - you guys owe me a new- whatthehellisthat?" She looked past Egon's shoulder and he dropped her back into the hole. "Owwwww, I think my ankle's broken!"
Unaware of Janine's complaint Egon pulled out the PKE meter, activated it and started scanning, eyes wary – the grounding cable might not work in snow.
Janine screamed as Egon landed on top of her, the ball lightning which had sent him to the hospital a few days before sizzling overhead.