As the ghostly shadow disappeared through the ceiling, Egon being taken along against his will, Winston scrambled to his feet and stared in awe at the fading shadow. It seemed too impossible to be real, and yet, Winston had witnessed the kidnapping with his own eyes. The room steadily warmed and the air lightened as the ghost left the premises, which in turn confirmed that Egon was no longer in the building.

"Egon?" Winston almost whispered his friend's name. "Egon, please tell me you'll be okay. We'll find you, man!"

Despite the heavy feeling in his legs Winston sprinted out of the basement and crossed through the garage in a matter of seconds. Both Peter and Ray were standing impatiently beside Ecto-1 waiting for an answer about the bizarre circumstances taking place in the basement so they could take Janine to the hospital. Janine herself was laying across the backseat with a gray blanket draped over her body and a white gauze bandage taped over her bleeding forehead.

"Winston, what the hell happened down there?" Peter demanded curtly, his hands were clenched into tight fists hanging at his sides. "Where's Egon?"

"Egon... he was taken. He's gone!" Winston sounded almost out of breath. "It was the ghost..."

"Taken?" Peter didn't like the sound of that, his voice carrying a lilt of bitterness with every word. "Hold on! What do you mean 'taken'?"

"The ghost! It took Egon."

"What?!" Ray nearly yelled in shock at the revelation, his legs were starting to shake with fear. "How did it-"

"It grabbed him," Winston began explaining hastily. "and it phased through the ceiling! Egon's was taken by that thing, and I don't know where they went!"

"Oh man," Ray ran his good hand over his face nervously. "this is bad. This is VERY bad."

"We have to do something! We have to find him!"

Peter intervened in a controlled tone. "And we will. Right now we need to take care of Janine. She was here alone while we were gone and she went down into the basement for a reason. Only she can tell us why."

"You're right." Winston refocused his energy into helping Janine. "The sooner she can tell us what happened the sooner we can start looking for Egon."

"Exactly." Peter shot Ray a stern look as the anxious engineer stared blankly at the car. His mind was racing with justified concern for the safety of Egon as well Janine. How could this all happen? "Ray, get in the car. We need to move, NOW."

"I... Yeah, yeah. You're right." Ray pulled open the rear passenger door and slipped inside as Peter's voice pulled him back to reality. Carefully he lifted Janine up from the seat and let her lay across his lap. "Janine's our best bet. We just have to help her!"

"I'll drive." Winston decided as he took his place behind the steering wheel. "She needs to see a doctor."

Peter slipped into the front seat beside Winston. "And we're going to find her one."

The incomplete team of Ghostbusters raced from the firehouse to the nearest hospital with Janine, still unconscious, unaware of her friends working desperately to help her and formulate a plan to locate and rescue their missing colleague. The drive was quick and quiet as the three men were at a rare loss for words during the very unusual set of circumstances.

Darkness encompassed everything. Egon couldn't see anything beyond his escaping breath clouding before him and disappearing into the same nothingness that had consumed him earlier. He couldn't hear, he swore he couldn't even feel. A sense of dread and foreboding permeated the eternal darkness as Egon stood in abject, concealed, horror as he awaited the next step in the abducting ghost's plan.

'E...gon...' The ghost's voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. 'You have... imprisoned us...'

"Imprisoned." Egon pondered the accusation as he stood firm, his defiant eyes expertly masking his fear. "Are you referring to the ecto containment unit?"

A second dark figure emerged from the ground just a few feet away from Egon. The second ghost was that of a young woman in a long red dress, her skin was pure white and her ebony hair hung down past her waist. Amber golden eyes bore holes as she pointed at Egon, her bright red nail polish gleaming despite the poor light and her ruby red lips twisted into a wicked smile.

'You admit it.' Her voice sang out almost amused by the entire scenario. 'You are the creator of our prison.' She snapped her fingers and long, ethereal metal chains descended from the ceiling.

Egon flinched as the cold metal bindings snaked around his wrists and lifted him up from the floor until his boots were no longer touching the ground.

'You admit your guilt.' The female spirit, the siren, taunted Egon with a twisted satisfaction. 'Name your affiliates whom assisted with your prison and spare yourself pain.'

The threat was far from hollow. From the evil intent gleaming in the siren's eyes Egon knew that the ghosts were seeking to punish the Ghostbusters for all their previous successes. Their unique technology seemed to be all that separated the living from the resurrected dead. The ecto containment unit housed countless ghosts that would otherwise harm innocent people, ghosts that were locked away for seemingly all eternity. The proton packs and ion traps were created as a means of lassoing the ghosts and removing them from their current haunts. The Ghostbusters alone wielded such incredible technology, they were the ones that incurred the wrath of the vengeful ghosts, lost spirits and stalking demons. Not the innocent New Yorkers who called upon them.

'You separated my true love from my arms.' The siren hissed as the first ghost joined her at her side, his hand now holding onto hers. 'You dare to interfere with matters that need not concern you and you must pay for your crimes. But I am not without mercy. Name your fellow compatriots so that you may endure suffering in the company of friends.'

Every piece of the marvelous technology was created through brilliant collaboration between Egon and Ray. Only these two men were responsible for the fates of countless spirits.

"I created the ecto containment unit. I worked alone." Egon lied without hesitation. "I'm responsible for every captured ghost in this city. If you want to punish someone for imprisoning your friends then punish me. Go ahead, get on with it. I won't resist."

The siren snapped her fingers again and dozens shadowy minions rose from the floor. Each minion wielded a unique weapon in their grimy little claws.

'Then let it begin.'

When Peter had walked into the hospital carrying Janine unconscious in his arms a doctor and two nurses paid immediate attention to the downed woman. After a quick array of questions, several of which the guys couldn't answer on Janine's behalf, she was admitted to the hospital and given a thorough examination by the skilled physicians.

"It's been an hour." Peter grumbled as he stared at his watch mid pace. "How long does it take to check one head injury? I could've had a hernia repaired by now!"

"Patience man. They know what they're doing." Winston reminded him as he watched Peter pacing through the waiting room for the umpteenth time. "Why don't you call Dana? I think she'd like to know what's going on."

"Yeah, good idea." Peter let out a deep breath and rubbed at his chin. Talking to his wife always steadied his nerves. "Anything to help pass the time."

Ray was sitting in absolute silence in the waiting room beside Winston. Unable to think about anything but their missing friend his face was etched in worry, his eyes deep and thoughtful. Despite evidence to the contrary he felt as though he was somehow responsible for everything that had happened to both Janine and Egon.

"Everything will be okay, man." Winston didn't even need to look at Ray to know that his friend was lost in a mental darkness. He could feel the tension emanating from Ray's body. "As soon as Janine can fill us in on what happened we can start looking for Egon."

"Yeah... sure." Ray sounded as desperate as he looked.

The doctor who had been attending to Janine finally approached the two Ghostbusters with a look of confidence on her face. "Are you with Ms. Melnitz?" The doctor was older in age but still very lovely. Long blonde hair with a few gray hairs peppered throughout was pulled back in a tight bun, her dark brown eyes were deep and soulful and her posture reflected her righteous sense of self confidence.

"Yes!" Ray bolted up from his chair. He extended his hand to shake and mistakenly offered his injured hand in place of his good hand. "How is she?"

"Hello, I'm Dr. Renee Madison." Instinctively the doctor eyed Ray's hand before answering any questions about Janine. "She has a mild concussion and required four stitches to close the laceration to her forehead."

"Is it serious?" Winston inquired softly.

"Fortunately no. She will have a nasty headache when she wakes up but I doubt there will be any form of permanent impairment."

"Can we see her?"

"Yes, of course. I'll have a nurse escort you, Mister...?"

"Zeddemore." Winston introduced himself. "Winston Zeddemore. This here is Dr. Ray Stantz and our other friend is Dr. Peter Venkman."

"Nice to meet you." The doctor nodded subtly and a responsive nurse was at her side. "Please escort Mr. Zeddemore to Ms. Meltnitz' room. As for Dr. Stantz, I'd like to take a look at your hand."

"My hand?" Ray visibly straightened as he looked down at the hand in question. "It's fine doc, I-"

Winston cutoff Ray midsentence. "No, Ray, let her take care of your hand. We can't have you getting sick from an infection."

"Yeah, I guess so." Ray begrudgingly agreed to let his hand be tended to. Whether his decision was provoked through guilt or for a need of a distraction he couldn't say. "I'll meet you soon."

"And make sure Peter knows to walk back to meet us." Winston stated as he followed the nurse down to Janine's private room.

"Right, yeah..."

Dr. Madison motioned for Ray to accompany her to an unoccupied exam room. "Come this way Dr. Stantz."

Peter had found a payphone that was relatively isolated from the rest of the people inside the hospital. Never one to open up to strangers or even make friends easily Peter strongly valued his privacy and intended to keep it as valuable as possible. Inserting a quarter into the phone he dialed home. Leaning one hand against the wall he closed his eyes and waited for the soft ringing sound of the phone to end and for the melodic voice of his dearly beloved Dana to answer.

"Dana, it's me..." Peter didn't know what to say. How could he possibly explain the abnormal if not completely dangerous situation in just one phone call? How could he even begin? "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just..." He trailed off long enough to take in a deep breath and recollect his thoughts. "There was a bit of an accident today and-"

He listened as Dana of course reacted with utmost concern, asking about his own welfare and that of the other Ghostbusters.

"Look, the guys are fine, uh, mostly..." Peter wanted to kick himself for saying that line. "it was Janine who was hurt. She's in the hospital with a concussion. I, no, we don't know." He answered Dana's questions honestly and quickly. "When she comes to we'll know what happened."

On the other end of the line Dana was already preparing for a trip to the hospital.

"There's one other thing," Peter didn't want to say it but knew he had to. Dana cared about Egon as much as the rest of the guys. After all, he had been the first person she turned to when paranormal events seemed to target her young helpless son and he came to her aid without a second thought. She'd want to know the truth and she deserved to know. "Dana, a ghost has... A ghost abducted Egon. He's missing."

There was a thick pause over the line. Dana was understandably floored by the revelation, unable to speak.

"Honey, are you still there?" Peter felt his own heart begin to ache. "Please don't worry, we're going to get him back! I swear it!"

There was a palpable silence on the line but the phone hadn't been disconnected. Dana was still listening.

"Look, try not to worry about anything. We have it all under control. Just... just sit tight! I'll explain everything later. I love you."

Reciprocating his affection Dana hesitantly said 'good-bye' and hung up the phone.

As Peter slowly returned the phone to the cradle he felt someone walking up behind him. Turning his gaze he saw Ray standing back a few feet for the sake of respecting Peter's space. His hand was now wrapped in fresh white gauze. "Ray. How's Janine?"

"The doctor says she had a concussion and needed a couple stitches. We can see her, Winston is already with her."

"Good." Peter hustled from the phone and made his way down the lengthy corridor. "We need answers and we need them now!"

...to be continued...