Dr. Wendy Smith couldn't believe what she was reading off of Captain Bridger. Nathan's thoughts were black and dangerous.

Normally that wouldn't worry Wendy. If they were facing a situation where the boat, crew or especially Lucas was in trouble, she would completely understand.

The glowing red eyes and the bolts of lighting from his fingertips was something new.

She quietly moved over to Lucas trying avoid attracting the captain's attention. She put a hand on his shoulder try to comfort him.

Lucas sat shaking in his seat. He couldn't believe what was happening. The firm rock that he had put all of his emotional ties to had been smashed to rubble before his eyes.

He wasn't the only one that was confused by what was happening. The entire bridge crew that had been on duty was trapped by this thing that had taken over their captain.

Commander Ford had not been on duty. They could hear him and security trying to gain access to the bridge. Jonathan had been so desperate that he had ordered Tony to go through the aquatubes to see if he could get in through the moonpool. Poor Tony was now in medbay being treated for electrical burns.

When the captain had been distracted by Tony, Lucas had sent off an emergency message to a scientist friend of his that he thought might be able to help.

Dr. Egon Spengler had just sat for lunch down when his message alarm rang on his computer. Getting up to answer, he was surprised to see a message from Lucas Wolenczak. They had collaborated on a couple of papers together. Most recently the ghost ship incident had had them working together to explain what had happened. Egon had been disappointed not to have been able to get there in time. Lucas had promised to notify him the next time something paranormal happened.

"Gentlemen," Egon announced. "We have a case. Suit up and I'll brief you in the car."

"Janine, make arrangements with the UEO to get us out to the seaQuest ASAP."

With a nod and a quick scribble on her notepad, Janine went to make sure the guys got on scene as quickly as possible.

At the mention of the UEO, Peter's head whipped around. The lure of deep pockets to pay their large fee always grabbed his attention.

"Hey, Egon. What's up?" he asked.

"Later, Peter." was the only answer he got. Egon was paging through Tobin's Spirit Guide. Unfortunately, it couldn't be loaded onto a computer because it provided a gateway for some of the more powerful demons. Someone had found that out the hard way. Everyone knew not to do that again.

Grumbling under his breathe, Peter pulled on his jumpsuit.

Ray and Winston just suited up. They had all spent enough time with Peter to know that he loved to grumble.

Janine had efficiently gotten them there in five hours. Everyone knew that time was of the essence. The longer the possession the harder it was to get the demon. During the connections, Egon had briefed them on the situation.

The guys met with Commander Ford outside the sealed bridge hatch. Jonathan stared at their proton-pack weapons a bit nervously. If the GhostBusters missed a shot and it hit the walls, things could get very bad, very quickly. Submarines and holes just didn't go together.

"It looks like a classic level five possession." Egon announced to the stunned commander.

"We will need to get on the bridge." Ray put in.

"Possession?" Jonathan asked with a skeptical tone.

"Where are the chicks?" Peter interrupted. Peter was always cruising for the babes, especially the ones in uniform.

At that Loni jumped out and attacked Peter.

"Wow, you're soo cute." she cooed.

Not trying to peel out of her clinging grasp, Peter said, "See you guys later!" as he turned to leave.

"Just a minute," Egon interrupted. "We're here to do a job." v "Later, babe," Peter said with the egotistical knowledge that she would be waiting for him.

Loni let go, but pouted off in the corner.

"Another one of your groupies?" Winston asked.

"Of course, who could resist the Venkman Charm?" Peter asked with a smug note to his voice.

Ray just shook his head. At this rate they would never trap the demon.

Commander Ford and Dr Spengler went off to the side to discuss access plans.

Impatient with the delay, /hey he had a hot date cooling her heels/, Peter went up to the door and started pounding on it.

"OH Mr. Demon, please let us in to play." he called out in a sing song way.

Stunned shock held the people on both sides of the hatch frozen.

The demon whipped around and pointed at the door. It creaked open.

"Works every time," Peter assured the security team with a wink.

"WHO HAS DARED TO CONFRONT ME!?!" the demon asked through Captain Bridger's mouth.

"Peter Venkmen, GhostBuster extraordinare at your service." Peter walked onto the bridge with a swagger in his walk.

Peter stood calmly in the face of the demon's wrath.

Ray and Winston had recovered their wits and stood flanking Peter to support him, but also to stay out of the way if something went wrong. Which in Peter's case was more often than not.

The bridge crew was in total shock. They had been at the creature's mercy for hours and here Peter stood ignoring the danger. He was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.

Lucas just buried his head in his hands and prayed. Egon had told him about some of the GhostBuster's more interesting encounters and how Peter always managed to stumble through them safely. Barely.

"Well, come on." Peter repeated, sounding thoroughly bored.

"You shall die for your impertinence." growled the demon through Bridger's throat. Blood red eyes turned more red in anger, if that was possible, as Peter taunted the demon.

"Promises, promises. Can we get this over with so I can go on my date?" asked Peter.

The demon levitated Bridger a foot off the floor and bolts of lightning shot out of his fingers. Fingers pointed in Peter's direction.

Peter was knocked off his feet and thrown against the bulkhead in the hall outside the bridge with a loud smacking sound and then a wet plop as his slid down the wall and collapsed in a heap slightly in front of Egon.

Egon had been watching in dismay from the hallway with Commander Ford. Shaking his head, Egon said, "I told him one day his luck would run out." He pushed his glasses up on his nose and turned back to Tobin's Spirit Guide. Egon was still trying to identify the demon without any luck.

With a squeal of dismay, Loni threw herself on Peter's limp body and pulled his head onto her lap. Stroking his hair, she kept pleading with him to wake up.

As Peter was being attacked, Ray and Winston had locked sights on the possessed Captain with their proton pack weapons. The shrill whine of the accelerators broke the stunned silence on the bridge. "Five seconds," said Ray to Winston. "Okay" was the response. Both knew that a human could only stand a short blast from the proton packs before irreversible damage was done. They had all agreed that five seconds was the limit and only to be used in extreme cases where they had no alternative.

Lucas jumped up from his console, throwing off Wendy's hand on his shoulder, and placed himself between the GhostBusters and his Captain. "Egon," he called out desperately. "Tell them not to hurt the Captain." If Peter was here that meant that Egon had gotten his message and was somewhere close by.

Ego broke away from the Commander and took up position behind Ray and Winston. Ray and Winston couldn't shoot with the boy in the way. It looked like a stand off. "Egon you've gotta help get the Captain back." pleaded Lucas. Unfortunately with his back to the demon, Lucas did not see the look of pure evil that the demon focused on him. It almost looked hungry.

*Oh shit!* thought Wendy. To her the scene had overtones that the others could not see. A dark cloud had formed around the Captain's head and was slowly reaching out to envelope Lucas's shining white aura from behind. "Lucas, watch out!" she screamed.

Whirling around, Lucas saw the demon staring at him. Trapped like a rabbit in the malevolent gaze, Lucas couldn't move. Slowly, he felt as if his life was being drained from him. If it was possible, he looked even more pale than he normally did. He couldn't move but managed to whimper, "Cap'n?" begging for a reply.

For just a moment everyone saw a shudder wrack the Captain's body, "Lucas?" was the horrified answer. The spell had been broken but so was Lucas. Weakly, he fell to the floor. The Captain's eyes cleared for just a moment. "Run!" came the slightly stronger follow up. It was a command that Lucas just couldn't respond to. He was having trouble just breathing. The effort was making sweat break out over his whole body.

Another shudder raced through Bridger's body and the red overtook his eyes again.

With Lucas on the floor and not standing in the way, Ray and Winston fired on the Captain. A shriek came out of Bridger's mouth that sounded like all of the tortured souls of hell crying out. "One... Two... Three... Four..." Ray was counting under his breath. Just as he was going to call off the attack, slowly, a red haze separated itself from Bridger's body and seemed to hover above it. Redirecting their weapons, Ray and Winston kept their fire trained on the presence and not on Bridger. Bridger's body seemed to fold in on itself as he collapsed.

"Medteam to the bridge," called Wendy. Fortunately, Jonathan had had one on standby in the hallway. They had been trying to work on Peter with no luck because Loni was in the way.

Throwing out a trap, Egon opened it under the demon trapped in the rays from the GhostBuster's weapons. The bright light from the trap seemed to engulf the demon and drag it down into itself. With a snap of the lid closing, Ray and Winston disengaged their fire. A small rattle and curl of smoke came out of the trap, but it held as it was designed to.

As the Captain and Lucas were being taken off the bridge to Medbay, everyone passed Loni and Peter in the hall. A groan of pain came from Peter as he regained consciousness. "Did anybody get the license of that truck?" he asked. Going on he said, "It's in my contract. The demons never shoot first." he whined.

"Oh my poor baby," cooed Loni. "You were so brave and heroic. I'll nurse you back to health myself." she vowed.

With a smile Peter gave himself over to Loni's ministration. Well things were looking up. He had gotten the girl. It looked like the fellas had taken out the demon. And visions of credit vouchers were dancing in his head from the bill they would be sending to the U.E.O.

In Medbay both Nathan and Lucas had also regained consciousness, with Wendy fussing over them they felt like two little kids. "R n R for both of you," she prescribed. They smiled conspiratorially at each other. It looked like they were going to get to go on that fishing trip they had been postponing for months. The horror of the past day faded as they made their plans. Everything was back to normal it seemed.

Egon came in with Ray and Winston behind him. Peter was in Loni's quarters having the time of his life.

"Lucas, you know I would visit if you had asked. You didn't need to have an incident." Egon stated. "Oh, and by the way, my offer to have you work for us is still open."

"Maybe someday. I like it here right now. Stay a couple of days and we can go over some interesting problems I've been keeping an eye on." offered Lucas.

"Nothing too strenuous." warned Wendy. "Light duty only for the next couple of days and then a week vacation for the two of you."

"What happened this time?" Egon was curious to know how Lucas had gotten himself into supernatural trouble again.

"Somebody just had to play with the puzzle box I told them not to touch." With a very mature, superior look to him, Lucas glanced over to Nathan and smiled.

A sheepish grin flashed on Nathan's face. "I was just trying to get it open." he protested.

"Just like you had to try on that Atlantian helmet, right?" teased Lucas with a twinkle in his eyes. *Oh, this was going to be good to hold over the Captain*

"Where's this box now?" asked Egon concerned. *No, it couldn't be the same box. It had been destroyed. Hadn't it?*

"On the bridge. I guess it got left behind in the confusion." answered Wendy. She had not liked the feel of the box since Lucas had received it in the mail. It just felt evil.

"Did you ever pin-point exactly which demon had possession of the Captain?" This question from Lucas troubled Egon.

"No, I didn't have enough time to analyzed the demon before we trapped it. I narrowed it down to a couple of dozen possibilities, but we'll never know now." Egon regretfully finished.

The Captain ordered a search of the bridge and then the whole boat, but no one could find the box.

A couple of days later.

Lucas and Nathan had recovered enough to actually be allowed to go on that fishing trip by Wendy.

Loni was finally persuaded to let Peter leave. She was in tears as she said goodbye to him at the shuttle.

As she ran out of the shuttle bay, Egon asked Lucas, "Is she always like this?"

"Loni is Loni." was all Lucas would say.

Shaking the hands of each GhostBuster in turn, Nathan thanked them for their assistance. When he got to Peter, he couldn't resist. "Mr. Venkmann, the U.E.O. is grateful for all the help you provided us in this situation. On their behalf I would like to tell you... The check is in the mail."

Everyone groaned.

It would be nice to get back home and for life to return to normal. Well as normal as it could be for the GhostBusters and the seaQuest.