A dim light flicked on in the cave holding the SeaQuest men hostage. They were in a deep sleep and never noticed the short figure leaning over them. He lifted his upper lip and blew a raspberry, and then ambled away to find his friend.

"Do you think we should let them in on the amazing thing they will be doing for us?" His friend asked, towering over him. The shorter of the two shook his head. "You're right. Let them find out as they work. Perhaps the overwhelming nature of it all will bring them to our side."

"Bring them this." He handed his short silent friend a bag and watched him walk back to the large shark cage he had refitted to hold the men.

Lucas woke with a jerk when he heard something falling down beside him. He squinted up in the dim light to see a silhouetted figure tossing something into the cage. "Hello... where are we?" He ventured. He got no answer, "um... what are you doing with us?" He tried again.

The figure shook his head violently and walked away. As he got closer to the light Lucas could plainly see the red hair covering the small body. "Son of a... It's Verne!" The light clicked off again. "Crap."

Lucas woke up again a few hours later. The dim light was back on and he could see Ben sitting up against the bars of the cage pulling out a granola bar from the bag next to him.

"It's the Regulator." The supply officer informed him tossing a bar to Lucas.

"I know, I saw Verne earlier. But why? I thought we helped him. The whole situation was fixed up with a neat little bow." Lucas ripped open the wrapper and bit into his breakfast.

"Who knows, the guy is bonkers."

Tim opened his eyes and looked at the two. "The Regulator? Great. I suppose he wants us to become mermen and tell him all the secrets of the sea."

Ben tossed him a bar as well. "We'll just have to wait. We can't do much in here."

Lucas stood and started searching the cage. It was large, about eight feet long and six across. The large opening that would normally be near the top was welded shut with a grate. The entire bottom was covered with quilts and after he pulled some up, saw there were bars underneath them as well. Lucas looked around the large underwater cave. It was still full of all the supplies the Regulator was known to trade in.

He glanced at the small pool searching. "Did he take Darwin too? This could still be about the spherical evolution thing again?"

"I haven't seen him. If he had plans to grab Darwin, there isn't much we can do about it." Ben answered with an annoyed shrug.

Leslie Ferina walked into the room wearing a long black cape with the cowl pulled over his head. "Gentlemen." He nodded. "I have some work for you."

He held up a small computer chip and set it on a computer sitting on a metal desk on the far side of the room. "Make it work. Then tell me what it says." He pushed a button on the wall and one side of the cage opened, he exited without saying anything else.

Tim stood up and stopped Lucas from exiting the cage. "We need a plan. Start working on the computer, see if you can get a message to the SeaQuest." He turned to Ben, "we'll look for anything we can use as a weapon."

Lucas fired up the computer and within minutes was shaking his head. "It's not connected to anything guys. How can a person live without any internex?" He shook his head bemused. "It's so... Luddite!"

Ben stopped searching for a moment and laughed. "There was a world before computers Lucas. For quite some time actually."

"But why?" Came the response from the teen.

Tim caught Ben's eye and both men shook their heads. "There's nothing here but bullets and circuits." Tim said, exasperated. "There isn't even any knives, just all accessories." He held up a badly faked jewel encrusted sheath. "I know he had weapons before, I saw him moving them in and out. He must have gotten rid of all of them already."

"Can we pull any of these larger munitions apart? Harvest the powder?" Ben asked.

"We don't have the tools and I wouldn't know where to start." Tim said tossing the sheath in a box. "Do you?"

"No," answered Ben glumly. "I got kicked out of the boy scouts."

"I don't think they teach that," Tim retorted.

"Maybe they should."

"The only thing we can do is get started on this chip." Lucas called from the other side of the room. "It doesn't look like it's too badly damaged." He started to examine it. He pulled open a metal drawer and started searching for some tools. "Here we go..." Lucas was quickly lost in his own world working on the chip.

"I think I've got it!" The blonde computer genius called from his post. He started on the problem hours before and Ben and Tim were sitting next to the cage talking to kill time. Lucas smiled at the two men with triumph dancing in his blue eyes.

"Now what do we do?" Asked Ben, standing and stretching.

"Put it in and see what it is." Lucas answered with a small eye roll. "What else would we do with it?" He pulled the front of the hard drive off and started pulling out wires. "Just have to connect it here..." he said to himself, "there." The computer beeped back at him and an image showed on the screen. "What? That doesn't make sense."

"What is it?" Tim asked crossing to the teen.

"It looks like an ad or something. Like someone wanted to sell this thing. And was advertising it on the 'nex." Lucas said without turning.

Ben joined them. "What were they selling?"

"I'm not sure, it looks like something carved on a large stone. I have no idea what this language is though." Lucas peered at the screen closer mentally willing it to make sense.

"I think that's where I come in, Lucas." Tim said. "May I?" He asked pointing to the chair.

"Yeah, go ahead." Lucas stood but still stared at the screen. "I've never seen anything like that. What language is that?"

Tim sat and concentrated on the words in front of him. "I don't know." He admitted. "But it does seem familiar. Maybe it's just an old dialect. Let me see if I can..." It was Tim's turn to get lost in his world and other two backed off to let him. "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh? R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn... no that can't be right." He muttered.

Minutes later the door opened and the Regulator walked back in. He was holding his voltage disc and made sure the three of them saw it. "I see it working, thank you Luc... oh... I see" He was staring at Lucas in shock. "I'm sorry sir. I never knew you... I am only an acolyte. Please forgive me!"

Ben, Tim, and Lucas looked back and forth to each other in confusion. "Didn't know what?" Lucas asked.

The Regulator came close and couldn't take his eyes from the ink staining Lucas' mouth and chin. "You have the mark, you are a priest." He smiled manically. "This is truly meant to be!" He ran from the room but the baffled men could still hear him laughing shrilly.

"What the hell?" Asked Ben blinking in shock.

"I really have no clue." Answered Lucas warily.

Tim went back to his reading and surprised them further by slamming his head down on the desk. "Ow," he said to the metal.

"What? Did you find something?" Lucas asked, hurrying to join him. Tim didn't lift his head.

"Yup."

"Is it bad?" Ben squinted at the screen, trying to make sense of what was happening.

"Yup."

Lucas finally saw what Tim had reacted to. "Tim... does… does that say Cthulhu?"

"Yup."