"So, what are we doing today?" The guards are flanking me on either side. I talking as an excuse to take a big breath. The smell of hundreds of humans lingers on each one of them. We are segregated from what is likely a full crew complement. A veritable army standing ready to prevent our escape.

"No talking," the guard on my left grunts while hitting me hard in the ribs with his baton. It smarts, but I doubt he can muster up enough force to actually hurt me. I fall silent and keep marching forward.

I keep my head facing front, but let my eyes peer into each cell as we pass. Most of the others are resting. I'm not paying too close of attention to the occupants. At the moment, I just want a head count. We are stacked. There is a set of cells above me, but as far as I can see, none below. Ten cells on our level, ten above. All full. No one doubled up. Twenty total.

That is a lot of people to escape with, but it is also a lot of potential. Each of us has special abilities we could leverage during an escape.

From the glimpses I managed, it looks like they are trying to capture at least one of each of us. If that is there goal, they are doing a pretty good job. They might have a complete set already. Though I imagine that won't halt their collecting. More specimens to study makes for more accurate science.

The guards march me through the hatch at the end of the hall. Like I suspected, the hatch leads immediately into a medium sized examination room. There is an entire wall of equipment storage, a table set up with the tools they will presumably use on me, and a metal exam table complete with restraints in the middle of the room.

"Get on the table," one of the guards barks, the cackle of electricity from a hand-held taser adding a higher level of threat to his order. I climb on the table and lay down, allowing them to chain my wrists, ankles, chest, and head. Then they close and seal the hatch. The two scientists were hiding behind it. One older male, and a younger female. Her shifting gaze tells me she isn't as comfortable with this as she might otherwise indicate.

Good.

Discomfort is useful.

Innocent and charming 'why am I here' and 'I don't understand what is going on' it is.

The doctors go to the table and start preparing vials and needles. "So, what are we in for? I had my physical last month, I don't think I'm due for another yet." The older male rolls his eyes, but the young female stutters in her preparations. "I mean, I know Isis is a stickler about the health of new parents, but she could have sent a summons. I would have gon to the doctor. Speaking of, I don't think I've met you two before. Are you new? When were you turned?"

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The younger one breaks a vile and cuts herself. The older one slams down his tools and yells, "Shut him up!"

The guard to my left surges forward with a gag, I manage to get my best panicked "Okay, okey, no talking, I'm sorry!" out before he puts it in my mouth and secures.

The bandage her finger and she comes over to start collecting samples. I do my best to ask "are you okay?" around the gag.

She understands it well enough, and responds "I'm fine," under her breath. Then, in a move that has surprised both the guards and her coworkers, she starts broadcasting her movements. "I just need a little blood. Stay still, won't hurt a bit."

I look at her confused. The blood she draws will come back a match to the blood they fed me when I arrived. But I guess they wouldn't know that.

She draws the blood she needs. I lose count at twenty vials. It is too much, and I feel woozy. I can still smell the cut on her finger, but I ignore it. I need to appear helpless, weak, and charming.

She keeps talking, but I struggle to follow all of the words. While she talks, she pulls a hair sample, scrapes off a skin sample, and sneaks a swab under the gag for a saliva sample. At some point, she walks away. She and the other doctor are arguing. She storms back, seemingly having won their argument and sticks a silicone straw in my mouth through the gag. "Drink" she says, making eye contact.

The second the liquid touches my tongue, genetics takes over and I swallow the whole blood bag in seconds. With each swallow, I feel better and better. She didn't give me quite as much as she took, I'm still a little peckish, but I am far from falling into a blood haze. After the bag is empty, I lock eyes with her and try to say "thank you" around the gag. I put as much sincerity and confusion behind it as I can.

Her eyes soften.

I've got her.

As long as they don't pull her off the project, she will be instrumental to our escape.

When the doctors are done, the guards secure them in the space that is behind the hatch when it opens. It must be a tiny safe room. Her eyes stay locked on mine until the moment the bulkhead obscures her.

Leaving the gag in, the guards untie me and push me violently through the hatch. The walk back to my cell feels longer. I do my best to look in every cell and catalogue everyone. A phoenix… wendigo… dwarf… goblin… a young witch is curled in on herself, she doesn't seem to be breathing... I guess that means we only have 19 to rescue.

They throw me back in my cell. The electricity surrounding it hums to life. "Puck? Do you know what kind of warding they are using?"

"No, but we have a Djinn."

"Anybody capable of making a wish?"

"No, but they can sense things without making a wish."

"See if you can get them to give you a sensory profile of the warding. The type it is will change escape plans. Ideally, I need the sensory profile around each cell and the hallway."

"I'll get what I can."

One outsider I can turn to our cause and a sensory profile. I've been in worse messes. At least they haven't sewn my mouth shut.