It has been a long time since Belenus, Oberon, and I formed a team. I'm honestly surprised no one objected. None of us are known for our restraint or political sensitivity. The last time we worked together was during the witch trials, we were charged with rescuing as many as we could at any price.
These humans will pay a price for their experimentation. No one on this boat is innocent. The numbers of the humans on board say they are all complicit.
I give Belenus and Oberon oxygen tanks and take them deep into New Eden to the armoury. It takes very little time to pull on full coverage dry suits and arm ourselves with our chosen weapons and a bag of various explosives.
A human would feel we were under-armed for the mission we were to embark on. I had two sets of twin blades. With my speed, close combat is my forte.
Belenus brings his throwing knives and needles, which he typically sets on fire and controls from a distance. Phoenixes tend towards distance fighting or hand to hand combat. They are truly immortal. Killing a phoenix is nearly impossible, so they don't shy away from getting up close and personal unarmed.
Oberon brings two cans of what most would confuse for mace. It really sprays fairy dust and puts the humans under his control. Normally, he would bring a gun as backup, but that isn't a smart strategy in submerged tin can, so he brings a rapier. I often forget how much younger he is than us, but then he reaches for a young weapon and I'm reminded that he learned to fight when they were the dominant weapon. He can fence me under the table in a fair fight. Good thing I never fight fair.
The siren taking us to the lab's location carries a fishing knife and a small underwater pressure gun that can shoot a stream of air with enough force to pop a hole in most ships. It is the underwater weapon favored by most sirens. They invented it centuries ago to sink the ships of sailors that disrespected them, and they based it on the mantis shrimp. I'm surprised the humans haven't developed one of their own yet, but they don't spend much time underwater either.
The siren gives us coordinates, and Belenus envelopes us in flames. It takes a mere moment before we are floating under an iceberg above the submarine. We pause for a few moments to determine the frequency of their sonar pings. The siren uses their voice to send the pings back in such a way that we look like local wildlife.
This close to a submarine, we don't dare speak, but there is no need. Belenus, being a phoenix, has made a study of human vehicles. He can identify the submarine and from that will know its layout. Once he knows where he is going, he will transport us right onto the bridge. It takes less than five minutes for him to decide where we are going and transport us there.
We land on the bridge and oberon and I have the bridge crew nocked out before they even register us. The siren Belenus took with us is looking around with shock written on his features, "I was expecting to stay outside?"
"You stay here and make sure the submarine continues on its course and checks in as usual." I finish securing the humans with the zip ties and handcuffs they all have in their pockets, then stand. "When we are done securing the ship we will be back."
We open the bridge hatch and step through, working our way systematically through the ship. Belenus takes out one of his needles and surrounds it in blue phoenix flame, then he sends it ahead around each corner like a scouting drone. The thin layer of blue flame makes the small metallic needle almost impossible to see against all the metal in the corridors.
He signals every time we come close to a human. Oberon uses his fairy dust to enchant everyone we come across and they happily tie themselves up and sit silently chained to the corridor. It takes less than ten minutes to clear every part of the ship except the lab. When we are sure everyone is secure, we set a small charge to the outside of the warded corridor to break the warding.
Stolen story; please report.
The second the charge goes off, belenus uses his phoenix fire to jump us straight into the lab. I break away from the group and nock out every human there in less than thirty seconds we have all the humans secured.
While Belenus and I start cataloging the magical people in cages, Oberon spends time with each human, enchanting them. Then he uses a fairy circle to drop each of them off… somewhere.
About half of those we come across are in critical or near critical condition. Belenus takes those straight to New Eden's Corridor A. I check off each person we come across from our missing persons list. I need to know who is unaccounted for as soon as possible. I take a look in the morgue and I confirm that we have everyone accounted for.
The morgue is in the middle of the ship, and there is a door in the far wall. The lab is on the other side, and beyond the lab is more cells. "Belenus!" I call over my shoulder. No answer, he must be in New Eden. I wait a moment and listen intently for the sound of fire, then call "Belenus!" again.
He walks up behind me and enchants two throwing knives when he sees me with my knives out. We walk down the unexpected corridor armed and watching each other's backs.
We come to the first cells and a child that must have been no older than ten, sees us. There is too much blood to tell if they are a boy or girl. They don't stand, don't seem able to stand. Instead they pull themselves along the floor on their elbows. Two "steps" later, they stumble, unable to hold themselves up, so they reach out a hand for us instead and moan.
I take a deep breath and get… siren. This child is a siren. "They aren't human," Belenos whispers coming to the same conclusion as me.
I run down the corridor. Every cell is filled with a child or teenager—not a one of them human.
When I get to the end, a teenage girl peeks out of a pile of blankets and says "Why do you smell like me? Who are you?" I look at her in horror. She is a turned vampire. A turned vampire who is probably fourteen years old. How cruel! No one would turn a child! Turned vampires don't age physically. She will be stuck like this forever. "Do you have anything to drink?" she asks hopefully as she starts to emerge from the covers, "I am so thirsty," she purrs, unleashing the maximum effects of her thrall, her eyes turning black.
"Who are you?" I ask, taking an unconscious step forward. I shake my head to clear it. Newborn thrall is dangerous, especially this close to falling into a blood rage. It will even work on other creatures. "How are you here?"
Her thrall changes, "mmmmm…" she steps closer to the bars, and grabs onto two. I can see a small flinch as she is expecting the electricity, but when it doesn't come she tightens her grip. "Come closer and i will tell you anything you want to know. I will give you anything you want."
He thrall coils and tightens around me like a rope. Vampire thrall doesn't do that. The only thrall that does is… Djinn!
I throw myself back away from the cage and remove myself from her line of sight. Djinn and Vampire? What.
"There is something wrong with these children," Belenus calls, equally enthralled by one of them. I pull him away and out of the corridor. We are in the lab before his mind clears. I start looking through fridges for packages of blood. It takes longer than I would like to find them, verify they are human, an run them to the child at the end of the hall. I don't stop and look at any of them and I just throw the packets through the bars before running as fast as I can back to the relative safety of the lab. I can hear her descend on the blood packets and drink raviounsouldy from them.
While I was looking for blood for the child, Belenus was looking through research notes. I join him in an effort to quickly figure out what is going on before we make our next move. Oberon comes in a few minutes later, "the humans are taken care of," he says as he walks in. Then he looks ar us frantically searching and asks "what's wrong?"
I am still searching when I notice Belenus is still over a lab notebook. "They took human orphan children, pretended to adopt them, then brought them here and experimented on them. They took traits of multiple races and tried to combine them into new ones in an effort to make something that could infiltrate our ranks and kill us." He looks at me, "they are brainwashed and trained to kill us. This isn't a lab, it is a weapons development program."