Chiyoko glanced into the room after Steph went inside, sniffed the scent of blood and then moved to her own room to get some rest. It was very eventful now that the three new women arrived. Just the boy was puzzling, there weren't usually boys in this part of the facility. He'd be a tasty meal if it was allowed, but unfortunately it wasn't.

Lily groaned when she heard the underling, just when things were getting interesting. "Heads will roll if I can't watch this footage later," she told her assistant and then went to the door to open it and address the people there.
"I'll examine the wounds in the infirmary. I have not heard about this yet, but we haven't studied sirens in detail yet. Have someone observe the boy, but don't interfere with him. Maybe hunger will calm him down." She took her phone as she walked to the infirmary to contact Mr. Johnson. "Get me that siren agent you lost somewhere."

Mr Johnson put down the phone and contacted a team of agents to search for Freya, pick her up and take her to the research facility.

Gaia's ears flicked at Stephs' voice, she moved forward in the shadows towards her friend but paused as she could sense Chiyoko. She waited for the other demon to leave before she inched towards Steph a bit more.
"Safe?" Gaia managed to croak out, her voice raspy and almost broken.
"I'm safe, I'm okay. Are you okay? Why don't you come out?" Steph frowned, kneeling down. "Have they hurt you?"

Gaia seemed to hesitate, shifting in the darkness while Steph could only get small glimpses of torn scales and flesh strips. "I'm okay." She spoke slowly, "Somethings... Happened. I don't know." She moved to fully pull herself up from the floor, the sound of flesh ripping before she fanned her wings out- now they couldn't even fully stretch out within the room. "I feel different."
Steph watched the shadows and moved to step over what she thought must have been some furniture before flicking on the light to get a better look at Gaia before she froze up. She moved her hands over her mouth to hold back a scream as she watched her companion carefully.

The wounded were in the infirmary, three men seemed to be injured, bite marks that barely pass their knees. The bite wounds had started to become blue around the edges, the skin drying out and becoming a bit wrinkly. The men seemed a bit out of it, staring off into space with IV drips in their arms, pumping water into their systems as it seemed they couldn't regulate their water levels.
"Here they are Ms Lily." The runner spoke, "Their water levels are tanking and they're not exactly talking. They're still... Cognitive, they'll make sure to move out of the way if things are in the way but they seem to just sort of, stare off into the distance."

Freya shivered as she walked along, she felt like she was being watched. I'll get you Sammy. She thought to herself before she saw a black van pull up in front of her and the doors opened, revealing the agents sent to grab her.
"Shit." Freya spoke, instinctively moving to hold her injury before she tried to turn around and run, but a couple more agents walked up behind her. "What do you want? I'll kill you if you get closer." Freya hissed, baring her teeth angrily as her nails grew sharp. She felt the pain from her injury pulse as she winced slightly.

Lily examined the victims and ordered someone to take some blood samples from each of the injured men and examine it. While that happened, she had a look at the wounds. Sirens were peculiar beings, this was new information. She still didn't want to investigate that boy, but his mother would be an interesting test subject. If the agency wouldn't fail her again.
"I have no cure for them at the moment, just keep them on IVs and check their blood regularly," she told the runner. "Continue testing their cognitive skills."
If they died... well, they were replaceable. This would give result either way and that was good for research.

Agents closed in on Freya and one of them fired a tranquillizer at her, so they could capture her alive and be safe while doing so. One of the agents documented with verbal commentary in addition to his body cam, as per instructions. This was a test subject that was deemed valuable, so they had to be careful with her.
Once subdued, they'd take her to the research facility.

As Freya was being assaulted, Mike send an email to Stuart while Benjamin searched the intranet for information on Steph and the others, or the research facility they were brought to. It wasn't long before he realised he didn't have the proper clearance for most of it.
All he learned was that the research facility existed and some of the names of the people who worked there. And one disturbing picture of a lead scientist who smiled next to the body of a female vampire strapped down to a research table.

The doctor nodded at the order to blood samples, moving to leave to grab all of the stuff needed to do the needed blood tests.
One of the attack victims, the last one that Lily looked at, seemed to turn their attention to her for a moment; they seemed to just stare at her carefully before moving back to stare into space again.
"Of course ma'am." The runner said with a nod, not seeing the way that one of the victims looked towards Lily. "Thank you for coming to look."

Freya noticed the tranquilizer almost immediately, moving to try and dodge the shot before she winced from her injury, the tranq hitting her arm. She swore and moved to try and stand up straight and try to summon her abilities. She stumbled, holding onto the wall slowly as she felt the effects take hold.
"You guys are... Fucking... horrible." She hissed, she felt her legs wiggle as she found it hard to stand and hard to focus. "How fucking... dare you take my son and then come after me. Was my son not enough?" She collapsed down onto her knees, everything started to spin.

When Freya didn't move, she was picked up and put in a van. They contacted the research facility to let it be known they had secured the subject, and Lily's assistant rushed to her to deliver the news. Lily clapped her hands.
"Oh, that is exciting! Give them instructions to bring her to the room where her son is. It should be big enough for the two."
She glanced around the room for the last time. "Let me know if anything changes."

She returned to her office, and checked the monitors to see what her lovelies were up to. The person who had watched the screens filled her in on the visuals. "Gather a team of security, I'm going to visit them on their floor."
"Ma'am, that's dangerous."
"That's why I'll take guards, but so far they haven't been aggressive towards me. Let's go."

Freya didn't fight as she was moved around, the tranq doing its' work as she was being moved and brought to the facility.
She let out grumbles as they went along, but the words were unable to really be understood.

When she was given to the facility and taken into her sons room, she collapsed onto the ground slowly. She grumbled as she laid face down.
Sam poked his head from his pool with angry eyes before he noticed it was his mother. He scampered quickly over to her and pushed her onto her side and curled up in her arms softly. "Mamma." He said softly, "I'm glad you're here."

Gaia looked at herself in the mirror and moved to twist her body around to make sure this was all real. She swayed her tail slightly before she looked towards Steph. "What will Ethan think? Oh stars what if... He hates me?"
Steph slowly stepped towards Gaia and gently took two of her... now four arms. "It'll be okay." She said gently, "If he truly loves you, he won't care what you look like." She said softly, "You look wicked." She said with a wide grin.
Gaia looked to Steph gently and gave a small smile, "Wicked means good, right?" She asked, Steph nodded, "... Wicked."

While the reunion was met with "aww"s in the control room and one of them informed Lily about it, but she ignored the message. She could check up on them and maybe she would, after she had spoken with her other darling.
The lift doors opened and she stepped into the corridor, followed by four guards with guns. Security protocol, she ignored them. These were intelligent beasts and they had shown no signs of being a danger. Although she wouldn't mind getting in harm's way with the Succubus.

"That's quite a smell," she commented as she looked into Gaia's room. "Darling, do I need to send in some people to clean this place up for you? Do you require other accommodations?" She stepped forward. "Let me have a good look at you."

Freya seemed to start to come to her senses as Sammy cuddled into her, she looked to him and gasped, pulling him into a tight hug- Well, as tight as she could do without injuring herself. "My baby boy." She said softly, moving to kiss his forehead. "My little baby boy. I'll get us back to the sea. I promise you."

As the lift doors opened and revealed the guards, Steph flinched. She could see them from where she was in Gaia's doorway, moving quickly to let Lily in as she stared to the ones with the weapons.
Gaia looked around at the mess around her and lowered her ears slightly. "I didn't mean to." She said softly, looking towards Lily as she stepped in the room. She hesitated at the mention of coming forward so she could get a better look at her. "I'm... I don't want to scare you." she said with flattening ears.

Lily made a dismissive motion with her hand when Gaia said she didn't mean to and assured her it was fine. "Oh honey, why do you think I would be scared? I bet you are beautiful. Please, let me have a good look at you," she urged her.
She ignored the stench and the mess around her, her eyes were fixated on the shadow where she could see Gaia's shape.
"Isn't this an exciting day?" she asked Steph. "Do you have any hidden metamorphosis in you? I'd love to find out what secrets you have."

Gaia listened to Lily's words and breathed in slowly, moving out of the shadows slowly, arching her wings awkwardly as they hit against the wall and the furniture around her. She stepped into the light of the hallway, that bled into the room.
She was about 1.5 times her old height and her wingspan had easily doubled, her multiple eyes blinked slightly in the light as she moved her duel arms to cover her eyes a little bit.

"I... Don't think I have a metamorphosis." Steph said with a blink, "I'm already kind of... demony, so I don't think I can become more demony?" She was confused, but her attention was mainly on Gaia, trying to make sure she was okay.

"That's okay," Lily said to Steph. "You are beautiful the way you are and I'm blessed to have you here."
After that she turned to Gaia. "And you, my dear, gorgeous. You do need a bigger room, you can't stay here. Poor thing. You need to fly. Does the light bother you?"
Options for new accommodations already formed in her head. Somewhere spacious, dimly lit perhaps. More cavern-like. Or somewhere confined to see how long it would take her to get stir-crazy. No, that was too early. First everyone had to feel at ease before she could do the real tests.
"Oh, we do have a hangar I can clear out. I'll need to relocate some things, but I'm sure the boss will understand you simply cannot stay in that tiny room of yours."

Steph's cheeks flushed red before she glanced over to Gaia as she seemed to lower her head to look at Lily better.
Gaia's tail swayed gently at the idea of a bigger room, she shook her head at the mention of light bothering her. "Not really." She said, "While I prefer dark places, if Light is needed for a much bigger space, that would be good."

Steph blinked, she wasn't expecting the accommodating side of Lily, she looked to Gaia with a bit of worry. Was she going to bond with this woman due to her kindness? She really hoped not, she worried that would cause problems if they were to escape.

"I will make arrangements immediately," Lily promised. "Don't you worry about that," she added, gesturing to the room behind her. "I'll send someone to clean it up. I'll have you in another place by tonight, I promise." She turned to Steph while she took her phone. "Is there anything you need? I'm here now so it's the perfect time to ask!"

As she waited for Steph's answer, she started typing in orders on her phone so the crew could get to work. 20:00 hard deadline, she informed them. The crew leader started planning and calling immediately, knowing people would get fired if it wasn't done in time. After making some calls he pulled up the file with the specification of Gaia's first room, as it would be based on that.

Gaia watched Lily as she spoke, her tail swaying slightly as it bumped into a couple of things. She looked over to Steph as she was asked, tilting her head slowly with a fluff of her wings.
Steph gave a weak smile to Lily, "I'm fine for now." She said with a small smile, She knew she couldn't ask to leave, she wanted to leave so badly. She hated being locked up, she wanted to be free, she wanted to be back with Harriet, with Benjamin...

Steph moved out of Gaia's room as the smell was getting to her, Gaia quietly following afterwards, still not used to her size as she managed to squeeze through the door and stumbled to the floor awkwardly. She gave a huff and fanned her wings out now she was in the hallway, there was more room to get her tendons stretched out.
Steph closed her eyes for a moment, Please be okay Benjamin. Please be safe. She thought with a small sigh.

Lily left them again, grinning from ear to ear. A transformation, a real transformation. How lucky was that? Would there be more? Could she force another transformation? Oh, the possibilities were endless, she'd have so much fun with the dragon girl. The demon girl was boring, she really needed to watch her feed. Then again, if she could let her starve just a bit and then present Benjamin, oh, that would be a great sight.

In her office she checked the order she had placed, but no updates from the team that took it. They didn't have Benjamin yet. Freya was in her possession, why wasn't Benjamin yet? Some people just couldn't be trusted with the simplest of tasks.

Unaware there was an order for his capture, Benjamin was with Mike at the library of their agency. After the morning talk, Mike had already reached out to Rupert, and now they tried to find more information about anything they could use to free Gaia and Steph.
"Going back to ghost hunting doesn't sound too bad, does it?" Mike asked.
Benjamin chuckled. "The world was simpler when we did just that. But we wouldn't have met Steph, and the others. I wonder how they are doing."

Steph looked over to Gaia as she stayed on all... Well, she can no longer say all-fours. "Did you want to head up to the common room?" She asked, Gaia didn't reply for a moment, her body staying still as her pupils seemed to flex in size. "Gai?"
Gaia let out a low rumble as she slowly turned towards Steph rather awkwardly around the size of the hallway and the spines down her back prickled slightly.

"Gaia." Steph hissed towards her angrily, trying to remember how Harriet managed to calm Gaia down when she got weird like this. "Don't try any shit, I will hit back if you try anything."
Gaia paced towards her slightly before moving past her with a sway of her tail, hitting Steph gently and pushing her to the wall as a couple guards came from the other elevator.
Is she protecting me? Steph thought to herself before Gaia's tail slowly wrapped around her waist and hoisted her into the air. Shit?!

Harriet had left the house for the first time in a while, she wondered why the agency didn't try and take her away; but she shrugged it off. She looked to her phone, thinking to text Ethan to check up on him, but thought against it, he's probably still resting.
She paused before she sent off a text.
>Coffee?
She sent it off to Benjamin, they might as well meet up and go over the game plan now that she had apparently stabilized.

Benjamin took his phone when he got the text message and showed it to Mike. "I noticed a tea room at the corner of the street Tealicious, I bet they have coffee as well. In 30 minutes?" After Mike agreed, Ben texted back to let Harriet know where and when.
After that was sent, he stretched his arms. "I'm going for a quick run around the block. I have not done a decent exercise yet and I'm feeling my legs getting lazy."
"They have a treadmil in the basement."
Benjamin nodded. "I could do that as well. Either way, I'm going to slip into something more suitable for running and after that slip back into casual clothing in time for the coffee. Or tea. And possibly a slice of cake."

After Benajmin left, Mike stayed at the library a little longer to look up information about the specific regulations that were in place for not-human agents.

Harriet sent a thumbs up to Benjamins' text as she walked along, she stretched her arms out slightly before she headed into a small shop she had spotted.
"Hello!" The person behind the counter called out, catching Harriets' attention. "Welcome to my little shop, what are you looking for?" She asked with a smile. "We have things for everyone; spell books, parchment, ward items, potion ingredients."
Harriet raised her eyebrows as she looked to the female speaking to her. "You're a witch." Harriet said calmly, the worker chuckled before she offered her hand out to Harriet.

"Marie." She said gently, "Don't worry, I'm for a Fae." She said with a wink, Harriet smiled and moved to shake Marie's hand.
"Harriet, but you can call me Harry if you need." She replied with a laugh, "I didn't expect to find a witch this far into the city."
Marie waved her hand slightly with a smile, "Better money here, plus I'm not a woods witch anyway. Not exactly a city witch but this place has customers."

A figure followed Benjamin as he left the library and split up from Mike.
>Target moved away from friend. Should engage?
They texted off to Lily, waiting in the shadows carefully.

As Mike remained in the library, Benjamin went towards his room, planning his time. Five minutes to quickly change, fifteen minutes of running, five minutes to change back, five minutes to get to the tearoom. It was doable. Or, he could just change and run outside, ending at the tearoom. Mike would find it, they didn't have to go together. With a nod he closed the deal for himself and walked towards his room.

Lily took her phone when she heard the the message enter and grinned when she saw the text. She texted back to give approval for the abduction. After that dialed a number and brought the phone to her ear. "Prepare a cell, we will have a guest today."

Mike was clicking through the intranet of the computer to try and gather as much data as he could about where Gaia and Steph could have been taken to. Until he noticed the time, he logged off and since Ben wasn't back yet he texted him to let him know he'd head over already. He left the library and moments later he was outside, walking towards the tearoom.

The figure waited silently for Benjamin to come back out of the building and onto the street for his run, hidden in shadows with their grey eyes narrowing slowly as they watched him exit and start his jog. Running prey. The thought made their toothy mouth twist into a smile before they lowered themselves and scuttered quickly through the shadows towards Benjamin.

They kept close to Benjamin but always out of grasping reach, there were too many people around at the moment to notice someone just disappearing into the shadows and Benjamin might scream; and the figure wasn't sure if they could cover his mouth quickly enough not to stop him.
And they'd hate to gain the attention of that fucking Alien, no one else controlled the shadows before she appeared, and now her line of work was in danger. She sneered at the thought and headed forward towards Benjamin.