Once the assignments were handed out, Kassy headed off with the small Atlantean retinue, toward AHARD 1,. It was the Atlantis Health and Rehabilitation Department, this particular area servicing mental health patients. The two guards tried to give the young heroes a mental layout of the place as they made their way toward it.
As soon as she could, Kassy swam beside Ja to talk to him.
“Thank you for coming with me, Metamorph. I appreciate you.” Even though he could have refused, he was still willing to fight. It was commendable.
“Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you, to help you get your focus back, long enough for us to get done with this mission.””Just keep doing what you are. It helps to keep my mind moving forward.” Was Ja’s response. His eyes still held a reddish tinge to their usual brown. He couldn’t quite ease himself, despite his attempts from earlier, and this attack wasn’t much help. However, his disposition while swimming was calm enough, as this wasn’t the first time he went into a mission somewhat frazzled.
As they spoke, she wondered briefly about his eyes. Had they always been that way? She could have sworn… Maybe it was the water.
“Alright, if you insist.” She flashed him a little smile, then got the attention of the two guards.
“I think our best bet is going to be stealth. If you can keep the Deluge’s attention, Metamorph and I can move to rescue the hostages. Does that sound like a plan?” The guard who had initially requested their help nodded.
“It does sound simple enough. Now I understand why the King requested your team’s assistance. You seem quite capable. If working for humans ever gets boring, I would put in a good word with our Captain for you.” Kassy went a little red in the face.
“Oh! Uh, thank you! That’s very nice of you to say. I’ll keep that in mind.” She had no intention of being a guard, but it was nice that someone outside the team saw that she was competent.
Metamorph swam along carefully, keeping in mind Mirage’s suggested approach to the situation. Although a lot of this felt new to him, a familiar instinct of the red came to him. So, he closed his eyes and slacked his jaw. With his tongue rapidly hitting the roof of his mouth, and the red’s field as an amplifier, a dolphin’s click echoed out from him towards AHARD1. Despite his closed eyes, he was given a sort of brief snapshot of the room.
”There are six human or atlantean silhouettes in the room. Each are one to one, probably all holding to a single person. There are other small fish but they seem to have no connection to the situation…wait-.” Ja stopped abruptly, opening his eyes and turning to Mirage for guidance.
”They have a Dolphin under their influence. I am not sure how…it waits as if hunting…If I echo too much more, it will be able to detect my signal. I am not sure how well the captors would be able to communicate with it, so I will have to only use it in spurts.”“Oh, great.” Kassy murmured. Dolphins were real jerks.
“Well, at least it won’t be a surprise. Good work, Metamorph.”They arrived far too soon. The building was a stark white stone, very rigid and clinical. Definitely a hospital. The guards explained that they would take point, and distract them while Mirage and Metamorph snuck in from a side entrance.
“Good luck, young heroes.” The guards vanished into the front door. Kassy swam around to the side entrance, gently testing it. It was open - it seemed like the Deluge had not realized it was there.
“Let’s go.” She vanished on the spot and slipped into the door. Ja marveled for just a moment at her ease to disappear from his vision. If it weren’t for his other senses indicating her location, he’d have thought she completely dissipated. Magic was an interesting thing, as Kassy and Zachy showed so often to Ja…Distracted. No. Pay attention.
The dolphin in the room inside would likely be counter echoing to potentially alert the captors. However, it had poor eyesight as the trade off, in which case, Ja decided camouflage would be a good option. He closed his eyes for a brief second, clinging to the wall of the side entrance.
With Mirage’s staff in mind, his inspiration and intent phased his power to the ever illustratively elusive octopus. The red channeled its energy around his form, wrapping even his armor to take the pattern of the atlantean architecture. His hands and feet were as suction cups to aid in sticking to the surrounding surfaces. His hair came together as several strands, bundling up in small groups to look like sea anemone tentacles.
Ja went inside, traversing the room and occasionally stopping in place to give the illusion of being part of the scenery as the dolphin subtly prowled. Surveying the situation, Ja took note of the position of the hostages and captors. They sat, two in front of one in a triangle formation, sharp weapons aimed at the throats of the mental patients.
They were all facing the main entrance where the guards would enter. There were two female hostages and one male. One of the women, specifically the one in the back, had to be held still with a bit more effort. That one seemed more unstable, mumbling in an illegible tongue. Something to potentially take advantage of; they just needed to get over to her so that she could create a disturbance.
Mirage slipped through the hallways, invisible, taking stock of the situation at hand. Most of the patients were still safely behind locked doors. There were a few unconscious, tied up workers on the floor. She checked each. They just seemed to be knocked out, but they’d have to get medical help as soon as possible.
The front doors opened and the two guards swam in, making the situation much tenser.
“Please, let these people go.” The guard that had complimented Kassy seemed to be taking point. “They haven’t done anything to deserve this.”
The one Deluge member that seemed to be in charge spoke up. “These people will be freed.”
“This isn’t a jail. These people are ill.” The guard spoke back as calmly as possible, keeping his eyes on the Deluge members.
“Is this what your so-called Advanced society does to it’s ill? Lock them away where they can’t be seen?”
The terse conversation drifted through the water as Kassy got closer and closer, going slow so her currents wouldn’t be caught. She slowed her breathing, stretched her fingers forth and summoned a sight illusion, handily bathing the Deluge’s member’s eyes in darkness.
“Hey, what the- I can’t see!” Quite reflexively, one of his hands went to his eyes, as if trying to clear them. The murmuring woman lashed out then, flailing at the man’s weapon to knock it aside. Then she fled, back toward the rooms. Taken as an attack on its masters, the dolphin boomed after the woman.
Metamorph, having managed to get above, watched with bated breath. There wasn’t enough time to free the dolphin from compulsion in the way that he wanted. Thus, despite his camouflaged state, his eyes took on a bright red hue, locked onto the dolphin. As he fought for mental dominance of the dolphin, a rhythmic chanting echoed within his mind.
There was an eerie nature to it…yet familiar…a form of conditioning. This one wasn’t raised in a kind environment by these deluge forces…a gladiator, forced to the front lines as the strongest of its family. It was groomed to be a killer for their cause. There was no love in this one.
Despite the rapidly increasing pain in his head from the strain of the dolphin’s will, Ja had managed to stop it just before it caught the escaping patient. It twisted and turned in the water trying to resist, in turn taking the attention of all of those visible in the room.
“What is going on with Ceta?!” The deluge leader demanded, dragging their hostage back from the flailing creature.
“Even the creatures you’ve subjugated do not follow your madness!” The other of the atlantean guards spat.
Metamorph in the meanwhile was trying his best to keep still. Although able to maintain his control, the emotion of the dolphin was starting to seep into him. Brewing within was a storm, as his fury from the death of the squid had not yet dissipated. Hopefully Mirage could free at least one of the others…Ja wasn’t sure how long he could keep himself back.
It seemed one of the patients was a fighter. While everyone’s attention was on the dolphin, the other female hostage slugged the second Deluge member right in the jaw. It wasn’t a perfect punch, but it was a perfect distraction. Mirage swam in, using her staff to catch the Deluge member under the chin and cut off his air supply. He flailed - the woman swam for the guards and was safe. Mirage and Deluge struggled, Mirage taking a wild blow to the nose. She flickered into sight then, blood streaming from one of her nostrils. But she managed to hold on just long enough for the Deluge member to drop out of consciousness.
The sudden appearance of Mirage amidst the chaos caught the attention of the remaining two Deluge agents in the proximity. The leader clutched the blade tighter to the throat of the last hostage, clearly losing control of the situation.
“Forget Ceta! Get that treacherous witch!”
Metamorph watched the situation escalate, and slowly came to the realization that stealth was going out the window. Though, just as it seemed that he was going to completely take over the dolphin, blood drifted to his nostrils. Mirage— Kassy’s blood was in the water. He lost track of the dolphin as instinct took over. As if from nowhere, a swordfish-like blur came from above, crashing into the second deluge grunt going for Mirage, pinning them to the sea floor.
Metamorph’s arms bore down on the fighter, hands clasped and slamming in fashion similar to a polar bear through ice. Armor bent around his hands, red seeping up around where they impacted. Though in the midst of doing so, another blur tugged him away. Between the jaws of the now free attack dolphin, Metamorph didn’t waste much time. A hard palm clipped Ceta’s snout, and more red drifted around the boy, indicating the dolphin’s yield.
A roar echoed from his throat, sending a small bursting current through the water. For once the gentle and kind boy was gone, a beast taking his place. Grabbing hold of Ceta’s body, Metamorph boomed back into the room. The leader, in some shock, couldn’t prepare for their own attack dolphin being used as a blunt force instrument, slamming into both him and the hostage. Rather roughly jostled free, the remaining patient managed to duck away from the conflict.
The beast in Metamorph’s body held the last man by his throat with one hand. Eye to eye with the boy, he attempted to struggle trying to pry the fingers free with both hands, but there was little use trying to escape a coconut crab’s clutch.
Mirage was somewhat dazed from the lucky punch, but even she had realized how wrong things were going. She had never seen such a look on Ja’s face before. His rage made her want to crawl into a hole - but she couldn’t retreat.
“Metamorph, calm down, the hostages are free! We’ve got this.” Her hands were out in front of her in what she hoped was an unthreatening way.
For a moment, did the drifting bush of hair tip towards her direction. In that small moment though, the deluge leader went for a stab with a dagger. It scratched against Metamorph’s armor, and the beast took hold of the offending arm. The left side of his lip twitched with a growl, bending the man’s forearm against the natural curve of the elbow. As the man started to yowl with pain, the beast’s growl became another roar.
Mirage swam closer, very slowly, hands up. Her voice dropped into a gentle whisper.
“Ja. Please. Please let him go. This isn’t the way we do things.”Again his ear whipped in her direction, hearing her voice, but the man’s yelling was louder. In response, the beast slammed him to the ground below and squeezed tighter, the yelling switching to choking as clawed fingers pinched around arteries in the opponent’s throat. Metamorph’s eyes burned brightly, even as the leader’s grip to break free was weakening, ironically drowning the sea man.
This was awful, beyond reason. Ja was going to kill this man, and she couldn’t just stand and watch.
“...I’m sorry, Ja.” Kassy shut her eyes.
Slowly, she stretched a hand out toward him. For several tense moments, there was absolutely nothing but the sounds of Metamorph growling and the Deluge leader desperately choking.
“There is no one else here, but Kassy.” “It’s just me and Kassy. I can relax.” “Go to her.”There was still silence in the room, but Ja would hear the inner voice of his mind, speaking to his very instincts. The thoughts repeated themselves, soft, insistent, on loop. Over and over they spoke in his mind, drowning out everything else. His growls slowed to heavy breaths. His eyes flickered in brightness, dulling more with each time he blinked. Looking around, it was clear that the battle was over, with even the Atlantean guards looking at him with some concern. Gaze shifting down to the man in his grip, Ja retracted his hand, watching the man take grateful breaths of life.
His bottom lip quivered and he backed away, though bumping into Kassy in the process. When he turned to her, his eyes had their familiar glow back, returning to their normal golden color.
”I have lost control…I…I failed…”Mirage’s eyes opened, and she immediately held him in a tight hug.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. You weren’t the only one who…” She stopped short, shaking her head.
“Are you okay? That’s what I’m worried about.”Ja seemed to have been caught off guard by her hug, but rested his face on her shoulder.
“I am now…the fury has passed…You bled and I lost focus of the dolphin…are you okay? Did I hurt anyone else?”Kassy shook her head. She wasn’t aware of it, but her muscles were taut and she was trembling faintly.
“No, just him.” The Deluge leader was on the ground, the two guards having swooped in with cuffs to apprehend him. He was looking at Metamorph with some strange mixture of hatred and fear.
Kassy gave him a little squeeze and let him go.
“How did you… calm down?”“I…the voices in my head…from the red, from the dolphin…they quieted. They told me that you were here and I was okay. I think…I think it was right…” Ja was honest, not really caring how crazy he may have sounded.
“Oh, is that so?” Kassy chuckled very softly.
“Well, I’m glad you got some control.” She turned to the two guards, who were now trying to calm the hostages and get them back safely to their rooms.
“There are some unconscious staff members around, so we should call a medical team.”
The guards looked at each other. “Is your teammate okay, now? I’ve never seen a teenager strangle a grown man before.”
“He’ll be fine. Won’t you, Metamorph?”Finally turning his eyes away from Kassy, he looked around again, his eyes landing on the guards.
“I will be fine.” Metamorph echoed in assurance, with a nod to double down. The anger seemed satiated for now, and since the events of earlier, only now did the young man feel like himself again. The realization of that made him gently smile and look back at Kassy.
“I’ll be okay.” He repeated, though his expression straightened.
“We should find the others and help them.”“Good idea. Are we cleared to go?” She addressed the guard, who nodded.
“Go help your team. We’ve got the rest of this.”
“Thank you. Come on.” Mirage swam off, not waiting for Metamorph. Once she was out of view of the others, she let out a shuddering breath, and stared at her shaking hands. The anger she felt was like a foreign bug, clinging to her mind. She just wanted to hit things. She rubbed at her forehead, feeling a headache brewing. Most of all, she was scared. If Ja knew - if anyone - no, that was too much to think about.
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